172driver wrote:
Would it not make more sense to crowdfund a legal challenge ?
A legal challenge about what exactly? In this case you have to change the legal system and the way it is handled. You need lots and lots of money to do that, and money alone isn’t enough, it’s a political thing, it takes time as well. IMO the only vise thing to do in the short run is for pilot organisations to get a really thorough understanding of the situation, and not only for Germany, then make it public for pilots (and everyone else). This is not something new, and it’s not unknown, it’s just not communicated nearly enough among pilots.
I’ve updated this thread about German immigration.
This is clearly new stuff which even most German pilots did not know; that thread spans 6 years.
The price for having these concessions is regulatory complexity
Ultimately this is only about job demarcation and job protection, because you can land at say Mali Losinj from, ahem, Kathmandu, and a single officer looks at you, if you arrived non-EU will stamp your passport, and says “Welcome to Croatia, the cafe is over there”.
This is clearly new stuff which even most German pilots did not know
It is certainly rather well known among those pilots for whom this is useful (say because they are based at such airport), but generally it is not needed to get those (sometimes very costly) special permits since there are so many airports and airfields where that is not needed. That‘s why there is so little interest in it. Plus, as said, the vast majority of German private pilots never fly to countries outside of Schengen+EU area.
Frans wrote:
But again, the difference between “besondere Landeplatz” and “we have arrangements to make a Einzelbefreiung with 24h notice” is not explained in the AIP.All airfields, for which you need an “Einzelbefreiung”, don’t have any arrangements with customs. In fact, you can apply for an “Einzelbefreiung” on ALL airfields in Germany.
Yes, but there are some airports in “Teil B” of the list (not a “besondere Landeplatz”) that have some “Customs PPR” in the AIP, and some that have not. What is the difference between these two groups of aerodromes, if it is not that although the formal legal mechanism is the same, the former have some kind of running arrangement to facilitate an Einzelbefreiung, and the latter have not and are the “general case” that applies also to e.g. one’s private farm strip without ICAO code?
LeSving wrote:
A legal challenge about what exactly?
The severity of the penalty.
If the authorities aren’t challenged in cases like these, there is no incentive for them to change.
Legal action is burdensome for all involved, which is the point.
At some level, if you make enough noise, the media and/or a politician will get involved.
Look, the penalty is absurd. That is grounds for making a ruckus, whether or not the penalty was legal.
If you pay the fine, the incentive is to repeat the process.
If you challenge the fine, the opposite is the case.
Game Theory says take action…
Unless someone tells me a different line of reasoning, I guess one should expect to get hit by that VAT add-on on an emergency landing as well?
Yes, because with strict liability you have committed the tax offence.
I think this event amounts to entrapment – because the pilot followed the normal due diligence process expected of pilots.
Yes, if that door is left open, I do see opportunity to get heavy paychecks from pilots even for abnormal situation?
You just can’t just rely on good will, there are some types who likes to milk GA pilots in the case of real emergencies or ignorant mistakes that goes from a small grass strip owner to state agents with uniform !
lionel wrote:
Yes, but there are some airports in “Teil B” of the list (not a “besondere Landeplatz”) that have some “Customs PPR” in the AIP, and some that have not.Forget the “Teil B” on the “besondere Landeplätze” list, which is just a list of all official aerodromes in Germany, excluding (non-ICAO) sailplane-only and UL-only-airstrips. They all don’t have any “special arrangements” with customs. What the VFR AIP mentions is not relevant, since they display on what the airfield owner wants to show or not. Again, you can apply for an “Einzelbefreiung” on all German aerodromes and it will cost money.
I agree with @AF while noting that the conditions for levying import duty and VAT are a matter of Union law.
Therefore, instead of immediate further legal action, I would consider a formal complaint to the EU Commission (which costs nothing and usually elicits a response within a year or two).
The basis for such a complaint might include:
1. The price paid for an honest mistake by a private individual on an intra-Schengen journey is not strictly a “penalty”, but it has the same effect as a disproportionate (and therefore illegal) criminal sanction. It constitutes an impediment to free movement. (A similar argument was used in France in respect of Italian-registered microlight helicopters, prompting the DGAC to introduce its own ULM class 6).
2. Inaccurate, misleading or unreliable information in the German AIP is a further impediment to free movement.
3. Since the German Customs authorities are applying EU law (specifically the VAT Directive and the Union Customs Code), the manner in which they do so is constrained by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, of which Articles 6, 7, 17, 41, 45 and 49 appear relevant.
4. The other EU Treaties are only a few hundred pages long, but they may nevertheless contain something of relevance.
I’m not saying that this case couldn’t or shouldn’t eventually be pursued in court – just that we pay the Commission to guard the Four Freedoms of the Union, so it’s only fair to give them a chance to do their job.
