Ministry of Taxation
Many thanks for your email to the Ministry of Taxation of 4 September 2020 regarding yachts and VAT. I am answering on behalf of the Minister of Taxation.
I can understand that you are of the opinion that you cannot sail out of Denmark without risking having to pay VAT on your boat if you do not have an invoice as documentation for this.
I can inform you, that neither the Danish VAT rules or the EU’s common VAT rules contain rules that special declarations or other documentation must be submitted, that VAT has been paid on a pleasure craft.
Should there be a need to document purchase and ownership, etc., this can be done by presenting a purchase contract, certificate of ownership or similar.
There is sometimes confusion about the rules due to some customs rules on return goods, which state that goods such as yachts that have left the EU’s customs area and only return later than 3 years after leaving the area must be cleared. However, the rules on return goods according to the Customs Code have no bearing on the VAT rules.
Yours sincerely
Ministry of Taxation
Levent Kitir
