Today I had the opportunity to speak with a nice German border customs agent who also happened to be a pilot and FI in his spare time. He taught me something I wasn’t aware of before:
Apparently, if you export an aircraft out of the European customs union (e.g., from an EU country to Switzerland), after a period of three years the fact that it was once imported into the European customs union becomes irrelevant in case of a reimport. Meaning customs and VAT have to be paid again once it’s imported into the European customs union again.
Does anybody know about this rule (I would assume it’s common knowledge, but haven’t heard it before) and can confirm this piece of information or provide a reference of such legislation?
If I haven’t misunderstood and this is indeed true, this makes it quite expensive to move around with an airplane outside (and then back into) the EU.
Sounds far fetched. If you can prove eu vat has been paid, its for ever eu duty paid.
I should have said with caveats – exported and imported by same owner, not significantly altered, and yes i agree there appears to also be a three year rule.
Fuji_Abound wrote:
Sounds far fetched. If you can prove eu vat has been paid, its for ever eu duty paid.
My prior understanding has been “forever”, so this kind of caught me by (negative) surprise. Now with all the EU-harmonisation (cough), this couldn’t be a German national rule (like the wonderful “Zuverlässigkeitsüberprüfung”), could it?
Fuji_Abound wrote:
I should have said with caveats – exported and imported by same owner, not significantly altered, and yes i agree there appears to also be a three year rule.
Do you know a reference for this?
Covered here and i suspect equivalent for aircraft – more than three years on application. I would doubt refusal if proof of original vat paid, and no change in ownership or condition, but would get something in writing before. This is of course uk only, other states, other rules no doubt.
Fuji_Abound wrote:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/notice-236-returned-goods-relief/notice-236-returned-goods-reliefCovered here and i suspect equivalent for aircraft – more than three years on application. I would doubt refusal if proof of original vat paid, and no change in ownership or condition, but would get something in writing before. This is of course uk only, other states, other rules no doubt.
Thanks @Fuji_Abound. So the three-year rule would refer to reimport under same owner, but probably not for a reimport due to a sale (i.e., the EU-based buyer reimports the merchandise)?
(BTW, that site is quite well done — I wish other countries had such a clear exposition of their regulations.)
Fuji beat me to it but I was going to say: there is definitely such a rule but I didn’t know it was 3 years.
A number of people, including one prominent forum personality, discovered this rule to their cost when they got busted for the VAT many years after buying their plane (G-reg) from a seller in the Channel Islands, which are outside the EU VAT system and thus rank same as Switzerland or Norway.
What about San Marino?
