An item can be owned by a VAT registered individual or a corporate body, which reclaimed input VAT when they bought it, and being currently VAT registered thus has to charge VAT when they sell it (only within the EU VAT region).
greg_mp wrote:
My case is: the plane is German registered, owning by a german resident, how can it be D-reg without a Vat paid status? Unless it has been actually really owned by a company that is producing Vat.
The term “VAT paid” is not precise enought.
You have to look at the customs status first. Was it imported properly into the Germany / the EU and is it in free circulation? Usually this means somebody had to pay VAT but it could have been imported through Denmark etc. So you want a plane in free circulation with appropriate paperwork to be ok with customs checks. But German LBA will not register D-reg if it is not in free circulation as far as I know.
Then the next aspect is how it is sold. The current seller can be a private person or a company without VAT paperwork. In that case there will be just one price including “hidden/inherited VAT”. Or the seller could be VAT registered (person or company) . Then the plane is usually offered VAT free for buyers outside the EU or companies outside Germany or including VAT for companies in Germany or private persons in the EU but with the VAT declared on the invoice.
Most probably the last case applies to this offer. Even if people advertise under their name if you did deeper and ask who the legal seller actually is it will be some company…
It is a real shame panecheck and similar can not get this organized. There are just a few cases and it would be so good to make sellers click the appropriate box. But currently you have to inquire about every offer by email and dig deep.
Ok Sebastian_G, thx!
Sebastian_G wrote:
But German LBA will not register D-reg if it is not in free circulation as far as I know.
Yes, but:
The fact that a plane is D-reg is an indicator, but not a proof that the plane is in free circulation (“VAT paid”). LBA is not a tax authority. There might have been an exception in the past that is no longer valid or something else.
The only way to be sure that there will not be a VAT issue in the future ist to get a receipt that shows that at some point in the history the (Import-)VAT has actually been paid. Either an import-VAT receipt from tax authorities or a vendor receipt when the buyer bought it from a VAT-registered vendor and had to pay VAT there.
There are some seller who want to convince (inexperienced) buyers that it is completely normal that they have paid ten thousands of $$$ VAT in the past but did not think it’s worth keeping the receipt. It’s not.
For Greg it is even simpler: If the seller pretends that “VAT is paid” it is up to the seller to prove that. Just the registration is not a proof. If the seller can’t prove it, Greg has to consider the price as if VAT has not been paid.
Are there NAA in EASA that do not require a proof of VAT paid when registered by individuals?
Say buying an F-reg Robin made in Dijon from an individual, any reason why that would not have “EU VAT paid”?
While registration & manufacturer are only indicators not proofs, I will be curious what exceptions are out there?
The UK never did, and probably only some do.
It is more complicated with EU-made planes, which start life VAT-paid unless
This and following posts are highly relevant to this topic.
It is no longer meaningful for a ramp check in mainland Europe to be checking the VAT status of an aircraft based in the UK – provided it doesn’t stay in the EU for long enough to be caught up as a permanent import.
From here?
Airborne_Again wrote:
Different customs authorities clearly put very different weight on this. I have never heard this issue being discussed in Sweden. Certainly none of our club aircraft have proof of free circulation among their aircraft documents and no one have ever asked for it abroad. Possibly we have it on file somewhere…
Aren’t your ‘club’ exempt from VAT paid? it’s even more interesting when ‘club’ has N-reg in their fleet 
I asked in my old club if they have some documents for one N-reg that I was flying it to UK in March, the answer was NO
Turns out that aircraft never had VAT paid since it was purchase by ‘club for members’ rather than private individual
This is also the case for the F-reg they own but no one would ask such silly question as traditionally, people (tax authorities & pilots) tend to think this is only an issue with ‘foreign aircraft registration’ or ‘rare private foreign aircraft’
AFAIK, it applies to everything that flies !
The probability of an inspection (VAT or other) depends strongly on the provocation probability.
When the US goes to war somewhere, you can expect loads of ramp checks on N-regs, particularly in certain European countries where a dislike of the US is an essential intellectual proclamation
It’s like brexit-hate, except that now (see here) British pilots are safe from a VAT hit on the mainland.
It’s a tax, the only key drivers is how much value you have and how much commission they get, nothing to do with geopolitics 
