Peter wrote:
You still needed Immigration.
Come on that is well easier to sort than aircraft VAT? while ago you could get off that hook very easily if you are one of the ‘free moving citizens’, even talking to operations or local police will clear you through, it won’t cost you 25% of aircraft value to sort that out !
I think now one need a passport stamp and +25% cash collateral if anything goes wrong
If everything goes fine there is nothing to worry about 
Never heard of that.
To simplify,
1) There is a rule that says captain has to land at X airports and may do some formalities (even if nothing is required)
2) There is a rule that says you need to pay VAT on import on aircraft into Customs Union (unless it’s temporary)
3) There is a rule that says need passport and visa checks in Shengen Territory (nothing if EU nationals)
After Jan21, 2 & 3: were not an issue for UK pilot & aircraft, I think they are real issues now, especially 2 as it’s very heavy on finances
Before Jan21, 2 & 3 did falls under ‘nar nichts’ for UK pilot & UK aircraft, there was nothing to look at
The requirement for 1 has been around all the time but it’s now more serious given it’s implications for 2 & 3 (UK pilot & aircraft are subject to goods & immigration controls now and further formalities), if one have to divert now in weather out of the blue: the obvious choices are Frankfurt, Amesterdam, Toulouse…or stick to planning for places where PN confirmation is received…
I don’t understand much of the above.
Well to be on the safe side, you need to make sure PN is acknowledged by customs (not operations) and make sure separate PN is acknowledged by immigration police (not operations) and if plans changes you fly only to places with permanent police & customs otherwise, it’s easy to become liable for Duty/VAT and immigration fines these days…
I heard few UK pilots on other forums complaining about having to pay 400€ fines to police in Belgium recently (Brussels & Antwerp), they did send PN to operations/customs but no PN was sent to police (the other way around would have been more expensive) or because they departed without seeing them, none of this is in AIP, maybe it’s specific to one airport?
Sadly, we have to deal with this mess going forward but surely it is not getting any better !
This is going around in circles. Check the thread topic, please.
they did send PN to operations/customs but no PN was sent to police
This is not a recent change, since the UK required immigration (“police” in most mainland-speak) since for ever, because it was never in Schengen.
If someone doesn’t do their planning, they will have problems! The fact that they don’t teach you this in the £/€10-15k PPL is as old as flying itself. This is why everyone should read EuroGA and not the one-liner trash on FB/Flyer/etc
The “no PN actually received” is also a very old issue, with no solution apart from forcefully checking it has been received. And not flying to those countries, if that isn’t possible, which tends to be my preferred solution The world has been changing, mostly for the worse, international GA is gradually getting harder admin-wise, more and more stuff has to be done “just right”, and this is nothing to do with brexit. Look at La Rochelle and their mad 48hr PN; totally in breach of Schengen/EU.
A small correction for the “£135 topic” above.
The system has been changing. Now, the £39 threshold applies only to packages declared as gifts. Otherwise the £135 value applies, as follows:
Import duty: Below £135, zero import duty charged by the UK. For B2B, zero import duty UK <- → EU under the brexit agreement, regardless of value.
Import VAT: Below £135 the seller (any seller outside the UK) is supposed to add the 20% VAT and hand it over to UK HMRC (obviously, most stopped selling to the UK as a result, unless using a service which does it for them e.g. amazon, ebay…)
However, this isn’t the whole story because I can still receive little packages from say China, and pay nothing. This is apparently no longer possible on the European mainland, as described here. I will do some tests with the EuroGA leaflets, declaring them at €0.01
I just bought something online from France, delivered to UK. UK is classed as ‘rest of world’, but GB is still ‘EU’ and shipping was €30 less. Worth checking before clicking pay 🤑
I reckon you got lucky
Shipping on Socata parts (from Troyes) has gone up maybe 3×.
