nmeyrick
Member
The wife and I are in the process of negotiating the purchase of a used boat, currently in Italy. The boat is currently US flagged, but has VAT paid status after being imported into Sweden by the current owner - we will of course verify this prior to completion. We are both UK citizens and resident in Spain. Note that I've confirmed that there is no longer any requirement for Spanish residents to flag the boat in Spain, and that we are well aware of the issues around Matriculation tax in spain, for which we are seeking professional advice. I've seen plenty of threads here on these subjects and don't wish to add further to that!
The topic I'd love to get any insight on is the question of how to flag the boat. I've read numerous posts on here about whether to reflag boats in the Med to an EU flag in the hope of "flying under the radar" and attracting less interest from customs and immigration people, most of which seem to end with the conclusion that its not worth the agro of changing and they would be as well to stick with the red duster.
However the position we are in is that the boat is not currently UK registered, and as UK citizens but not UK residents we would appear to be eligible for Part 1 but not SSR registration. As my wife is also a US citizen we could actually keep the current US flag if the boat was owned solely by her, although I'm not convinced that's necessarily the ideal flag to have in the EU either.
Firstly does anyone have experience of how strictly the residence requirement of SSR is applied? For example is it one of those situations where we could provide a relative's address on the registration docs and nobody would care, or could that create all sorts of problems? The last thing I would want to do would be to have our papers rejected by a foreign customs official because we weren't a UK resident - bearing in mind that we may be relying on our Spanish residence in order to remain in Spanish waters.
If we decided that SSR was not an option that would leave Part 1, which I understand is rather more onerous and expensive; it seems like we shouldn't have too much difficulty proving a trail of ownership but flying a tonnage surveyor out to Italy sounds like it wouldn't be cheap!
Against this there is the perception I have that a UK flagged boat is more likely to attract interest from customs and immigration people around the Med. This may be all in my mind, and I would love to hear anyone that has experiences that support or refute this, but I suspect given the pandemic this year is probably too soon to know for sure. For the avoidance of doubt we fully intend to comply with all immigration requirements, monitor our Schengen time etc - but it sure would be nice to avoid having to prove this to local officials any more frequently than strictly necessary.
So given that we are starting from a blank slate I wonder if it would be worth finding a friendly EU flag; Poland is one that I've heard mentioned but I would be open to other suggestions. Spain is not under consideration given how onerous their regime is.
Does anyone here have experience with having a boat flagged in another EU country (without a citizenship or residence requirement) that they can recommend or caution against?
Thanks
Neil
The topic I'd love to get any insight on is the question of how to flag the boat. I've read numerous posts on here about whether to reflag boats in the Med to an EU flag in the hope of "flying under the radar" and attracting less interest from customs and immigration people, most of which seem to end with the conclusion that its not worth the agro of changing and they would be as well to stick with the red duster.
However the position we are in is that the boat is not currently UK registered, and as UK citizens but not UK residents we would appear to be eligible for Part 1 but not SSR registration. As my wife is also a US citizen we could actually keep the current US flag if the boat was owned solely by her, although I'm not convinced that's necessarily the ideal flag to have in the EU either.
Firstly does anyone have experience of how strictly the residence requirement of SSR is applied? For example is it one of those situations where we could provide a relative's address on the registration docs and nobody would care, or could that create all sorts of problems? The last thing I would want to do would be to have our papers rejected by a foreign customs official because we weren't a UK resident - bearing in mind that we may be relying on our Spanish residence in order to remain in Spanish waters.
If we decided that SSR was not an option that would leave Part 1, which I understand is rather more onerous and expensive; it seems like we shouldn't have too much difficulty proving a trail of ownership but flying a tonnage surveyor out to Italy sounds like it wouldn't be cheap!
Against this there is the perception I have that a UK flagged boat is more likely to attract interest from customs and immigration people around the Med. This may be all in my mind, and I would love to hear anyone that has experiences that support or refute this, but I suspect given the pandemic this year is probably too soon to know for sure. For the avoidance of doubt we fully intend to comply with all immigration requirements, monitor our Schengen time etc - but it sure would be nice to avoid having to prove this to local officials any more frequently than strictly necessary.
So given that we are starting from a blank slate I wonder if it would be worth finding a friendly EU flag; Poland is one that I've heard mentioned but I would be open to other suggestions. Spain is not under consideration given how onerous their regime is.
Does anyone here have experience with having a boat flagged in another EU country (without a citizenship or residence requirement) that they can recommend or caution against?
Thanks
Neil