Foreign registered aircraft in South Africa
 

I recently heard that foreign registered aircraft staying longer than two weeks on South African territory have to be "imported", which sounds to me like the VAT of 14% has to be paid of the aircraft value. Anybody knows more about this?

Are there similar regulations in other African countries?

Affirmative.

You get 7 days stay on a General Declaration. You can then apply for an extension up to 30 days, but beyond that you are expected to pay import VAT at 14% on the value of the aeroplane. Its a nightmare.

You may have noticed that a few years ago airports like Lanseria had loads of foreign registered aeroplanes brought in for maintenance but nowdays there are very few? The change is all thanks to the work of Customs and their combined IQ of 36.

@WhinerLiner
 

Whom do you have to apply to for the extension? Just report to the airport customs authorities, get a stamp from them and that´s it?

I couldn´t find any information on the South African customs homepage. If you have a link, I´d appreciate that.

Cecco

A bureaucrat with an idea is like a monkey with a hand grenade - a disaster looking for somewhere to happen.

Cecco

Once the aircraft is in SA on a General Declation (and within the first seven days) write a letter to Customs at the airport of entry detailing the requirement. They will then issue an extension. Make sure you leave within the period though because then you are on the radar and toast if you overrun.

If the aircraft enters SA and you move it to a non-entry airport the problem is less severe. The system for checking is a rather crude one. The apes drive around the airport regularly and write down foreign registartions. Non-entry airports have no officials and therefore no register is taken.

Somehow their trillion buck computer system appears to not have this functionality built into it.

Lanseria is by far the worst airport for this. Polokwane for eg. has officials that are a lot less unpleasant. I believe the clowns here are paid a commission for issuing penalties so they are exceedingly quick to get completely unreasoble.

Apes:E:D:D

Not allowed to call them "unbelievers" anymore.

yeap....
 

I´m flying a plane registered in another country.. and the maintenace center in Lanseria is performing the annual MPI.. and yes... because the plane spend more that 7 days here.. we need to pay and solve these payments...

Upon arrival in Lanseria, customs said that if the aircraft stayed for more than 14 days it would have to be imported. The owner then had a tantrum and customs let us pass. When we left (17 days later), customs asked me how long the aircraft had been there and I said: 10 days. Off we went with no hassle...(BTW, I was out of the country in between)