Brexit......what are the likely implications on UK and European boating?

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diligaf

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Hi All

I am surprised this hasn't been raised yet by anyone, maybe I missed it if it has.

Does anyone know what the likely implications of a Brexit would be on our hobby?

Take for example a UK VAT paid boat (mine let say) and I decide I want to boat in France. I have it shipped down, get asked for proof of VAT and then, two possible scenarios:

1. 'OK sur, I can see zat ze VAT 'as been paid, merci'
2. ' ahhh, non monsieur. Ze tax was paid in UK, not in ze EU now. I need you to pay ze French tax now'

Same goes for if I wanted to buy a boat in France, Spain, Italy etc and bring it to the UK. Would the UK want tax paid here on arrival?

Would that happen?

Am I being naive?
 
Who knows what will happen? Even our politicians seem to have no idea (or aren't letting on) in relation to important matters. Issues you raise will not even be on their distant horizon.

So pointless to speculate - or even consider when you vote as you will have no information to make an informed decision, nor any control over what happens either way.
 
Well according to the politicians, either the world will end and we'll no longer be able to travel abroad at all or there'll be no difference at all; it all depends which side of the fence you're on.
 
diligaf said:
I am pretty sure I know which side I am on but way too little actual facts being released
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That is because "facts" are very hard to determine and why politicians fight shy of them. Unlike a parliamentary election there is no manifesto that you can vote for, just a yes/no on a principle.

As to the effect on boating and free movement, in the event of an exit no doubt the latter at least will be high on the priority list for negotiators and lobbyists such as the BMF and RYA will be fighting on behalf of boaters.

In the meantime you can construct all sorts of scenarios both negative and positive - just like the politicians are doing, but really at this level a bit of a pointless exercise.
 
Agree with Tranona. It is pointless to speculate about what might happen after a Brexit because nobody really has a clue as to how the EU will treat UK VAT paid boats entering the EU after a Brexit. I think the only thing you could say is that if you are contemplating moving your UK VAT paid boat from the UK into EU waters, it would be advisable to do it before the UK formally exits the EU, if that should happen

Btw, yesterday William Hill were offering odds of 1/3 on the UK remaining in the EU so the smart money is betting that this issue isn't going to arise in the future anyway despite all the white noise in the media:friendly_wink:
 
A lot of people don't consider that the EU would be a very different place without the UK.
IMO, we just wouldn't know what it would be like.
That isn't a reason to vote to stay in though.
Personally, I believe that you have to get the basics right first - then let everything fall into place after.
For me, that means OUT because our basic democracy is not being respected.
If our own elected politicians can't make the laws, then the fundamentals are wrong.
Even if that means that my Med boating is threatened.
 
It really is impossible to say

Of late, Cameron has been negotitating terms to stay

If the vote is to leave, then the terms of leaving have to be negotiated. There are certain ground rules in the various treaties, incl the treaty of Rome, which among many things put a 2 year time limit on that negotiation period. It is inconceivable that for an economy like the UK's there would not be some agreement that keeps us in EEA and close to EU, but there is no precedent for such an agreement (other than EEA itself). So, it is impossble to say right now what would be the impact on a tiny and insignificant sector like pleasure boating.

It is likely that boats already in EU VAT paid will remain vat paid, but boats arriving into EU from UK sfter UK has left the EU will get 18 months TI or have to pay EU VAT. That would be rather a shame for med boats in say the <60 foot bracket, where at resale you want a single market between UK and Med. An alternative is that UK leaves EU but a single VAT zone is created (like IoM already). But it is way to hard to predict now because for sure there would be an all new treaty governing UK's relationship with EU and that has never been done before with a country of UK's size nor are politicians even thinking much about it for now
 
Nearest thing we can speculate on is how current non Eu countries deal with boaters. Turkey? I don't think anyone has to pay VAT on their boat when they visit? Those who have travelled further afar in their boats will also have some useful info? I guess it will be different if you were trying to sell a boat into the Eu? I'm sitting on the fence as to in or out. I can see potential benefits on both sides. However I would want neither Farage nor the extreme left ruining this country, so we must all be careful what we wish for!
 
