Buying a French Flagged Boat, VAT Not Paid

[DesertBoater]

I am negotiating a private sale for a boat located in Sint Maarten. As mentioned in the title, the boat is French flagged, VAT not paid. Owner is EU citizen.

I am planning on re-registering as a US flagged boat. Based on my research, this is not too difficult. French flagged boats will have a "passport" of sorts listing the current and previous owners and any liens. One just has to go through the paperwork of "deflagging" the boat and then the USCG forms and nominal import cost of 1.5%

I will likely use a company in FL to help with this, but before I go down this road too far, does a VAT not paid boat make any difference at all in term of french registration/de-registration/re-registration as US flagged boat?

Thanks.

[Pete7]

VAT and registration are two different things. VAT is point of sale tax on a new boat or not in the case of this boat as it was probably exported when new. There a few exceptions but they don't matter here.

The French registration, not sure about, but if you buy it what liability does a US citizen have to the French Gov? just register it quickly in the US and change the flag.

Pete

[gts1544]

DesertBoater, If you are intending to document the vessel with the USCG, be sure to insist on using a USCG Bill of Sale Form, available on line under USCG / Forms. When I purchased my vessel, it had been USCG documented in the past, but had passed through several owners since then. The USCG has a waiver system to complete the chain of ownership when it cannot be established via USCG approved bills of sale. Try to get as much information as you can on the chain of ownership, though when reflagging a vessel it may not be necessary. The website is as follows:
USCG National Vessel Documentation Center, Home Page . Hope that this helps! George