Buying a yacht in Greece confused re registration and Vat status

[Timadmad]

Please can someone help me understand the latest advice for buying a yacht privately in Greece?
The boat I'm looking at is an oyster, it is 36 years old, German owned and registered, its been in Greece since at least 2017 and is (as far as the current owner knows) Vat paid in the EU.
Can I re register it in the uk or will that mean i will need to take it out of the EU every 18 months? i don't want to have to do this.
what proof of VAT paid do i need from the current owner?
thanks in advance - sorry if this has been covered before but it seems confusing!

 

[Tranona]

Registration is nothing to do with VAT status so there is no problem in theory about registering it in the UK. If you are resident in the UK you can use the part 3 SSR, if not it has to be Part 1. The boat from what you say has been in the EU long enough to have EU status. As to the evidence you require, you are unlikely to find an original VAT invoice from1989 as that predates the introduction of EU VAT. However the key date is 31/12/2020 which is Brexit date and boats in the EU on that date are assumed EU VAT paid. The usual evidence is a marina or storage invoice covering the date. The 18 months applies only to non EU VAT paid boats, which this clearly is not.

The key thing in Greece is to get a transit log and presumably the current owner has this so no reason why you cannot continue with it. The slight reservation is that Greece has been very slow in recognising that flag state is independent of VAT status and some UK owners, mainly of old boats they have taken there before 2020 have had some difficulties with the concept of a non EU flagged boat having EU VAT status.

Be aware that while you can take the boat in and out of the EU without much restriction, you won't be able to bring it to the UK without paying VAT.

Hope this helps

 

[Timadmad]

Thank you that’s the clearest explanation I have heard.

 

[Tranona]

You may find this helpful written from a German perspective Buying a boat: The myth of VAT

 

[Timadmad]

thank you

 

[Timadmad]

Registration is nothing to do with VAT status so there is no problem in theory about registering it in the UK. If you are resident in the UK you can use the part 3 SSR, if not it has to be Part 1. The boat from what you say has been in the EU long enough to have EU status. As to the evidence you require, you are unlikely to find an original VAT invoice from1989 as that predates the introduction of EU VAT. However the key date is 31/12/2020 which is Brexit date and boats in the EU on that date are assumed EU VAT paid. The usual evidence is a marina or storage invoice covering the date. The 18 months applies only to non EU VAT paid boats, which this clearly is not.

The key thing in Greece is to get a transit log and presumably the current owner has this so no reason why you cannot continue with it. The slight reservation is that Greece has been very slow in recognising that flag state is independent of VAT status and some UK owners, mainly of old boats they have taken there before 2020 have had some difficulties with the concept of a non EU flagged boat having EU VAT status.

Be aware that while you can take the boat in and out of the EU without much restriction, you won't be able to bring it to the UK without paying VAT.

Hope this helps

This helps a lot, thank you