Good summary Peter but not only.
The basic rule is easy: If crossing an EU outside border in any direction:
EU-Resident => fly a EU registered airplane
UK-resident (post brexit) => fly a UK registered airplane
Swiss resident: Fly a Swiss registered airplane
OR, an N-Reg with proof of VAT paid in the EU or the countries you are flying to/from.
The same goes for cars, boats and whatever.
What has hit me as interesting (and which I never cared about as I don’t fly N-regs) if you fly an N-reg out of Switzerland and it flies also with EU citizens in command, it better be VAT paid in the EU as well…
Mooney_Driver wrote:
OR, an N-Reg with proof of VAT paid in the EU or the countries you are flying to/from.
Not sure that is really protection. Every time one returns to the non-EU country of residency the plane would seem to be qualified as exported, lose its status as EU goods and be subject again to VAT upon reentry.
There is the concession for visiting the EU, as discussed here and in other threads. Otherwise, international aviation would not work.
A plane based in say Switzerland, Serbia, the US, etc, can fly into the EU, on brief visits. And it doesn’t need any kind of VAT paid status (and indeed cannot have such status since nearly all of the earth’s surface doesn’t have VAT).
We are having a similar discussion here 
Of course, it doesn’t have to. I entered Switzerland several times with an EU-registered airplane, without any issues, VAT formalities or whatsoever. I just have to make the initial landing on a international airport, or (if I don’t want to) get an approval from customs in advance for other airfields. The same counts also for my flight to Norway this year and for any other country outside the EU.
I have written a little article on these matters for German PuF magazine, out today. Of course, we writers can‘t change the rules and practices. We can only raise awareness for these matters among pilots and ask them to be very careful.
Great! Thank you! Very well written.
boscomantico wrote:
Zollen oder ZahlenGood one.
Looks like that Hungarian guy got his money back from German Customs. Starts at 23:48:
boscomantico wrote:
Looks like that Hungarian guy got his money back from German Customs.
But still a very negative report on flying in/to Germany. His attitude is quite typical … regardless of the technicalities involved, one either feels welcome or not based on personal experience. This applies everywhere and not just in Germany. Customs in Europe is almost more challenging for pilots than the flying itself and in any case reduces the value of a pilot licence considerably. If car drivers were subject to the same scrutiny there would be a lot fewer cars on the road due to the reduced value.
boscomantico wrote:
Looks like that Hungarian guy got his money back from German Customs
So what was this all about then? Rogue customs officers? corruption?
Funny video though
