Hello Skylarks,
Firstly, do not confuse YOUR residency/citizenship with the flag state of the vessel. The two are separate things. The red ensign has little, if anything, to do with your liability to VAT and
import duty when bringing a vessel into the EU.
Of course all this may change in a few months time if / when the UK leaves the EU and / or the
Customs Union, but for now, the rules on this are basically EU rules and therefore the same regardless of which EU country you bring your
boat to.
Put simply, ANY vessel coming into the EU is liable for VAT and Duty. However .... if you are not considered an EU resident, you can apply for 'Temporary
Import Relief' which normally lasts 2 years, but after that you have to leave the EU or pay the VAT.
Your problem is going to be establishing that for these purposes you are non-resident as the rules for that as far as HMRC are concerned are complex.
One potential relief open to you is if you move your PERMANENT place of residence from somewhere outside the EU to the UK. In these specific circumstances, you are allowed to import 'personal possessions' (furniture / household items / clothes etc) into the UK free of VAT and duty. What's not well known is that can extend to include a
boat (the size / value isn't specified) PROVIDED you can prove that it was part of your personal household possessions at the time of the move. The only gotcha here is that HMRC can make a determination when you actually arrive with your yacht, that you don't fulfil the narrow criteria for this and you get immediately stung for the VAT.
I'm making an assumption here that you would be, indeed, moving a household to the UK, but if that's the case, you will need to fill in a form declaring your possessions. The best way to avoid surprises would be to declare the yacht at this time and allow HMRC to say if they provisionally accept it.
Also note that DUTY (2%) is payable only if your vessel has an
LOA of less than 12m, after that it's considered 'sea going' and no duty is (currently) payable.
The duty / VAT may not be your only problem. If we stay in the EU /
Customs Union or if (quite likely) we simply adopt EU rules on these things, you will have to prove that the vessel conforms to the Recreational Craft Directive when you import it.
Note that the standard has changed recently and it must conform the the LATEST version of the RCD.
Note also that you just saying that it conforms isn't enough, the vessel MUST have a manufacturers plate stating compliance AND you must also have a 'Certificate of Conformity' specifically relating your your vessel from the manufacturer, otherwise you will have a long and rocky road importing it at all.
Since you are still having the vessel built, I suggest that you check with the builders that they are building it to Directive 2013/53/EU standards and that they are going to provide you with a CoC.
Duncan
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