Valuation of boat for calculation of VAT

[sdenney]

I am a UK citizen and bought and launched a new boat outside the EU and so haven't paid VAT yet. When I bring it in to the EU, I realise that I will have to pay sales tax which I assume will be to the country in the EU which I enter. How will they value my boat? Is there a depreciation rule for the age of the boat and if so, is it a standard EU rule or is it specific to each country. I thinking of entering either Italy or Greece this year and my boat is 1 year old so I am trying to calculate whether it will be worth staying outside the EU for a few more years. For instance, if boat new is 100,000, maybe there is a 10% devaluation applied per year and so the sales tax will be calculated on 90,000 after 1 year?

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[ubuysa]

You can find the UK position <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.hmce.gov.uk/forms/notices/ukyachts.htm> here</A>. According to the RYA booklet "Buying a Secondhand Yacht - The Legal Aspects" the UK authorities will not discuss valuation until the vessel is in the UK - by which time it's too late. Other EU states are apparently more flexible and may be prepared to discuss valuation before the yacht enters their waters. So you might want to try contacting the VAT authorities in other EU countries and see if they can give you a valuation?

Tony C.

<hr width=100% size=1>There are 10 kinds of people, those who understand binary and those who don't.

 

[charles_reed]

Deciding where to pay VAT

may be equally important.

For example France is 19.6%, UK 17.5% and Spain 16%. You'd need to check on the countries which you're proposing to enter - for me Greece would be very suspect in view of their long and dogged attempts to fleece boat-owners, despite Community rulings that they're breaking the rules.

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[JPGruntfuttock]

I am not sure if you have missed the deadline for paying VAT in Malta, there is a special limited time scheme, actually aimed to allow Maltese flying a VAT flag of convenience to legitimise as they join the EU on 1st May, allegedly. The rate was I think 5% but stand to be corrected on that.




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[smee]

Spain may be a good place to enter the Eu for VAT/IVA purposes as to start with they have VATat 16% but also tend to be more lenient on the value of what is VATable. They seem to have a deemed value which is a lot lower than the actual value of the "property" in question.
Certainly this is a regular feature on house sales in Spain, but it seems to run to the same theory on boats and probably cars as well.
I have paperwork for my boat where the deemed value is less than 50% of the real value, and this value was deemed by customs not a crook! And while you may not have a deemed value quite so low as that it is certainly likely to be far better than any value the UK or other would put on it! I think there is a guide that yacht brokers hold called The Bulletin, where VAT valuations of makes and models appear! Some yachts however aren't in it - Westerly's apparently don't feature too prominantly! But a comparison can be made by looking up a similar make to that of your own!
THe only possible reason I can think of that may make it less favourable is if they are stricter on newer boats which I suppose could be a possiblilty.

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