What interesting cases? Ive hired Swiss cars and driven in Germany or France, and German or French Cars and driven in Switzerland
At Bale, the Entreprise rental desk will ask you to take a French car if you show a French passport and intend to drive to Saint-Louis/Freiburg but they change their mind if you show a British passport (strictly speaking we were still EU citizen in 2017 
), it’s the same rental desk, same commercial agent but it has two parkings split by a wall and you need to make sure you pick/return to the right one, Google Map tend to send you to the wrong place, so on return we crossed the border 3 times nearly missing the flight !
Maybe the reason why car hire was cheap in Swiss side vs French side, even if restaurant & hotel prices were high in Switzerland 
https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/driving-abroad/car-rental-abroad/index_en.htm
Well thats not alot different to Geneva… French and Swiss side… And Ive hired from both and headed been both sides with both etc…
Im failing to see the problem.
Maybe depends when? was it in 2017? or who you rented from?
Same, I never been asked this in Geneva
skydriller wrote:
Im failing to see the problem.
The problem is that
– As the starting point, anything and everything you bring across the border into the EU is subject to customs and import VAT
– Then there are exemptions to that rule, for example for the clothes you are wearing, your belongings you took on a trip and which are now returning with you, etc.
– That means in principle anyone bringing a car (or aircraft, bicycle) across the border is importing it (and has to pay…)
Here is the wording of the exemption for NON-EU residents bringing a car into the EU:
Total relief from import duty shall be granted for means of road, rail, air, sea and inland waterway transport where they fulfil the following conditions:
(a) they are registered outside the customs territory of the Union in the name of a person established outside that territory or, where the means of transport are not registered, they are owned by a person established outside the customs territory of the Union;
(b) they are used by a person established outside the customs territory of the Union, without prejudice to Articles 214, 215 and 216.
Where those means of transport are used privately by a third person established outside the customs territory of the Union, total relief from import duty shall be granted provided that that person is duly authorised in writing by the holder of the authorisation.
So if a non-EU-resident flies (uses) an N-reg (legal owner: Trust, outside the EU) into the EU, it would be a good idea to have a written authorisation by the trust….
Here are the rules for EU residents:
1. Natural persons who have their habitual residence in the customs territory of the Union shall benefit from total relief from import duty in respect of means of transport which they use privately and occasionally, at the request of the registration holder, provided that the registration holder is in the customs territory of the Union at the time of use.
2. Natural persons who have their habitual residence in the customs territory of the Union shall benefit from total relief from import duty in respect of means of transport which they have hired under a written contract and use privately for one of the following purposes:
(a) to return to their place of residence in the customs territory of the Union;
(b) to leave the customs territory of the Union.
So if a EU resident takes a non-EU registered rental car into the EU and does anything with it other than driving home, they have to pay customs & VAT.
So if a non-EU-resident flies (uses) an N-reg (legal owner: Trust, outside the EU) into the EU, it would be a good idea to have a written authorisation by the trust….
That is dynamite…
Cobalt wrote:
Where those means of transport are used privately by a third person established outside the customs territory of the Union, total relief from import duty shall be granted provided that that person is duly authorised in writing by the holder of the authorisation.
This would also have to be the case for a Swiss flying a Swiss rental airplane. Never heard of this before. Question is, does he have to have this on his person? If so, we’d have to look into this.
Cobalt wrote:
So if a EU resident takes a non-EU registered rental car into the EU and does anything with it other than driving home, they have to pay customs & VAT.
As far as i am informed in Switzerland as a Swiss resident you may not drive any foreign registered car in Switzerland without paying customs and VAT. Some rental car companies may have authorisation to do this however.
I am sure private & rental cars would have be in deep troubles with regards to duty & vat if we get them equipped with ADSB/ModeS, then they start appearing everywhere in FR24 as well as in PlaneSpotter websites
Ibra wrote:
I am sure private & rental cars would have be in deep troubles with regards to duty & vat if we get them equipped with ADSB/ModeS, then they start appearing everywhere in FR24 as well as in PlaneSpotter websites
I thought this is well known here and you don’t really need that. Rental car companies know this and tell their clients or have arrangements such as having a number of dual VAT cars available (like N-regs which have a letter of free circulation in both Switzerland and the EU because they paid VAT in both places).
Every once in a while our papers will portray a case where someone gets fleeced who drove his cousin’s german car in Switzerland and ends up paying full VAT and Customs. Couple of grand for sure. And Germany, well, read the thread. It’s not only aviation that German customs care about.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
As far as i am informed in Switzerland as a Swiss resident you may not drive any foreign registered car in Switzerland without paying customs and VAT. Some rental car companies may have authorisation to do this however.
This is also my understanding….. i.e. if a Swiss resident goes to Germany, rents a car, and then drives it into Switzerland, it needs to be declared and customs and VAT paid since it exceeds the CHF300 exemption for importing goods into Switzerland. There may be some special authorizations negotiated by rental companies, but one should certainly confirm with them when renting, if that is one’s plan.
So if a non-EU-resident flies (uses) an N-reg (legal owner: Trust, outside the EU) into the EU, it would be a good idea to have a written authorisation by the trust….
Isn’t that implicit in the trust document?
Otherwise, this could be used by German police to “get” a lot of people. A lot of German pilots are N-reg owners too It’s a huge community out there, including Germany being about the only country in “western” Europe where you can keep an uncertified N-reg for any useful length of time. I wonder what @boscomantico thinks of this.
