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PORTUGUESE VAT
Your readers should be very wary about bringing their boats to Portugal if they come from a country outside the EU. I am a Portuguese resident and the half owner of a 62ft boat registered in New Zealand and owned by a NZ company, which has spent the last two winters moored in Vilamoura.
I recently received a letter from Portuguese customs asking for all the boat’s paperwork, which I supplied, including the valid European VAT certificate. I then received a report saying that because we had allegedly been to Gibraltar twice, we were due to pay Portuguese IVA at 23% based on an arbitrary valuation, plus a fine of some €10k totalling over €165,000.
I understand they have issued similar notices to owners of other boats in Portuguese marinas, relying on the skipper’s information on where they have come from, backed up by AIS data supplied by a Portuguese company. If the boat has come via Gibraltar, the UK or Morocco, all of which are outside the EU, it risks falling into the same trap.
Now it looks very much like I will have to contest it in court, which may take years. If you know of any other readers in a similar situation, I would like to be put in touch and maybe join them in a fight through the courts in Portugal. David Varley Wow, that sounds rather scary to say the least. I showed your letter to the RYA to see if they could help and while they usually restrict their advice to private individuals rather than company-owned boats, they did offer the following guidance. In the meantime if any other readers are having a similar issue and would like to be put in touch with David email me at mby@futurenet.com and I will pass on his contact details.
“It is a commonly held misconception that once VAT has been paid then that is enduring. This is not always the case. When VAT and duty (if applicable) are paid in the EU, a boat becomes ‘Union Goods’. If a boat leaves the EU then, technically, it loses its status as Union Goods and you risk having to pay VAT on its return. However, a boat that has Union Goods status when it is exported from the EU may be granted relief on
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