Yet another VAT question

[Wandering Star]

I have my eye on a home built boat which is still owned by the builder. There are no VAT receipts or anything much in the way of paperwork apart from the original plans.

What's the position with respect to VAT liability? The boats not expensive and paying VAT if necessary won't be a problem if it's calculated on the price the seller and myself agree, but do I really need to pay VAT at all and who would I pay it to if it is due as the seller is a private individual?

I think this will be a very clean and straightforward enquiry!

 

[GrahamM376]

If privately built and owned, he can't charge VAT and will (presumably) have paid VAT on all the materials used during build so nothing due. Quite how you would explain this to a foreign customs officer, I'm not sure so would suggest a formal notarised bill of sale would be a good idea with a statement about VAT status.

 

[snowleopard]

I went into this thoroughly when I built my present boat. There are two key issues: the VAT paid status and the need for a CE mark.

To establish the VAT paid status I kept receipts for all the major components which is a file 2" thick but in the boat's documentation folder I keep about a dozen of the key ones - plans, mast, sails, engines, glass, resin etc.

Home builders are exempt from CE marking provided they don't sell the boat or transfer ownership within the first 5 years. To cover that I keep the receipt for the first launch. A key factor here is that if you own 32 shares each and one of you dies leaving the shares to the other, that is a transfer and makes the boat liable for CE marking. You must own all the shares jointly.

In the OP's case it is to be hoped the seller can produce at least some receipts.

 

[duncan99210]

If the boat is a few years old then most foreign customs people will have little or no interest in the VAT status. We've been bimbling round the Med for nearly six years now and no one has taken the slightest bit of interest in the carefully preserved invoices and receipts proving the VAT paid status of the boat. On the other hand, some American friends seem to spend a lot of time with customs chaps peering at their paperwork, despite the fact that their boat is VAT paid: perhaps they shouldn't have registered it in Delaware.....