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Aircraft VAT / import VAT / getting busted upon landing in the EU (merged thread)

Ibra wrote:

Aren’t your ‘club’ exempt from VAT paid?

We’re not. It very unusual that an organisation would be VAT exempt — I don’t know if that ever happens. (Another thing is that a business can be reimbursed for VAT paid, but a nonprofit activity can’t.)

it’s even more interesting when ‘club’ has N-reg in their fleet

Fortunately we don’t…

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

Airborne_Again wrote:

Anyway, there must be a limitation period for tax debts just like any other debt.

There is in many countries – but only on the tax debt. Even if this debt is forfeit, the aircraft is still not in free circulation.

This is not a big thing for aircraft that never leave the common tax area – but as soon as they do and are being “re-”imported (“re” as they have never been legally imported) a new tax duty will come to life with a new limitation period.

Germany

Peter wrote:

British pilots are safe from a VAT hit on the mainland.

If you have an N reg how do you prove it is resident for tax purposes in the UK (excluding Northern Ireland which is still part of the EU for protocol purposes!)

Do you show your HMRC VAT paid certificate?

Oxford (EGTK), United Kingdom

RobertL18C wrote:

If you have an N reg how do you prove it is resident for tax purposes in the UK

HRMC never asks for anything, there is no need to prove anything, it’s based on ‘pilot declaration’:
- If you are based, as long as you tick ‘free VAT’ in your GAR form, it’s all sorted
- If you did import, as long as you land in designated airport and ask to pay, it’s all sorted

This is unlike many other customs authorities that don’t have similar ‘pragmatic approaches’ that are based on ‘pilot declarations’

PS: you will need proof VAT paid when selling an aircraft in UK (obviously)

Last Edited by Ibra at 05 May 10:19
Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

HRMC never asks for anything

That’s definitely not the case.

Few if any VAT ramp checks in the UK, but HMRC will very likely check this in the course of a VAT or income tax inspection visit. I know a guy who got busted because his plane came from Jersey, he didn’t declare it for VAT, and was claiming lots of business mileage on it (which may have been the trigger for the enquiry). They hit him quite hard; he had to obtain movement logs from airports to support his journey logs. He posted this openly, though not on EuroGA.

If you are based, as long as you tick ‘free VAT’ in your GAR form, it’s all sorted

That box has zero value, but if you don’t tick it, it could trigger an inspection.

If you did import, as long as you land in designated airport and ask to pay, it’s all sorted

No.

you will need proof VAT paid when selling an aircraft in UK (obviously)

Only if the buyer is smart enough to ask for one.

If you have an N reg how do you prove it is resident for tax purposes in the UK (excluding Northern Ireland which is still part of the EU for protocol purposes!)

You don’t have to prove anything. Unless you stay on the mainland long enough to become a permanent import, you rank the same as say a visiting US pilot.

Regarding proving your base country, I would guess a journey log (a legal requirement now) together with FR24 To be honest, unless the inspecting officer is stupid (some may well be!) it takes a 1 minute on google on the tail number to get a damn good idea where some plane lives… I get asked for an opinion on lots of planes and a google is the first thing I do, and it is blindingly obvious what the plane is doing (or whether it is a hangar queen).

No idea about the NI angle.

I guess, in theory, if there was some criminal action or lien against the aircraft, and you land on the mainland, they could grab it, but that applies to any aircraft which you have bought recently. You can never know what landing fees etc were left unpaid. This residual risk cannot be avoided.

Do you show your HMRC VAT paid certificate?

You still need one for the UK; the “EU VAT paid” one will do for that purpose. But as I say you don’t have to show it anymore, post-brexit, because all the time you are just a temporary import, you don’t (actually or potentially) owe VAT on the mainland. The fact that the UK has “VAT” also has no relation to EU VAT.

Off topic posts moved to general aircraft VAT thread, out of the German/Italian VAT specific one.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Few if any VAT ramp checks in the UK, but HMRC will very likely check this in the course of a VAT or income tax inspection visit. I know a guy who got busted because his plane came from Jersey, he didn’t declare it for VAT

Sorry, that is not what I call ‘based aircraft’, it’s called ‘imported aircraft’ and it attracts VAT, again it’s based on ‘pilot declaration’ (after he bought the aircraft in Jersey, he should have flown it to designated airport and asked HMRC to pay? I listed two cases)

As you probably know some people with ‘based aircraft’ have openly asked HRMC for C88 as they don’t have it, and they were told they don’t need anything…

Last Edited by Ibra at 05 May 10:47
Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

The guy bought the plane some years before the bust.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I wonder how these “VAT inspections” deal with vintage aircraft? Mine has only been registered in the UK vat sphere (which includes the Isle of Man, through a common purse agreement), but VAT in the UK didn’t exist until the aircraft was already 28 years old. Looking at the registration history, it’s very unlikely anyone who owned or sold the plane since 1973 has been VAT registered, it looks like private sales all along.

I have to imagine many “common” types also fall into this category (e.g. all those Cherokees and Cessnas registered in, say, the 1960s which have remained in Britain since then).

Last Edited by alioth at 05 May 14:27
Andreas IOM

alioth wrote:

I wonder how these “VAT inspections” deal with vintage aircraft?

It may be the case there is a ‘classic car’ exemption.

Oxford (EGTK), United Kingdom

There was an amnesty in the 1980s, but last time I looked for details it was hard to find. Some links around here. However, stuff more than say 10 years old is simply not on the internet.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
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