VAT reality

[John4sythe]

I am wanting to but my first yacht and am aware that evidence of VAT is necessary. I am a member of the RYA and i have sent them copies of the VAT evidence of yachts that i viewed only to be told that it is insufficient because it does not have a value of VAT paid on it. Now a broker is telling me that in the real world most older yachts dont have the evidence and you can sail back and forth between europe and UK without a problem. I know anyone giving legal advice will give it by the book, but is it different in reality, can i sail around without ideal VAT evidence and later sell my boat again without major problems? Or is this broker not to be trusted?

 

[GrahamM376]

The broker is correct, there are thousands of boat owners who have no proof of VAT paid. Whether this leads to problems is often dictated by age of boat, if new and suspected of being exported VAT free, then a foreign official "may" request proof but it's unusual. We've never been asked for VAT proof in 20 years in & out of various countries. OTOH, there are plenty of OCR & DTP programs around so you shouldn't have a problem producing any documents.