Buying a boat in Croatia

[Gone Fission]

Hi all, i have been through as much of the forum as possible and can't seem to find information on my situation regarding VAT and the EU. I am a(nother) kiwi who has come to the Med to find a boat to sail home in. My question is: There are many boats advertised that say VAT NOT PAID, the brokers say to me that the VAT is due at the point of sale so an additional 22%, If i plan on deflagging the boat immediately and will be registering it straight away in NZ, Is VAT still due or is there a route to avoid paying it??

Any information appreciated, Im in Italy now and will likely find what im after pretty soon, not having to pay VAT on a boat drastically changes its price.

dreamrun at outlook.com for anyone who is doing something similar and wants to share information

Jules

"Those who say that money can't buy happiness are clearly spending it on the wrong things"

[robbinsfamily]

Hi Jules, we ended up buying a boat in Italy ourselves not Croatia after all. The brokers Aba yachting have been excellent to deal with I can highly recommend them. You don't have to pay VAT if you are a NZ citizen and plan to register the boat out of the EU. You do however have to export to boat out of the EU and the actual transaction and change of ownership needs to take place outside of the EU. As our boat was in Sardinia the brokers arranged for it to be taken to Tunisia for the sale to go through, this process is quite time consuming - took 4 weeks for Italian flag deletion to come through and another 2 weeks for the NZ one to be confirmed (need deletion papers before you can apply for NZ rego). Now the boat can be taken back to Italy from
Tunisia as it has a NZ rego! If you find a boat you like with Aba yachting they will help you through the whole process organising everything. We have done all this from our home in NZ! Fly out there to join the boat on 20 May!

[Gone Fission]

Originally Posted by robbinsfamily

Hi Jules, we ended up buying a boat in Italy ourselves not Croatia after all. The brokers Aba yachting have been excellent to deal with I can highly recommend them. You don't have to pay VAT if you are a NZ citizen and plan to register the boat out of the EU. You do however have to export to boat out of the EU and the actual transaction and change of ownership needs to take place outside of the EU. As our boat was in Sardinia the brokers arranged for it to be taken to Tunisia for the sale to go through, this process is quite time consuming - took 4 weeks for Italian flag deletion to come through and another 2 weeks for the NZ one to be confirmed (need deletion papers before you can apply for NZ rego). Now the boat can be taken back to Italy from
Tunisia as it has a NZ rego! If you find a boat you like with Aba yachting they will help you through the whole process organising everything. We have done all this from our home in NZ! Fly out there to join the boat on 20 May!

That is fantastic information, exactly what i was hoping for...thank you. What was the history behind your boat that made it VAT unpaid?, was it ex charter?

Jules

[robbinsfamily]

Originally Posted by Gone Fission

That is fantastic information, exactly what i was hoping for...thank you. What was the history behind your boat that made it VAT unpaid?, was it ex charter?

Jules

Yes we bought ex charter, off the internet, from the other side of the world! We will see it for the first time in 2 weeks. ABA have been extremely helpful organising a comprehensive survey, de-registering the boat in Tunisia and bringing it back to Sardinia. I guess we'll find out in a few weeks how great our boat is!

[svmatau]

Hi Robbins whanau

We too are another Kiwi couple looking to do what you did. We are in the process of formalisiing our offer on an ex-charter vessel in Croatia. What did you buy in Italy? Would love to hear about your experience via pm svmatau@gmail.com.

Safe sailing!

Tony and Kaye

[GTom]

Originally Posted by robbinsfamily

Yes we bought ex charter, off the internet, from the other side of the world! We will see it for the first time in 2 weeks. ABA have been extremely helpful organising a comprehensive survey, de-registering the boat in Tunisia and bringing it back to Sardinia. I guess we'll find out in a few weeks how great our boat is!

I guess you tried the boat now, how does it fare? Was it worn down a lot by the charter?

[Flyingriki]

Originally Posted by GTom

I guess you tried the boat now, how does it fare? Was it worn down a lot by the charter?

I too am interested. The couple charter boats I've been on were functionally nice but lots of cosmetic damage that never triggers a loss of deposit.

[robbinsfamily]

Originally Posted by Flyingriki

I too am interested. The couple charter boats I've been on were functionally nice but lots of cosmetic damage that never triggers a loss of deposit.

Hi, yes we are very happy with the boat. There were a few things to fix but I expected that. It has taken us a month to set her up with solar and other luxuries but I like choosing all this myself rather than buying a boat already personalised.

[FutureStories]

Get yourself a local broker to you that you trust to handle all the money and . Have them act as your buyers broker. Let them contact the listing broker, schedule an unbiased surveyor and answer all your questions about taxes. You're already paying the commission for any listed boat, might as well have someone on your side.

