This is an interesting topic.
@gallois I have learnt that the best thing to do with any police force anywhere is to be VERY polite but not to volunteer anything other than to hand over the documents they ask for. Most people including the police have a very poor understanding of what “residence” means and even less understand tax and residency – As someone that has worked in multiple countries, my personal rule is to always make sure you file a tax return somewhere every year… I have friends with multiple country addresses and vehicles that travel between those places freely and similarly work in multiple countries, I would suggest that the only thing you need to ensure is that your documentation is up to date.
So the question is what do you do if you dont really live anywhere…
Regards, SD..
The address is field 8 on an EU drivers licence. Is optional and not all counties use it.
Peter wrote:
Does the passport of the car driver, or the pilot, make any difference?
No. It is your residence which does. Mind that both in Germany and Switzerland, address registration is compulsory and I imagine in some other countries as well.
We have some brit neighbours who are in Switzerland now since 3 months or so as residents. They still have their UK car. They were told, they may keep it on temporary import and may drive it for a total of 12 months before they either have to either take it out of the country again or get it taxed and converted to Swiss license plates, which is impossible for that car (it would not pass inspections the way it is). So they will drive it back to the UK and sell it there before the time runs out.
However, the other day they had a tech problem and had to get it towed to a garage, where it got fixed. The friendly worker (Swiss resident) then drove it back to them. Had he been confronted by police, HE would have been immediately charged the full VAT of the new price of that car plus a hefty fine. He went a whiter shade of pale when I told him.
So apart from a rental car as a Swiss resident, NEVER EVER touch a foreign registered car on Swiss soil unless you KNOW with paper in hand that it has been properly imported. The same goes for airplanes, boats and whatever.
I have no clue what post Brexit rules on that will be, but I imagine in Britain it will be so that as a UK resident, you can not drive a non-uk registered car, airplane or what not unless it has been properly imported there as well. Vice versa, as a EU resident, the same will apply to a G-Reg plane or any other non EU reg.Same goes for cars.
I have no clue what post Brexit rules on that will be, but I imagine in Britain it will be so that as a UK resident, you can not drive a non-uk registered car, airplane or what not unless it has been properly imported there as well. Vice versa, as a EU resident, the same will apply to a G-Reg plane or any other non EU reg.Same goes for cars.
So, a US pilot flying an N-reg bizjet to Switzerland is going to get busted for import VAT?
There is something HUUUUUUGE in all this which is missing.
So how do they know where your residency is?
There is no such information on either of my ID cards which I have from 2 EU countries, and just because you have an ID card / passport it doesn’t mean you’re a resident in that country.
Peter wrote:
So, a US pilot flying an N-reg bizjet to Switzerland is going to get busted for import VAT?
If he is a Swiss resident he is in danger theoretically. If not, then it is simply the thing we all are doing without any VAT problems.
No N-regs in Switzerland?
No N-regs in Germany?
No; this cannot be right. Too many one-liners (or two-liners) being posted.
What you can’t do is import a plane long-term (into a country with VAT) without paying import VAT on it. One long thread. So, how is “long term” defined?
The residence of the aircraft owner is probably related, at least in as much as if the plane is sitting somewhere for a year then the owner is probably living there as well. But it is instantly obvious that this is not necessarily the case, especially for a corporate one.
Short term import (known as “flying a plane somewhere, landing it, and checking into a hotel, and doing some local mucking about” 
) is protected by ICAO. If this is wrong, can someone post exactly how/when it isn’t.
Only very few countries ban long term N-reg parking. Switzerland is not one of these. So, surely, a Swiss resident who imported an N-reg and paid the VAT on it (or a previous owner paid the Swiss VAT on it) and has proof of this VAT having been paid, as discussed in many threads he can keep it in Switzerland.
The car angle is different. No country allows overt long term use of a foreign reg car – because you avoid speeding tickets, car taxes, etc…
@Peter, the whole mindset of ICAO is that a person from country X with a license from country X flies an X-registered plane into country Y. That’s why article 32 says:
b) Each contracting State reserves the right to refuse to recognize, for the purpose of flight above its own territory, certificates of competency and licenses granted to any of its nationals by another contracting State.
Yes; each ICAO contracting state retains absolute soveregnity within its airspace. However, this is not normally invoked, in civilised countries, otherwise aviation could not exist.
I am just trying to get my head around how a resident of say Switzerland could not operate an N-reg in Switzerland if the import VAT has been paid on it.
Assume the owner/pilot has FAA papers, so complying with the usual rule.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out for that Car/Airplane in the other thread.
Are you importing the car? Are you importing the airplane? By road? By air?
