Croatia and VAT

[49er]

Apologies for yet another VAT question , my boat has been registered and moored from new in Croatia and is therefore non VAT paid . Having bought her as a UK citizen I was told she had to be deregistered then placed on the UK SSR which she now is . The boat continues to be moored in Croatia and will be for the foreseeable future . My question is : if / when Croatia joins the EU in 2013 and my boat remains there , will VAT be liable once in the EU or will it be waived as she always has been in the country ?

Thankyou for any guidance as it involves saving a considerable sum if liable

[atoll]

i had my boat in cyprus when it became part of the eu,since it had never been imported into cyprus,or paid local duty pre eu it was deemed vat unpaid,we paid vat on it at a considerably reduced rate as we had all our reciepts showing that the improvements to the vessel during the time it was in cyprus had had the local gst paid on them.

so in theory if you have never paid sales tax on the vessel pre vat it will be deemed vat un paid.

[goboatingnow]

I have a friend in the same position. Unless your boat is Croatian registered you will not gain any concession if and when accedes to the Union. You will be able to pay vat on the depreciated value of the boat however.

Dave

[49er]

Thankyou for your guidance , I thought as much , start saving then

[atoll]

Originally Posted by 49er

Thankyou for your guidance , I thought as much , start saving then

move it to turkey or egypt

[sailwithrob]

Originally Posted by 49er

Apologies for yet another VAT question , my boat has been registered and moored from new in Croatia and is therefore non VAT paid . Having bought her as a UK citizen I was told she had to be deregistered then placed on the UK SSR which she now is . The boat continues to be moored in Croatia and will be for the foreseeable future . My question is : if / when Croatia joins the EU in 2013 and my boat remains there , will VAT be liable once in the EU or will it be waived as she always has been in the country ?

Thankyou for any guidance as it involves saving a considerable sum if liable

We are in the same situation - boat in Dalmatia. I have been told by several people now that the current thinking by Croatian Government is that they will charge full VAT on depreciated value on vessels less than 10 years old. Representations are being made to them by several groups. I am interested in forming a group of owners in similar circumstances - perhaps to be part of a pressure group. The likelihood of thousands of vessels leaving could be counter-productive to the cash they hope to raise. In Malta, when they joined, there was a concessionary rate and the majority of vessels stayed.

[elsinore]

we are in similar position. boat purchased in 2008 and kept in croatian waters since then. i have written to the croatian government several times and have just had my letters acknowledged. i have also spoken with marina owners and asked them to lobby.
if the recent push to enforce the rules regarding how long a boat and/or its owners can stay in the jurisdiction is any indication, i would not be confident that the government is thinking about the welfare of foreign boat owners.
having said that, i dont think anyone knows what will happen next year at this stage. unless they take a very liberal view on depreciated value, a decision to charge the full rate will result in a lot of boats leaving.

[maritimus]

Originally Posted by 49er

Thankyou for your guidance , I thought as much , start saving then

Probably by now you have learned that Croatian government introduce convenient rule for boat owners in Croatian marinas which have status EU VAT not paid. They are allowed to import boats in Croatia under special conditions from January 1st to May 31st (%5 VAT and 1.7% custom). After Croatian enter in EU which is estimated 01.07.2013 all biats in Croatia will have status EU VAT paid.