chflyer wrote:
then you will certainly need to pay Belgian VAT when you move the aircraft’s base there
One needs to pay EU VAT, not necessarily Belgian VAT. In theory, that’s the first port of entry within the EU, that is just land in any EU country, visit the customs office and pay their VAT. In practice, using a customs agent will most probably work smoother. Also, by doing the paperwork in advance one can have intermediate landings in other EU countries and pay VAT in a subsequent place. So, hummm, JFonseca can come help our national budget and come pay VAT in Luxembourg and save a few percent…
JFonseca wrote:
Is there a risk that I will need to pay EU VAT if I base it permanently in Belgium (or any other EU country)?
If you base the aircraft in the EU, you must pay EU VAT. Even if you were Swiss, with all your family Swiss (or USA-American or Guatemalan) and resident in Switzerland (or USA or Guatemala), if you base a vehicle in the EU for usage within the EU, you must pay EU VAT, the same way that you must pay VAT on any goods or services that you consume within the EU.
What you can do is avoiding basing the aircraft in the EU, but frankly I don’t know the exact rules around how that would be defined. Some people say that as soon as a vehicle is used by a EU passport holder within the EU, even for an instant, the VAT is due. That may be true, I have not seen the exact regulation spelling it out.
JFonseca wrote:
If I pay EU VAT, it’s because I exported the aircraft to EU. In that case, when I fly to Switzerland and return in the same week to EU, will customs ask me to pay Swiss VAT again?
No. I will reply in EU law for the inverse case, but I assume Swiss law must be similar. Technically that is a “temporary export”, just like your clothes or your watch when you wear them or in your suitcase when you travel. In the EU, the limit is 2 years, as long as it comes back in the EU before the two years have elapsed, no new VAT to pay.
You seem to see “import” as necessarily being an “export” from another country, as if a good could only ever be “imported” into a single country at a time. That is not so. A vehicle can be “VAT paid” in several jurisdictions, e.g. I hear Swiss car rental companies have cars that have been VAT-declared in both Switzerland and an EU country, so that they can rent them to EU people in Switzerland with permission to enter the EU with the car. In their case it doesn’t cost them anything, since the EU VAT they declare is deductible since the vehicle is used (by them) for VAT-taxable business purposes. And so your aircraft, like these cars, can have “VAT declared/paid” status simultaneously in Switzerland and in the EU.
Regardless, my suggestion would be to clarify directly with the Belgian authorities since information here has no legal authority, or consult an import/export expert. There are a lot of nuances, some being mentioned above. Each situation will have its own specific answers, more so because yours is certainly not typical.
I sent an email to Swiss, Belgium and Portuguese authorities. From Swiss I received the answer in the following day. And basically from their side I don’t have any concern regarding the VAT because it’s already paid. I only need to declare the maintenance work I have done outside Switzerland as soon as I return to pay the VAT. From Portuguese authorities I also received the reply in the following day saying that Portugal doesn’t have a saying on this topic because the aircraft will not be based there. And I am still waiting for the reply from Belgium authorities.
I am also trying to contact Swiss pilots that have their aircraft based in EU to know how they handle the situation, because I know there are many of these cases. But no luck until now, and also the chances that one of these pilots has also EU citizenship are not very high. And I believe the risk for a Swiss citizen is much less than for a EU citizen.
