VAT

[Blue5]

What can you do if you cannot find the original VAT invoice for a boat. I know the VAT has been paid and we had the invoice but a house move has happened and it has disappeared. The original boatbuilder has long gone, any ideas?

 

[AngusMcDoon]

What can you do if you cannot find the original VAT invoice for a boat. I know the VAT has been paid and we had the invoice but a house move has happened and it has disappeared. The original boatbuilder has long gone, any ideas?

Type out a receipt to some imaginary person on a battered old typewriter for berthing fees for some night somewhere 30 years ago. Then let the cat wee on it, put it under a sun lamp for a year, sandpaper it a bit, fold and unfold it a few hundred times, pull a few corners off - and hey presto, a 30 year old receipt that proves that the boat was in the EU 30 years ago.

 

[jason -and the arguenauts]

or indeed do the same to generate an invoice.

after all, you're not fiddling the tax but simply satisfying some froggie gendarme who only has to see a bit of paper to be happy.

 

[photodog]

If the OP tells us who he bought the boat from..... someone else on here may have a VAT invoice from these people as well.... in which case they could tipex out there details.... scan it... email the now blank invoice... which could then have the new details entered... re-scanned... re-printed... suitably aged for effect.

You have paid the vat... as previously pointed out... but you could do with the original companies VAT number for authenticity.

All the above is mearly for information sake... in reality of course I would not encourage this sort of thing....

PS... this sort of thing is best done by PM....

 

[dukes4monny]

PS... this sort of thing is best done by PM....

So Gordon Brown can forge a VAT invoice too........makes a change from fiddling his expenses I suppose........

 

[Tranona]

What can you do if you cannot find the original VAT invoice for a boat. I know the VAT has been paid and we had the invoice but a house move has happened and it has disappeared. The original boatbuilder has long gone, any ideas?

Just carry on living your life as normal in the secure knowledge that you have not committed any offence and highly unlikely anybody will ever ask you to produce an irrelevant piece of paper. And just in case you are still worried think of all the thousands of people who are in exactly the same position as you and sleep soundly at night.

 

[Pete7]

PS... this sort of thing is best done by your MP ...

On a more serious note has anyone been stopped and asked for a VAT receipt for an old boat abroad?

Pete

 

[Blue5]

Just carry on living your life as normal in the secure knowledge that you have not committed any offence and highly unlikely anybody will ever ask you to produce an irrelevant piece of paper. And just in case you are still worried think of all the thousands of people who are in exactly the same position as you and sleep soundly at night.

Well I could not sleep soundly as I am selling the boat and needed that piece of paper, but panic over, following demolition of the house last night it has been located.

A pm told me nothing could be done apart from paying the VAT again, hence the panic, I suppose in a perfect world the VAT status could be shown/recorded on an official registration document.

Anyway thanks for all the suggestions, they seem a lot funnier this morning than last night!!

 

[Tranona]

Well I could not sleep soundly as I am selling the boat and needed that piece of paper, but panic over, following demolition of the house last night it has been located.

A pm told me nothing could be done apart from paying the VAT again, hence the panic, I suppose in a perfect world the VAT status could be shown/recorded on an official registration document.

Anyway thanks for all the suggestions, they seem a lot funnier this morning than last night!!

I do not know who told you that you had to pay VAT again, because that is just nonsense. There is no mechanism for "paying VAT again". Unless the boat is being inported from outside the EU or the boat is owned by a VAT registered trader such as a charter company which has reclaimed VAT as an input tax. When it sells the boat to a private individual it has to charge VAT on the agreed sales price.

If you are selling as a private EU resident to another private person, no VAT is due. In the jargon it is not a "chargeable event".

I can appreciate your concern about not having the piece of paper and the buyer wanting it, but nether need it. It is only a clumsy statement from HMRC to the effect that the original should be available, when in fact there is no legal requirement, that conveys the impression it is important.

(Without wishing to start another long thread on the subject there are circumstances where it may be necessary to show documentation to demonstrate that there has been no VAT fraud, but this does not normally involve private persons).

 

[Tranona]

Sorry NDH, I should have qualified my post a bit further. If you had imported the boat from outside the EU and had been responsible for paying the VAT direct to HMRC then I would want to see the original VAT receipt. This is because this sort of event is one of the rare situations where VAT issues might involve subsequent owners.

Remember VAT is not a "Boat Tax" but a tax on the transaction, so you need to look at the transaction to determine where it stands in relation to VAT.

 

[Tranona]

On a more serious note has anyone been stopped and asked for a VAT receipt for an old boat abroad?

Pete

This has come up many times and the general consensus is no. The authorities are not in the least bit interested unless they suspect that there has been an offence committed. Even then with your evidence that it is a UK owned boat they would not do anything because any VAT issues are a matter for UK HMRC.

This does not of course mean that you will never be asked because individual officials may try it on, but they have better things to do than persecute yotties! Just make sure you have your registration, Bill of Sale, Insurance and passports. Radio licence and ICC are also useful, but not essential.

 

[25931]

Has anyone been asked for vat receipt ?

Perhaps this is the wrong forum for that question.
I suspect that a large fuel gobbler might attract the attention of the busybodies.
Jim