VAT Certificate

[xstucker]

I am preparing to spend some time in France and the Med. and have been warned about the need to prove payment of VAT for my boat. When I bought her, I was charged VAT, but apart from the invoice, I have no other proof. I have noticed that a number of WEB sites make mention of a VAT certificate, but does anyone have any advice on how I can get one?

Thanks,

Simon

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[Guest]

Post deleted by danfoley

 

[neutronstar]

I have not sailed to France but may do so in future. Holland and the scandanavian countries have never asked for anything and when presenting myself at the immigration and customs offices I was met with indifference in all cases.

However I am now seven years into building my current project and when last abroad the file of reciepts for it was about three inches thick. I now have a bigger (fatter) ring binder and the thing is almost impossible to pick up in one hand.

I hope I can manage to keep a serious look on my face when I have to present it to some Frence officials !

I have a niggling fear that they will take to lot and dissappear with it for weeks to study, (overtime may be needed to inspect so large a set of documents of course).

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[vyv_cox]

If you have the original invoice that shows the VAT registration number and that VAT was paid as part of the total cost, then you have no problems. Problems begin when you have a secondhand boat made by a company that no longer exists and only photocopies of the original invoice. My only thought, as this case applies to me, is to get HMCE to stamp the photocopies that I have, or possibly to issue a confirmatory letter. When the Dover Customs Group was in existence this would have been easy but they are now disbanded.

The RYA in their FAQ section state that VAT status is not an actual requirement within ship's papers but there seem to be several stories of cases where they were demanded.

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[Guest]

what happens when you present the invoice?

does the officer look at it and say "ahaa a vat invoice from that main dealer in uk, thats ok" or does he actually check that the vat registration number is valid etc and then contacts the dealer to check that the invoice number is valid also?
and if, as i suspect, they dont follow it thru, what is to stop any one getting a copy of Quick Books, using a valid vat number of a bona fide dealer and just making out their own vat invoice?
i mean to say, i would never recommend that any one go down that route but am just curious.
stu

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[AndrewB]

Re: what happens when you present the invoice?

Like most smuggling operations, I would guess they mainly rely on tip-offs. But if you show up in Portugal or the west coast of France with a newish US built yacht, that may happen. In Lexios a few years back I saw a British registered yacht detained while they did VAT checks. The Portuguese customs seemed to believe that the yacht hadn't arrived from England as the owner claimed.

I've twice been asked for evidence, though not for some years now. However in both cases as soon as I said the yacht was built before the qualifying date, they took no further interest. The previous owner obtained a letter from Dover Customs Yacht Unit while it was still operational, but in fact there is nothing to link it with our yacht other than the name, which for this reason alone deterred us from making a change.

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