Menu Sign In Contact FAQ
Banner
Welcome to our forums

Aircraft VAT / import VAT / getting busted upon landing in the EU (merged thread)

France, for sure. One small problem with that is they keep your original VAT receipt, so you don’t get it back.

That’s really interesting.

Presumably this means an F-reg will never get checked for VAT

Also checking Socatas for VAT would be low productivity fishing because there is no import VAT due unless formally exported out of the EU at some stage. Actually there is a real problem there: how do you prove a lack of export? Only with flight logs showing constant EU residence – that is also required under the UK VAT amnesty. I can’t find the details of that amnesty right now but wrote this some years ago at another place, based on what I was told by some VAT consultant:



I don’t know any Socata owner with a C88/IM4 and apparently such a thing is impossible because the aircraft was never imported. It entered the EU under an internal transfer arrangement. So these people have three options:

  • obtain a Cert of Free Circulation (Denmark did them pre-2009, and the UK stopped c. 2005)
  • keep a proof of continuous use within the EU
  • declare a value and pay VAT on that and keep the resulting documents… (the last-resort option)

And presumably the same for Robins, etc.

We had a very similar thread here

BTW Flyer59 there are loads of hits on google (have to use google.co.uk, not e.g. google.de which will not dig out much English stuff) on non-N-regs getting checked in certain countries, although nobody can tell whether they were looking for VAT docs specifically.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Yes, ramp checks happen. I know that, and it’s ok too.

But please, if you find a check for VAT paid on a EU reg. a/c, let me know. (this thread is about VAT)

Gone Flying now :-)

Last Edited by Flyer59 at 02 Nov 09:31

My L18C came over as part of he Cold War MDAP in 1951, not sure who might issue a free circulation certificate? NATO?

Oxford (EGTK), United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

Which countries check import VAT paid before allowing an aircraft onto their registry?

That’s a good question actually. Why do the government see a need to register aircraft in the first place? I can think of only two reasons.

  1. To have control of airworthiness and operations and other legal aspect regarding ownership (practical for end users also, insurance etc).
  2. To have control of import/export

With VAT in the first place, those two things are linked, at least for the end private user. But VAT isn’t a very old “invention” and several services and goods have been exempt, such as aviation typically (not anymore though).

The elephant is the circulation
ENVA ENOP ENMO, Norway

Peter wrote:

That’s really interesting.

Presumably this means an F-reg will never get checked for VAT

That’s correct . For an ex-French reg’d plane on N reg, the French customs agents advised me to always carry the old French AW Cert on-board to prove that the plane was regularly imported and registered in France, thus providing proof that VAT was indeed paid.

FAA A&P/IA
LFPN

Flyer59 wrote:

For € 25.000 per month I can for the hangar. And I love the seal!
Sounds like a great business model :-)

Well I think you made a decimal error: it’s 1% per month, not 10% …

FAA A&P/IA
LFPN

@ Michael You wrote it’s 10 percent!

But € 2500 per month … still a very good interest rate of 12 percent

I’d buy many airplanes and park them in France!

Last Edited by Flyer59 at 02 Nov 12:37

In my experience the French only look for evidence of VAT payment on import. In your case the aircraft has been in continual EU ownership for a long period, and as you say qualifies as having VAT paid status by virtue of the E.E.C. Council Directive 92/111, part of the Sixth Directive, Article 28N- Transitional measures, which you have correctly stated the conditions that apply.

In my experience a copy of the CAA register print out, together with the new US registration document (which should tie in with the de-registration date) is enough evidence to prove the aircraft’s status in this situation.

HMRC no longer issue Free Circulation Certificates as they had no legal standing within the Community, and it is highly unlikely that they will supply any paperwork to confirm the VAT status, other than probably similar comments to mine above.

I carry a copy of the E.E.C. Council Directive 92/111, part of the Sixth Directive, Article 28N- Transitional measures (relevant part only as it is bit long winded) together with a copy of this email. Actually I made an official “certificate” stating that the aeroplane qualifies as having VAT paid due to the EEC….blah. I have translated this into French too ;)

Our second aeroplane has a COFC.

Last Edited by AlanB at 02 Nov 12:51
EGHS

Question: i imported an aircraft in 2008 in denmark from the States.

I have a C88 regarding that import. Now the aircraft is on a norvegian registry.

Let’s say I want to put it on German registry because I am going to sell it to a german client. Would he need to pay german VAT in order to register it?

Thx lowandslow

Last Edited by lowandslow at 02 Nov 14:36

How long was it sitting in Norway and was it ever formally exported there?

Changing the reg doesn’t ever (AFAIK) cause an “export” for tax reasons.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
Sign in to add your message

Back to Top