Thought I would put this out there and see if anyone had any advise on how to solve this problem.
I'm a German citizen living and working in Hong Kong. I am a Hong Kong resident and pay tax here. I have not lived or worked in Europe in 5 years and I have no intention of doing so in the future.
The problem I have is.... I work on a US registered aircraft that frequents Europe every month and have been informed that due to European VAT law, I can't travel between European countries without the
aircraft being subject to import tax (the VAT of the country that you happen to be in). All of the pax and other crew are non European and therefore not an issue. Below is a brief outline of the rules
European Commission (the ‘Commission’) Regulation (EC) No. 993/2001 states that an aircraft that is not EU registered and is in private use may enter the EU for up to six months without liability for VAT or import duty tax. Another important issue relating to the foregoing requirements pertains to the carriage of EU nationals as passengers and crew members. If such carriage results in a determination that temporary duty free importation of the aircraft into the EU is not permitted, the aircraft would need to be imported and would be subject to normal customs duties including the VAT.
But this is not much use as.... What happens after 6 months? The owners are not going to stop flying to Europe and with me being the only European citizen on board the aircraft, I'll be out of a job!
Anyone else come across this issue?