Is VAT payable in the UK on a boat imported from another EU Country

[jfm]

In my situation I carried the T2L, builders cert, SSR and receipt along with my marina invoice for Portugal berth. Lagoon and Ancasta were happy to stay ex of VAT on the understanding that I supplied them with proof of arrival in Portugal.

My shipment was obviously by sea -

A friend of mine bought a boat from the same dealer, same yard and paid uk VAT at POS, on arrival in Portugal he was duly visited by customs, (the marina send berthing receipts to the customs office for non domestic boats), and he was handed an IVA bill.
As JFM says, it was completely independent of the U.K. payment and it was a case of ‘pay now, how you claim the money back is of no concern to us’

Luckily Ancasta are a grown up company and paid the VAT back immediately and took the admin chores on themselves in terms of the VAT adjustment in their next quarter.

Yup, makes sense. The Portuguese tax officials sound like they were right in collecting their VAT. Good going on Ancasta's part to rectify the UK end so the guy only paid one lot of VAT (albeit the highest of the rates on the menu).

T2L (aka SAD, and c88 in UK) is reputedly useful in Portugal. AFAIK you only get one if you have your boat shipped, as you did. I have one too, because I shipped my boat UK-France (having paid UK VAT on it, and it ceasing to be a NMT while still in UK waters, which is easily done if you take ownership/possession early in the commissioning process). But unfortunately boat owners can't just get one on demand - the boat has to be shipped internationally. Ho hum!

 

[Tranona]

But unfortunately boat owners can't just get one on demand - the boat has to be shipped internationally. Ho hum!

Think you will find the RYA have an agreed process with HMRC to provide T2L to individual boats. Particularly useful for boats in Croatia which also demands it.

There is a link to the information on the Croatia page in the Boating Abroad section.