EU vessel used by EU non resident

[ivanas]

Dear all,

I have doubts regarding buying/using boat from Italy, hopefully somebody will be able to help.
I am resident of Serbia (non EU country) and i am planing to buy boat in Italy. I see possibilities to register it in Poland. This way boat registration would be kept in EU, no needed to pay any VAT or similar if i understood well.
My intention is to use it for fishing purposes in Montenegro/Albania/Greece and moving it with trailer through these countries.
Does anybody know if i can as owner from Serbia with boat registered in Poland, move freely through motorway borders (including Serbia, exiting and entering EU countries)?
I am not importing it to Serbia since probably i will sell boat afterwards in EU Country, this way i will avoid double taxing (double taxing as first if importing to Serbia, and afterwards when selling in another country).

Thanks in advance,
Ivan

 

[Baggywrinkle]

If you can get the original sales contract where VAT is paid and shown on the receipt, then you have a boat that is "EU goods" ... this is not dependent on your own residency or nationality so it can stay in the EU indefinitely and be sold on with VAT paid. It does not even have to be registered in an EU country. Mine is EU VAT paid, kept in Croatia, but registered in the U.K. .... You could register the boat in Serbia with no consequences as long as you can prove EU VAT paid and the boat has never been exported from the EU.

If you remove your boat from the EU, and take it home, then you need to check what the Serbian authorities will do as the boat is not VAT paid in Serbia, where you are resident - and normally residents need to have paid VAT and gone through the import procedure in their country of residence for any goods they bring into the country. The EU VAT paid status is of no interest to the Serbian authorities, but if the boat leaves the EU then it may lose it's EU VAT status if it gets modified, stays out too long, or changes hands outside the EU.

Montenegro/Albania are obviously not EU, but you should have no problem taking the boat there as they will have a temporary admission system where you will not need to pay anything to bring the boat in, but it will most likely be limited to an 18 month stay - not usually a problem for boats on trailers. The same is true for EU countries, you can take a non-VAT paid boat into the EU for 18 months at a time on Temporary Admission if you are not an EU resident. The is possible as you are not an Albanian, Montenegro, or EU resident.

Your biggest problem will most likely be taking the boat back to Serbia as you are a Serbian resident and you are importing a boat.

 

[Seven Spades]

And Greece, they don't seem to accept that any NON-EU flagged vessel is EU VAT Paid. They seem to be confused by flags.