re:malta vat on new boats

[irishmark]

re:malta vat on new boats

i read on one of the other forums that if you buy a boat in malta before 1/4 and pay 5% vat, the boat will be declared vat paid when malta join the eu on 1st apr, thus saving 16% in the case of ireland or 12% in the uk case

is this correct??

mark

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[tcm]

I believe it is so, yes.

I don't know if there are any other charges such as (for french-registered boats) french "sailing tax" charged annually.

You may also need to be Maltese, or use a Nominee with the right nationality, which will also cost a bit of money. Though not that much money.



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[alex_g]

We have been looking into this quite a bit... Don't forget that Customs & Excise for any given EU nation do have the right to charge 'top-up' VAT if they feel that not enough has been paid.

The VAT on a yacht should technically be paid in the country of destination. Those paying VAT in the Azores on their way back from the Caribbean when the rate was low were prone to falling fowl of this aspect.

<hr width=100% size=1>can occasionally be found in his office at Berthon International

 

[irishmark]

ahhh but if a counrty givea vat paid cert.....??? you have been looking intoit...are you going to purchase??

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[jfm]

This is mostly correct. I have some formal legal advice from a malta law firm on this. You do not need to be a maltese resident, nor have maltese flag on the boat etc. Moreover, it looks like the maltese will allow you to treat the boat as imported to malta without actually sailing it into their 12mile limit.

But, see, they would say that. They want the money. The real question is whether all/any other EU states will accept pre-accession VAT paid in malta as real VAT. There's no problem with post accession VAT (which of course will be more than 5%) but it's open to the authorities in (say) UK to say this 5% pre-accession VAT isn't real VAT within the meaning of the Treaty of Rome therefore they could demand 17.5% off you as you sail around the solent. I'm not saying they will, not that they would be legally correct, this is just a risk and no-one is going to give you a ruling or whatever to de-risk this point. So you will pay the 5% cash for sure, and you probably have a VAT-paid boat, but you might not.

The maltese are working hard to create better certainty, but there's little time left

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[Gordonmc]

Having been in Malta for the referendum on EU accession I think it would be a brave eurocrat who told Valetta that their VAT wasn't "real".
It was the main plank of the opposition to joining and was almost universally unpopular, but something that had to be accepted. It wouldn't take much for the Maltese to throw the whole lot out.
Member states could try to impose a "top up" VAT but it would have to be tested in the courts. Anyone feeling lucky?

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[john_morris_uk]

We have been looking at buying a boat that is not VAT paid, and have been waiing confirmation about this Maltese VAT payment method. The advice we have had so far is that it may be possible, but the company who will act for us is waiting for confirmation in writing from both the Maltese and British authorities that it is kosher. The last thing we (or anyone else I suspect) would want is to pay up to Malta and then be asked to pay again... Can't imagine getting our money back from the Maltese!

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[pugwash]

VAT rate is wrong ?

Wires seem tro be crossed here. A friend who lives in Malta has read this post and says "If only...." VAT in Malta went up to 18 percent on Jan 1. I have just confirmed this on Google.

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[tcm]

Re: are you sure ?

there could be more than one vat rate, perhaps?

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[pugwash]

Re: are you sure ?

Oops, you're dead right.

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