It’s not preventable, but doing so, was at least in the past prosecutable. We all know this story and I’m sure that this could also happen in France, Italy or Austria, when not complying with customs regulations. I highly doubt that all customs offices have acknowledged these new EU-rules, so one might still end up in (unjustified) trouble.
It’s not preventable, but doing so, was at least in the past prosecutable. We all know this story and I’m sure that this could also happen in France, Italy or Austria, when not complying with customs regulations
But he had an “aircraft and it’s VAT” to declare no? if the aircraft was owned by him and in free circulation in Germany with no goods imported, he would have gone off the hook easily with customs, same for immigration, if he is a German citizen, police will not be interested to see him nor his passport…he is not violating any EU/German customs & immigration regulations if both the aircraft & him were in free circulation & free mouvement?
No, in the past, it was always a violation if you did not land on an airfield with customs (coming from a non-EU country). Even if the aircraft and person was in free circulation. It was a violation, because according to customs, you prevent their possibility to check you if they would. Because of this, every flight to a non-customs airport needed a special permit, approved by customs. In Germany, this was called a “Einzelbefreieung”.
This however should now be changed by the new EU-law. But again, I highly doubt that all customs offices have acknowledged these new rules and might want to prosecute you for landing on a non-customs airfield. Yes, such a prosecution is unlawful, but nobody is going to enjoy a trip to court due to unnotified customs offices, hence, we have to wait until all EU countries have adopted this EU-regulation into their local laws or we get ourselves a pre-approval from a local customs office.
Frans wrote:
It was a violation, because according to customs, you prevent their possibility to check you if they would
Ok course it’s a violation but it’s like landing at CDG and using “green nothing to declare exit” with something worth checking?
The reason I find it hard to believe that this will really happen is this:
There are Customs “flying squads” for catching smugglers etc but this proposition is to make them fly all over the place, across hundreds of airports potentially used by UK Swiss and even Norwegian pilots, plus Russians etc. This is in a country in which they have set up a really cosy small number of permanent bases which are guarded with a nuclear-like policy (as per that Swiss pilot who got busted). Does anybody really think this is going to suddenly change? And look at France, where the police withdrew from 100+ airports some 10 years ago because they didn’t want to bother with covering them – reportedly because Brussels set a requirement for a certain minimum coverage % and they could not achieve it with their staffing levels. This proposal would be a revolution – a grenade dropped into a nice warm cosy setup.
And what for? To benefit who? Definitely not to facilitate travel to/from the UK 
In terms of traffic this leaves basically Switzerland, plus airports frequented by Russians and such like. The result would be a complex matrix of immigration (in Germany and Italy on a PN system, but only some, which almost nobody knows about) and customs.
To complicate matters (or to introduce a big concession for Brits, Russians, etc) one can get immigration at a non-immigration German airport which has the generic immigration-PN concession.
So for Germany (and Italy has a similar immigration thing) this opens up the whole country to Brits, Russians, etc. France, not really because they removed immigration from many airports, and have it on a long PN at many others.
And that is after Germany removed customs from many airports, years ago. Now this is going backwards 
With 24 official customs airports, Germany could manage with well under 100 officials and that assumes H24 which most aren’t anyway. And these officials can just sit in their nice warm offices and don’t have to go out. Now, how many airports are in Germany? Our database reckons 441 and there will be more. So now these people have to cover 441 instead of 24 and they have to travel to 417 of them. And the beneficiary is principally Switzerland, plus – for those who know the immigration-PN system – the UK.
I also don’t understand how this fits into the EU philosophy, which is surely to create a self-contained bloc which is not easy to get into from outside, without “proper checks”. Currently, “proper checks” are being used at customs offices to chuck UK packages on a pile for a week. So I don’t get this at all. Can anyone guess what bit of ideology is driving it?
Peter wrote:
also don’t understand how this fits into the EU philosophy, which is surely to create a self-contained bloc which is not easy to get into from outside, without “proper checks”
To me it fits pretty well in “EU philosophy”, the change in EU Union Customs Code now default any aircraft & goods that are not “EU goods” to be labelled as “Temporary Admission” by the simple act of crossing “the big EU border” (irrespective of where you land and the national authority you deal with), “EU goods” can come in/out as they wish: the EU CU now has hands on EU border and where you land is pretty irrelevant, the criteria for using Temporary Admission and any of it’s limitations (say EU pob in non EU VAT paid aircraft) will still remain the same
Specifically, for TA on non-EU goods, the frontier of customs union have been pushed away further from airport surfaces to the big border, before you need to get TA from airport you land on…obviously this is very new and when you land, you will deal with national authorities who may have a different opinion on this, just like EU SERA and AIP law debates
At the end of the day it’s just technical definition when TA label starts & ends, not much real use for pilots we are still required to land in PoE airports but no one will get caught paying 25k VAT like that Swiss pilot did in Germany, local customs need to find another excuse or fine for other reasons than “import label”
Previously, it was accepted that flight plan and land in PoE airport give TA with no need to file a customs declaration…
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/GA/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32020R0877
https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/system/files/2016-09/means_transports_final_2014_en.pdf
(20) Article 141 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 should also be amended to clarify that means of transport benefitting from total relief from import duty can be declared for temporary admission by the sole act of the goods crossing the frontier of the customs territory of the Union in any of the situations listed in point d) of paragraph 1 of that Article. The same applies for means of transport that are to be released for free circulation as returned goods according to Article 203 of the Code. Such clarification is needed for the sake of legal certainty.
Article 141(1d) UCC-DA ‘Acts deemed to be a customs declaration or a re-export declaration’ has simply added an extra paragraph (iv):
(d) the sole act of the goods crossing the frontier of the customs territory of the Union in any of the following situations:
(iv) where means of transport as referred to in Article 212 are deemed to be declared for temporary admission in accordance with Article 139(1) of this Regulation;
And what for? To benefit who?
The citizens of the EU. In this particular case those happen to be private pilots.
You mean EU private pilots returning to their home (in the EU) from a non EU country, now have a much bigger choice of airports?
But, unless coming from Switzerland or Norway, they still face the Immigration issue. And that one is much easier than Customs because it just needs a police officer to do a passport check. Well we all know a single officer can – and does, in many places – do both, but that impinges on job demarcation politics.
Snoopy wrote:
The citizens of the EU
Be careful what you wish say flying N-reg aircraft (not yet imported) as EU citizen and landing outside PoE airports I know this was clarified as ok in the past and now it’s ok with simple crossing but there is always a presumption of import if you are EU resident (different from EU citizen) when bringing non-EU goods…
An aircraft can come under TA:
- EU resident passengers allowed
- EU resident pilots only if pilots are directly employed by the declarant.
- Non-EU resident passengers and pilots: no restrictions
This was just a working paper, it’s not the law though
https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/system/files/2016-09/means_transports_final_2014_en.pdf
https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/system/files/2016-09/means_transports_final_2014_fr.pdf
Customs laws are easy to understand if you are “local & nothing was imported” or “visitor & everything is temporarily admitted and will be re-exported”, the two should benefits from the concession as long as they have immigration sorted…
Is a CH based aircraft with customs paid in CH but not paid in EU “in free circulation”?
Or does this rule only apply to EU customs paid aircraft?
