Channel Island boats and VAT

[Piers]

As many of you know, Lin and I relocated from the UK in March 2013 to Guernsey where we re-registered our VAT paid Play d'eau on Guernsey's Part 1 Registry of British Ships.

The last cruise to the UK was to Hamble Point in June 2019 for a couple of weeks. The last time she was in France was August 2018.

Am I reading it correctly (or is it wishful thinking?) that Play d'eau remains UK VAT paid in the UK provided we re-visit by June 2022, and that if Play d'eau is in the EU for the night of 31 Dec 2021 she will also remain EU VAT paid?

 

[Portofino]

Where was she on 31/12/20?
If in U.K. waters then she is free to circulate in U.K. waters .
If you want to go to France then simply use TI for your trips now you are a 3 rd party .Assuming CI based folk are now 3 parties in the EU eyes ?

 

[Solent Sailor]

Interesting question Piers (* now edited with another thought!)

On the assumption that your boat was in Guernsey at 2300 on 31/12/2020, as I see it:

1. Brexit did not change the VAT status of your boat vis a vis the UK. No tax treaties have changed between the UK and Guernsey in this time.
2. You have already exported your boat from the UK to a crown dependency which does not have a VAT treaty with the UK. Your VAT status has already been lost (but can be currently be regained)
3. Guernsey is no longer part of the tax union of the EU since 31/12/2020.
4. Same rules apply to you in respect of the EU whether or not your boat is deemed UK VAT paid or not - it is an irrelevance and the same issues apply to you as they do me (with a UK VAT paid boat that was on the Hamble at that time).

As above, in moving your boat to Guernsey, you lost VAT paid status in the UK because it is considered an export. This is a bit of a technicality really and most people (incl brokers) would still say it is "UK VAT paid" but that's not quite accurate. By returning to the UK, you are returning it to UK VAT paid status by claiming returned goods relief. If you take it back to Guernsey again, you export it again - but restart the clock for RGR purposes.

For RGR to apply, the boat must:

• be imported into the UK within 3 years of its export; and
• be imported by the person who exported it; and
• have undergone no more than running repairs outside the UK that did not increase its value; and
• have been UK ‘domestic goods’ at the time of export.

It is likely you can fulfil all of these I would have thought. I would argue that point 3 is unlikely to be relevant unless you have undertaken a fairly major refit. Adding stabilisers or a bow thruster for instance, may well be considered an improvement, but equally may not increase the value of the boat - it may make it more saleable, but not necessarily worth more.

RGR also applied (and still does) in respect of the EU - so if she had been in the EU at 2300 on 31/12/2020, you would have had the right to claim that she was there under the RGR rules (providing the above checklist can be ticked off - e.g. she had been in the UK as part of the EU within the last 3 years). As she was not, this doesn't apply because she was from 2301 on 31/12/2020 outside of the EU (whether in Guernsey or the UK).

 

[DavidJ]

If Play d'eau is in the EU for the night of 31 Dec 2021 she will also remain EU VAT paid?

I think (and it really is I think) that you have missed the opportunity for EU VAT because to qualify your boat had to be in the EU 31 Dec 2020

I edit
From Solent Sailors very comprehensive reply you may not have had UK VAT status anyway to ”read across” to EU VAT

 

[Piers]

Where was she on 31/12/20?

She was in Guernsey.