Best Way to Avoid EU VAT?

[hoppy]

I am looking at buying a yacht in Europe which I will eventually want to export to Australia. Many of the boats I have seen on the net have not had tax paid and for obvious reasons I do not want to be paying tax over here and then paying more tax when it gets to Australia.

I am an Australian living in Sweden and I have both Aussie & Swedish citizenship. My hope is to buy the boat next spring/summer and then export the boat from the EU at some point after 6 and 18 months or even longer. My thoughts are that I would remain working in Sweden for much of the time and perhaps live on board for the last 6 months.

I understand that I could probably register the boat in Australia, but if I did how long could I keep it within the EU? Will I have them asking me for tax because I have the EU passport?

Anyone had any experience with this? I suppose the issues I could have would be similar to a Brit having a Guernsey/Jersey etc.. registered boat?

Would having the boat owned by a non-EU resident or a non-EU company make any difference?

Another option I guess would be to set-up an EU "charter" company to own and register the boat in the EU and then I "buy" the boat and register the yacht in Australia when I am ready to leave.

Has anyone got any thoughts and experience of this or any other suggestions?