Peter wrote:
I cannot see any official reason why this should be a post-brexit issue more than at any time before,
Nothing has changed. It could only be that some customs authorities/officers now generally have a closer look at things that come from the UK than before Brexit.
Peter wrote:
Nothing has really changed; the need for carrying the “VAT paid” bit of paper has always been there. Most people selling planes without it just hope the buyer won’t ask, and of course most buyers have no idea
Discussed so many times before. You just can’t help a buyer that doesn’t ask for a proof if the seller tells him “this plane is worth 20k more than another one because VAT has already been paid”. Adult people are responsible for their own fate.
Of course there are rather some odd national exceptions, like for example if you buy and export personal vehicle parts from Germany, you cannot by law get a VAT refund on that purchase.
By what law?
I buy spares for my 356 from Germany all the time, never been charged German VAT.
I also get VAT cashback at the border for parts installed in Germany.
The UK is now no different than other countries worldwide, surely? Anybody from anywhere making a purchase in an EU country and then exporting outside of the EU tax-block is entitled to get the VAT refunded. There are all kinds of sharks at commercial airports who will buy your shop receipt for half of the tax paid, then process the claim themselves for the full amount.
Of course there are rather some odd national exceptions, like for example if you buy and export personal vehicle parts from Germany, you cannot by law get a VAT refund on that purchase. So its better if the receipt shows the sale of a vehicle part being made to a company. Strange but true 
When I refuelled at a couple of different Spanish airports last month neither charged me VAT on the fuel as I run my N reg through a UK vat registered company. All they needed was the vat number.
An interesting point is little known but the EU authorities, especially Spain are pushing it more now is that if a Brit comes to Spain or France and probably any other of the EU countries and buys something (not a meal at a restaurant or a room at a hotel) like maybe a plane, they can reclaim the VAT charged.
Am I the only one who was unaware of this change since Brexit.
This is a paragraph in the periodic letter from my N-reg trust, SAC:
I don’t know of any cases of problems, but probably they would not be publicised because an aircraft whose problematic EU VAT status has been “revealed” is going to be difficult to sell 
I cannot see any official reason why this should be a post-brexit issue more than at any time before, but there is a lot of anti-UK “rearguard activity” around. Hard to pin down specific cases but for example UK packages sent to BE, NL and DE (IME; there are probably others, and I have no recent data on FR and IT) are stuck at Customs for a week, even if sent by DHL on the normal 24hr service. 2 weeks for airmail. DHL just say they are powerless in the face of Customs chucking it on a pile for a week, just for fun and without any examination. They aren’t doing it with US packages which in theory rank the same. These things are most likely not sanctioned at govt level (possibly by one particular country) but you don’t need a “govt level sanction” to get hassle from local officials.
Nothing has really changed; the need for carrying the “VAT paid” bit of paper has always been there. Most people selling planes without it just hope the buyer won’t ask, and of course most buyers have no idea
Maybe there are special angles; perhaps @tinfoilhat or @arne know something. I will ask SAC also.
dublinpilot wrote:
I’ve seen this stated on this forum various times, but I’ve not been able to find a reference for it. Do you have that in any official guidance?
No, I was told there has not been any official guidance nor is there likely to be any time soon as the VAT authorities have bigger fish to fry. My words were based on advice I received from an aviation VAT expert when I was in an analogous situation to Arne. I have since had it confirmed by aviation VAT lawyers on both sides of the channel.
Returned Goods Relief and Temporary Admission are subtleties that should be born in mind but they don’t seem relevant to Arne’s case. The references upthread are likely to be the best anyone is going to get for the time being. It would be nice if AOPA put together some guidance but they don’t seem interested.
I find that hard to believe, except in the most limited circumstances. It would be a nasty entrapment situation.
tinfoilhat wrote:
In this instance the registration doesn’t matter. It depends where the plane was parked on the night of Brexit.
I’ve seen this stated on this forum various times, but I’ve not been able to find a reference for it. Do you have that in any official guidance?
Arne wrote:
Does anyone of you know the situation with exporting a G-reg (from start, the plane is 40yo) into EASA?
If the plane had “VAT-paid” status while the UK was in the EU, would it still have it now?
In this instance the registration doesn’t matter. It depends where the plane was parked on the night of Brexit. If it was parked in the UK you will need to pay VAT to import it to Sweden, if it was parked in the EU on Brexit night it will have EU VAT status and you won’t need to pay VAT to import it to Sweden. It sounds like it was in the UK so you will have to pay the VAT.