Hurricane said:
Even if that means that my Med boating is threatened.
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A small price to pay to stop undesirable EU migrants like Mapism and BartW from entering the UK, abusing the welfare system and defiling our womenfolk:D
 
Deleted User said:
A small price to pay to stop undesirable EU migrants like Mapism and BartW from entering the UK, abusing the welfare system and defiling our womenfolk:D
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:) Deleted User, do you really believe that MapisM and I would consider imigrating to UK, and show any interest in british womenfolk ?
knowing what we have here, It's rather the opposite :)
 
Deleted User said:
A small price to pay to stop undesirable EU migrants like Mapism and BartW from entering the UK, abusing the welfare system and defiling our womenfolk:D
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Funny that you should say that, M.
I'm well aware that your comment is 100% tongue in cheek, but in my understanding this is something most "Brexiter" are very focused on.
I recently tried to contribute to the Brexit debate in another forum, but eventually I gave up after some posts exchanged with a folk whose avatar is a EU flag toilet paper roll, and whose signature reads "The only way we can take back control of our borders is to vote to leave the EU."

Now, I can't help thinking that folks like these, if they were Greek, Italian or Spanish, would be among those down here who suggest to shoot and sink the boats full of migrants which are rescued almost on a daily basis from our Navy boys - not without taking some risks themselves, and not being able to rescue all of these migrants anyway, because recovering just the corpses is a rather common occurrence.

But of course, being much further north, it's more elegant for these "Brexiters" to say that they love Europe but they hate the EU bureaucracy, and so forth.
And to think that getting rid of the migrants problem simply means leave it to someone else.

Never mind though, freedom of thought is a great thing.
And if that forum guy (or Farage, or anyone else with similar ideas) would be stranded at sea, I would still do my best to help anyway.
But I don't think I'd share one of my best wine bottles with him/her. :ambivalence:
 
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While keeping migrants out is the rallying cry of some Britexiters, none of them have any idea about how this would be achieved and what the impact would be. Boris Johnson for example is actually pro migration - but only of the "right type". In reality the long standing resistance to migrants is not really related to the current crisis but is mostly directed at certain types of migrants who then for example are responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime. Migrants generally are younger and have a higher birthrate than locals so their demands on health and education (as well as housing) have significant impact on local populations. The refugee type migrants in the numbers now coming into Europe are a new thing and not sure many of us have got our heads round the implications as they are still effectively remote from the UK.

The problem for most voters here, as I suggested earlier, is that the vote is not between two clear alternatives, but two different philosophies both with uncertain futures. That is why there are so few answers, or even educated guesses about the sorts of issues raised in the OPs questions.
 
MapisM said:
Funny that you should say that, M.
I'm well aware that your comment is 100% tongue in cheek, but in my understanding this is something most "Brexiter" are very focused on.
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Yes of course my comment was 100% tongue in cheek and for the record I will be voting for the UK to stay in the EU. And yes, one of the major issues in the EU referendum campaign is migration. I don't really want to get into a discussion on this forum about the issues surrounding the referendum because the Lounge is the place for that. However before criticising Brexiteers for their focus on the migration issue, you should perhaps understand that the % of immigrants in the UK population is already one of the highest in the EU and, in fact, considerably higher than, say, Italy. With regard to the current EU migrant crisis there is also a strong feeling here in the UK that this was a problem created in Berlin not the UK and the EU is only now beginning to realise the full stupidity of Merkel's open door invitation. Not only that but the EU only now seems to be coming around to the UK's original position on this issue in that migrants should only be accepted from Syria and in particular the Syrian refugee camps. It seems maybe that the UK was right all along on this
 
Deleted User said:
However before criticising Brexiteers for their focus on the migration issue, you should perhaps understand that the % of immigrants in the UK population is already one of the highest in the EU and, in fact, considerably higher than, say, Italy.
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I take your word for that M, because I haven't checked that sort of statistics for a while.
But as the old saying goes, tell me what you want to prove and I'll make a statistic supporting your point.
I mean, the son of a friend of mine is an IT citizen. He got his Ph.D at Harvard, and he's now working in the City.
I bet he's included in the % of immigrants you mentioned... :)
 
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