Clearing In to the Next Country in Europe

[goboatingnow]

Firstly since VAT is not ( in all normal cases) paid directly to the fiscal authorities ( unless the boat was personally imported) mosty people simply have effectively a "letter" ie an invoice saying you or someone( possibly) paid VAT. Its not possible to get confirmation that say VAT was paid by a dealer on your behalf, as VAT is not collected on a specific item, its paid as a balance between purchase VAT and Sales VAT.

This actually why instances of VAT inspection are so rare. VAT is the preserve of the country in which you bought it. You cannot be asked to pay French VAT on a say UK boat. ( unless the french authorities are convinced you are personally importing it). Invoices are just pieces of paper that have no real relevance.

The key thing you need to show is that the boat was in a EU country when you bought it. Then VAT is the perserve of that country. Registration is one way.

Theres a huge nonsense about on the internet about boat VAT. Until I hear a story directly first hand where someone has had their boat seized until they paid teh VAT, I;ll not beleive the nonsense I hear.

[Dennis G]

Thanks for the advice for a non-EU buyer of a VAT-paid vessel.
To summarize, keeping an EU registry of a VAT-paid vessel avoids the potential for any new or future owner of the vessel being reassessed another EU VAT for future EU use.
It avoids complying with the 3 year extension rule, relying on some EU country's future Customs extension, or hoping not to be noticed.
Hope I got this right - seems VAT-paid vessels sell for more.

[DtM]

Thank you all for your help.

If there is any update I can give on this from our upcoming experiences I will post it.

To the Roaring Girls, Sarah and Pip, our new boat is on the hard at Port Pin Roland in Toulon so we will be following your track eastwards until Elba and then the plan is northern Corsica and back to Toulon.

After that we will see.

daniel

[Roaring Girl]

Well look out for us in Elba - we'll be there in a couple of weeks and hanging out in Portoferraio before Northern Corsica ourselves. RG spent a litlte while on the hard at Port Pin de Roland - make sure to have a drink in one of the bars on the other side of the isthmus with great sundown watching!

[goboatingnow]

To summarize, keeping an EU registry of a VAT-paid vessel avoids the potential for any new or future owner of the vessel being reassessed another EU VAT for future EU use.
It avoids complying with the 3 year extension rule, relying on some EU country's future Customs extension, or hoping not to be noticed.

Not really , what I said was that if you intend to remain in the EU for some time then its worth considering

Otherwise the act of taking it out of the EU customs union is initself deemed an "export", hence it doesnt matter what registry EU or otherwise the boat is.

Dave

[DtM]

Sarah and Pip,

We will be a little behind you but our pace (time constraints really) might mean we catch up to you in Corsica.

We were on land in St Florent a couple of years ago and commented how pretty it would be from the sea. We will find out in June.

Thank you for your help.

daniel