“We faced a challenging file regarding a vessel owned by a French economic operator who rented out their yacht to a private company from another EU country that was not considered an economic operator and therefore did not have an intracommunity VAT number. This yacht underwent a significant refit in Italy and came back to France after it was over.

The French customs started an investigation regarding this yacht as they wondered why the VAT had not been paid on the value of the refit.

Indeed, as the yacht was used by a company not considered as an economic operator, the authorities did not understand the mechanism under which the VAT had not been charged by the shipyard in Italy.

We had to demonstrate how the structure of this specific ownership worked and prove that the owner of the vessel was an economic operator with a valid intracommunity number allowing the VAT to be accounted for.

After long discussions, customs acknowledged the fact that the absence of VAT payment on the refit was justified as the owner of the yacht had a genuine economic activity (which was renting out yachts) despite the fact that the user (the lessee) was not considered an economic operator.

It has been another interesting file involving the YMCA team and good news for our clients”.

 

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