During harbour inspections on Lake Constance, customs officials recently discovered a sailing boat that had been illegally imported into Germany from Switzerland. A 54-year-old German had bought the boat privately in the neighbouring country for around 10,000 euros and then simply sailed home across the lake - without reporting the import to customs.
The officials therefore initiated criminal proceedings against the owner. The charge: suspected tax evasion. The case is now being processed by the main customs office in Ulm.
It is not clear whether the buyer was aware that he would become a smuggler if he imported a boat from Switzerland as a non-EU country to Germany or another EU country. In case of doubt, however, the case shows once again how little is known, even in sailing circles, about customs regulations and, above all, the rules for paying import sales tax.
This is always due when goods - such as a sailing yacht - are purchased in a non-EU country and imported into the EU for the first time. In this case, the buyer can save the VAT abroad. However, when they enter the EU, they must pay the tax in their home country in the amount of the net value of the goods at the VAT rate applicable in their home country.
Incidentally, it does not matter whether the boat is purchased from a dealer or a private individual for the purposes of charging import VAT.
That sounds easy to understand at first. However, numerous exceptions and special regulations can make the matter complicated. Owners or buyers of older yachts in particular are often faced with the problem that there are no longer any original invoices showing the amount of VAT once paid. It may also no longer be entirely clear where the boat was actually built or where it was first registered. Or whether it has since left the EU for a longer period of time.
The lawyer Benyamin H. K. Tanis from the Kiel law firm Tanis von der Mosel, who specialises in recreational craft law, provided detailed answers to many questions about VAT issues in connection with owning a boat on YACHT online just last week. The article can be read here.
