2016 opinions wanted, keep N-reg or go EASA-reg?

If you have a certified plane, France has no reg imposing a long term parking limit on foreign reg planes. In Europe, only Norway and Denmark have these limits, though I don’t know if they are specified as foreign reg, non-EU or non-ECAC. Certainly N-regs are not supposed to be there permanently, though many are. There are sporadic fines in Denmark. Most of the 3rd World has N-reg long term parking limits…

If you have a homebuilt, France is already home to loads of non-F-reg homebuilts (often PH-reg) which according to some reg (see past threads) can’t stay there after 6 months… but getting a homebuilt onto the F-reg is a problem, or near-impossible in some cases. Again, lots of past threads but to go F-reg you have to dismantle it 51% and rebuild it, according to what one owner told me. There used to be other routes which ended c. 1998 – something here But homebuilts are a big legal problem in Europe (though often the regs are damn hard to find, being deep down in local laws, not EASA) unless you put it on the domestic reg. N-reg homebuilts cannot really be based anywhere except Germany, or some countries where nobody cares provided you keep your nose clean (e.g. Czech Rep, or in the “deep south” )

VAT is based on declared value, and if it doesn’t sound realistic then market value. If you haven’t moved here yet, you can bring it over as part of your household items tax-free.

No permits needed to cross borders – unless you want to go to Russia…

CSDriver wrote:

Somebody stated yesterday it is on value plus transport. Do they really tax the cost for ferrying?

Normally, you would include the cost of delivery (including e.g. insurance). That would be the case if the plane was shipped in a container or if it was ferried to you. If it’s charged separately, only the portion up to entering customs union counts (in case of air transport, it’s the first crossing of a member state’s border IIRC). I’m not sure how it works if you ferry it yourself (it’s not really delivered). If I buy a watch in the US and have it shipped here, I’ll pay tax on the shipping. If I fly to the US, buy the watch there and fly back, I wouldn’t expect to include the airfare.

This is actually not that trivial. AFAIK there are six methods of customs valuation. And you have to try to use them in order. That is you’re supposed to use method one. Only if you can’t use it, you can use method two. And so on. I think in your case it will be the last method, method six, where you estimate the value (you’d normally try to adapt one of the other five methods to fit your case). I’m certainly no expert on this.

CSDriver wrote:

I was offered an arrangement on approx. 1/10 of the commercial value and paying VAT on a hypothetical value would feel absurd.

That actually wouldn’t work. If you bought the plane, method one would apply – you’d pay the tax on the value of transaction (which would include delivery etc.). But you can’t get preferential price. And 1/10 is painfully obvious. You could purchase it at 1/10, but you’d have to pay taxes on the full value. It might depend on how are you related. If you were so inclined, you could try making up a story for them to explain the low price. Assuming your relationship with the seller doesn’t fall into their definition of being related.

CSDriver wrote:

Do I have to get special permits for crossing inner-European borders?

As long as it’s certified, you don’t.

Aviathor wrote:

I just heard a horror story about a Saratoga that was PH registered and the owner for some reason decided to move it to the F register. Both are EASA mind you.

Do you have more details? This shouldn’t be possible. Was the current ARC suspended? There is a lot of changing of registrations, while the difference in practice is only small. Especially in this case there doesn’t seem to be reason to have it changed anyway?

I don’t know about this case but worth a mention that in years past, but still under EASA, you could not e.g. keep a G-reg in France and use a French firm to maintain it, etc (various permutations). Now you can, and various other things changed only recently e.g. a French FI can revalidate with a UK FIE.

I have a pile of other similar horror stories in email, over the years. They sometimes centre on somebody’s oversight (a mistake) in approving a mod.

LFHNflightstudent wrote:

Could you elaborate? I fly/own a G-ref plane and live in France where the plane is ha geared, have been thinking about what to do once this Brexit nonsense happens?

I might be able to get the details from the non-previous owner, but it was along the lines of the other comments. It was a Piper Colt PA-22 which had been converted to conventional gear on an STC. My memory is that the issues were related to the acceptance by France of the airworthiness due to very specific (and trivial) maintenance elements. Tempest in a teapot sort of thing that it got hung up on for a long period of time before finally being resolved.