Peter wrote:
Of course The speed of the UK vaccination programme is p1ssing off lots of people, for one thing. Most airport staff are wholly professional but they are only human and you are bound to get the odd one. Same as in the past, when police in [insert your favourite country; Italy and France featured most often] would raid an N-reg, spread the entire content on the concrete, harrass the occupants, and leave a load of EU-regs untouched.
I’m really not seeing that at all here in France if I’m honest, where (according to recent polls) over 40% of the population still says they would rather not have the vaccine. There is no talk about the speed of vaccination in the UK at all, in fact, focus on the UK seems to be completely gone. Much more resistance to the possibility of a return to lockdown. There is a much bigger focus on Brexit and sovereignty and how everybody seems to be against the UK in the UK than there is in Europe. You ask everyday Joe about the UK and they really don’t know a lot about it…
As far as customs goes, as you know I fly a G-REG and haven’t been bothered by anyone once (I’m an EU national) and I do tend to strictly fly outside of the circuit…
wbardorf wrote:
The rather interesting/scary aspect is that according to https://www.opmas.dk/opmas-surveys/temporary-admission-eu-nationality-aircraft-registration-matter/, if an aircraft has an EU27 registration but is no longer a union good post-Brexit (e.g. a D-reg sitting in the UK on 1 Jan 2021) and is flown into the EU27 then it is subject to full importation as it would not be eligible for temporary admission.
Temporary Admission and Returned Goods Relief seem the best search terms to bring up useful information. This one from wbardof confirms what I have learnt but in reverse. Not surprising as the UK VAT rules are just the EU ones with EU crossed out and UK typed in. I shall be digging into that opmas.dk survey when I get the time. Thanks for that wbardof.
Peter wrote:
For example the 2-reg (Guernsey) can be a huge headache, as some found out too late.
It’s a non-starter anyway. Their admission policy is restricted to locals and turbines.
https://www.2-reg.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Admission-Policy_20161201.pdf
Admission_Policy_20161201_pdf
Peter wrote:
The speed of the UK vaccination programme is p1ssing off lots of people, for one thing.
If something is “p1ssing off lots of people”, it’s certainly not the the UK vaccination programme or its speed but quite different things.
Peter wrote:
I’d think that harrassment of G-regs over VAT would not be productive, since nearly all of them will be UK based and on a temporary visit to the EU. There used to be loads of G-regs based in the EU but they mostly moved to EU-reg. What else can they be looking for? Contraband?
G-regs will be treated just like every other third country registration. That’s not harassment. Apparently still people expect the UK to get some kind of preferential treatment from the EU. (For old times sake?)
I think people expect treatment IAW the rules, simply.
And the rules are not rocket science.
On a short term visit there is nothing to look for (apart from contraband, a load of Vietnamese, etc 
). Otherwise, international aviation would become impossible, because everywhere you land they could
and then you take off, land, and it could be done all over again there. Actually that happens, according to reliable reports, in Calcutta, and is solved equally reliably with a bundle of this:
but in the 1st World the expectations are higher.
Post brexit, UK aircraft are just “totally foreign” like ones from the US, Nigeria, Botswana, Australia, The Peoples’ Republic of Upper Volta, etc. On a short term visit, you are supposed to be protected (unless smuggling, etc). There is no VAT to pay.
If someone doesn’t agree, I am all ears, but let’s have some detail and references, please.
Part of the huge overhead of ICAO rules, SARPS, airframe and component certification, etc, is to protect us from random harrassment at airports where some official doesn’t like your face.
There is one grey area: you hang around the EU for too long. If you enter the EU from outside (could be from the UK, Botswana, etc) and you hang around, visiting loads of places, for say a year. Of course, such long trips are extremely rare, and when they happen, most people get away with it, and 99% of them never knew it might be a problem. But… Ferry pilots have to watch this one, especially if they hold an EU passport. They need to keep moving and not stop for weeks visiting their old mates. There is a documentary solution to it, AFAIK.
But if you hang around the EU for too long, lots of other stuff might get you also, like this.
Now UK is out of CU, EU VAT status will not come to play, it’s only when one is looking to sell or import to some EU country, a visitor can just fly a UK based aircraft to EU for 6 months using any passport or residence document he wish (for cars it’s a different story to drive a foreign and you are resident or assumed resident, you will need import VAT/Duty and you may even need a local driving licence and local insurance at some point down the road)
Is it really 6 months regardless of whether or not the pilot holds an EU passport?
It’s quite an interesting point for me because when I do finally get around to making that big day trip to London and pick up my Czech passport, I may choose to carry it, or not, on flights to the EU.
This post and this post suggest that EU passport holders indeed get 6 months, and the implication is that non EU passport holders get longer. This post leads back to the famous writeup by the lawyer at Opmas who ran the Danish zero-VAT route for years.
Well if it’s your aircraft, you have family and business in EU then you may get a “CZ based TB20” label
If your only link isCZ passport, then it’s very weak to be considered a based operator, you may still get questions, when it becomes important is when aircraft becomes AOG in the trip, you can leave it (to come back later) and will surely get away with it as visitor but as “pseudo resident” you will be fried on the way back….
