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Thank you, thank you, for all this thoughtful advice. If you add to this brew crew and guests with passports from various Former Soviet Union republics/former Cold War enemies, you do get a pretty funny picture of the contorted face of the provincial spanish customs agent. Oh, and the skipper, a U.S. citizen, carries a Russian certificate of competence. Hah! Welcome to my life.
A U.K. corp (or BVI corp, who is also entitled to register in the UK shipping register) is starting to sound like the path of least resistance. Corporate ownership has another benefit, which is limited liability. Fairly theoretical I guess but you never know when it might come in handy.
Just one last (I promise) question -- can it be, that the flag status of the vessel and her customs status are two different things, not related? That is -- the boat might be registered in my name in the U.S., but has never been out of EU waters and is thus "imported" into the EU, as it were, VAT paid and all?
I have been told by the authorities in the U.S. that flag has nothing to do with taxes. If I buy a boat abroad and flag her in the U.S., there are no taxes or duty due as long as she stays out of U.S. waters. If she is brought into U.S. waters, then you have to pay 1.5% duty, and any local sales tax (0% -- 9%) imposed by the state of your residence.
So maybe it's like -- the is imported into some country, has been cleared there, has taxes paid there, but the flag is something completely different and unrelated?
If that were the case, then the U.S. flag might not be so bad, but for the stigma of yankhood, the expectation of local officials that they are dealing with a non-EU cleared vessel, and the points you mentioned, well of course those do add up. I guess if you sail up flying the Red Ensign, local ports in the EU will be much more relaxed, not expecting to be dealing with anything exotic.
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