[FutureStories]

Originally Posted by robbinsfamily

Yes we bought ex charter, off the internet, from the other side of the world! We will see it for the first time in 2 weeks. ABA have been extremely helpful organising a comprehensive survey, de-registering the boat in Tunisia and bringing it back to Sardinia. I guess we'll find out in a few weeks how great our boat is! Attachment 147198

Did you get your own surveyor? Or trust them to provide one? There's a brokerage around here that "provides surveys" we got a client in one of their boats based off the survey they provided. The boat literally sank! Get your own survey. Call a local rigger, or mechanic and ask if they know anyone. Trust the guys that have nothing to gain from the deal! Most of the working class people in the marine industry are totally stand up and more than helpful. I find myself calling riggers, and mechanics often to get an honest opinion.

Fortunately with the sunken boat we were able to get our client all their money back and then some. But it's still annoying having to start from square 1.

[Ausluke]

Robbins fam, could i get a email address for yourselves

[robbinsfamily]

Originally Posted by Ausluke

Robbins fam, could i get a email address for yourselves

Sure thing...
sailingnikau@gmail.com

[jcranfield]

Originally Posted by robbinsfamily

Would love some advice on buying a boat in Croatia. Recommended brokers, surveyors and lawyers that speak English. Our biggest question is on VAT though, have tried to read other threads and its confusing. Need to know what is the best course of action for us in terms of where to register the boat and whether or not to pay VAT or just exit EU every 18 months.

We are New Zealanders (all have NZ passports and still have an address in NZ), one of us also has Dutch citizenship and a Dutch passport (that's me, the wife, our kids all have dual Dutch/kiwi citizenship too). My husband only has the kiwi passport, I'm not sure if we can get him a residents visa for EU (does anyone know?). Planning to cruise the med for several years but I'm not sure where that makes our place of residence if we are always changing locations?

We are new to all this and very confused if we need to look for a boat with VAT paid and keep boat registered in Croatia (or wherever we buy) or buy a boat without VAT and register it in NZ. Should it be myself or my husband who buys the boat (the kiwi or the EU citizen?).

Finally if we register it in NZ would we then have to pay GST in NZ? Fellow kiwis might be able to help me with that one?

Finally, how long should we expect the purchase process to take in Croatia once we have found our dream boat.

Hi RobbinsFamily.
Im planning on heading to Croatia in Late April this year to purchase a yacht. We would love some advice on how it worked out for you guys. Private email?

[SteveSadler]

Hi Gone Fission
I'll share my experience in boat buying in Croatia.
4 years ago, after hunting the internet for years, My wife and I chartered in Croatia with friends. Great fun, and when we returned to the charter base, we spent a week looking at boats in the 50' range. We targeted 8 year old ex charter boats. Jeanneau 49s were available for less than 100E in volume.
We decided on a Jeanneau 49 ds for its traditional layout, large windows, new sails, and great price. We shopped in October when asking prices were high, But as spring approached and new replacement boats arrived the prices dropped by a third. The ex charter boats needed to be gone for the new ones. We cruised the Greek Islands for 4 months with no issues, but did invest in a bigger tender, and 2 solar panels.
We also found a few privately owned boats in great condition but for more mula.
The owner, Euromarine, was very helpful and professional all the way thru.
There are many charter companies in Europe and they all sell their boats after 5-8 years, for whatever they can get.

When we took possession the customs asked us to sail offshore for several hours and upon return the boat was at day 1 in Europe. While checking into
another non eu country like Albainia, is protocal for this, the document was never challenged.

So in summary, go get your dreamboat before they all sell to make room for the new ones in April. PS everyone speaks english in Croatia.

[dlymn]

Hi there
Sometimes buying a boat in the EU can be like nuclear science. My advice fwiw
Buy the boat, cancel the current registration and register it in NZ.

We sailed for 7 years, 3 months each year (the max for a non Eu citizen is 3 months every 6 consecutive months). We sailed in Spain,France,Italy,and Greece. Not once were we challenged about being in the EU for more than 18 consecutive months.
We sailed mostly in Greece and always told customs that we were leaving to go to Croatia when we left. The truth was that we left the boat on the hard in Greece in a little private boatyard.

If we were ever challenged, our plan was to sail to Albania,Croatia etc and then come back later.
We reckon the customs fellows knew we were breaking the rule and although it is true that Greek officials can be thorough at times, we made friends with some of them and maintained that over 5 years. The trick is not to volunteer any information, answer all question as briefly as possible and keep calm.

Croatia is the cheapest place to buy a boat. Most of the boats are ex charter and so don't havecVAT paid. If the boat has VAT and is the right price,buy it. Hold into the VAT papers and use them as proof that you've paid taxes, but after 3 years your EU VAT lapses although having a Dutch passport might help when you sell.

If you plan to sail throughout the Med, then make sure you get you passport stamped whenever you go to a non EU country: Albania, Montenegro, Turkey,Israel,Egypt, Libya, Morocco.

There is a lot of old history on the net and it can be confusing. We ignored most of it and just went sailing. We found the Greek western Islands to be the safest and best for sailing. Expect to do a heck of a lot of motoring if you want to cover the entire med. Read up about Schengen although if you have NZ. Passports you can make written application for 3months in each different country consecutively. You must get written approval and most customs officers don't know about this.