Flying to France from UK. How do I Prove VAT paid?

[Phororhacos]

Forgive me if this has been asked before but I can't find an answer on the site.

In 2009 I bought an elderly american aeroplane, imported into the UK, and put on the G register in 1961, many years before 1973, which as far as I can recall, was when VAT first came in. I bought it privately, and there was no VAT on my purchase.

I now want to go to France. What do I tick on the GAR from to the question "Has UK VAT been paid?" If I tick yes, how do I prove it? If I tick no, will my pride and joy be impounded?

I'd be grateful for any advice. Thanks.

[IO540]

This is a very old problem, with no solution I know of other than tracing old documents.

UK Customs no longer issue Certificates of Free Circulation - the stoppage being apparently in breach of EU law but they don't seem bothered.

Before Dec 2009 you could possibly have shifted your plane via Denmark and obtained the CoFC that way.

This chap (http://www.forestaviation.co.uk/) might help. A number of people have used him successfully; myself included.

The probability of getting hit by the French is quite small, and quite obviously varies a lot according to the airport you go to.

[VOD80]

I had a chat with the French customs officers at the Paris boat show this year - in connection with boats but the message sounds applicable to this case... - if you have owned the plane since 1973and it is "G" registered, privately owned, there should be no problem.

Their interest is in more "obvious" cases - I guess for aircraft it would be new stuff or "non-EU" registers (for boats, it was "creeping importation from the Channel Islands)

YMMV, of course! ;)

[IO540]

Not sure if I failed to read the OP properly or if it was edited, but if it is G-reg then the French have no right to examine its VAT paid status.

An EU country has the right to turn over a plane for VAT status checking only if its registry is its own, or non-EU.

So the French can hit a plane which is French, or e.g. US, Croatia, Albania, Mongolia, you get the drift.... but not G-reg.

Of course the French can hit a plane and check all other required documents, and for the pilot too.

[Phororhacos]

Thanks very much for the replies. (You hadn't misread the original post IO540, I subsequently realised I hadn't made it clear that it was a G Reg plane). Phororhacos

[englishal]

Our aeroplane has been in "free circulation" on the G reg since 1980, but we're putting her onto the N reg. As IO points out, while on the G the French have no right to ask you the VAT status....however once on the N reg they have every right.

While Customs agree with us that the aeroplane is clearly in "free circulation" they are not willing to put this in writing, which opens a can of worms. They say that they can only put this in writing if we can provide the original VAT invoice from 1980...which of course no one has. They say we could re-import the aeroplane and pay VAT on it of course, but we are loathed to do this. We bought the aeroplane as "scrap" as it was effectively written off in a landing accident, and we decided to rebuild her. The repair costs are attracting around £15,000 in VAT so to re-import the aeroplane and pay VAT on the finished aeroplane will mean we're paying VAT twice! As we bought it as an insurance write off, no VAT was payable at the time as scap is zero rated.

Customs seem completely blinkered to this. If we had to pay VAT on the salvage costs we paid, then we'd do it as it'd be about £1000 in VAT. We wouldn't be happy at lining Gordon Brown's pockets with yet more revenues for him to waste but this would at least put our minds at rest.

We have one other avenue left open to us - The previous owner had a letter from Customs stating the aeroplane was in FC, which he stapled into one of the old log books.....now it is just to trace that logbook....