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SVN Solovelanet Global
O
n November 6th, the French Admini-
stration Fiscale (tax authority) issued
a guideline to cancel any chance of
benefitting from a reduced TVA (VAT)
on long-term boat charter, with retro
-
active effect applied to contracts signed as of 1st
November. In other words, they cancelled boat le-
asing.
While a few months ago the French government
communicated to the EU that they would not tran-
spose the new directive before a year, now they not
only have transposed it retroactively, but in doing
so they have not even changed the rules within the
boundaries of the EU directive in order to still allow
a minimum tax incentive, as it has been the case
in Italy. On the contrary, they just cancelled the tax
reduction system as a whole.
Generally speaking, the French tax authorities are
more attentive to the industry needs than their Ita
-
lian counterparts, but this time they have dealt a
very hard blow to the French boating industry, the
most powerful in the world. The Italian tax authori-
ties, on the other hand, have tried to minimize the
negative impact of Brussells' demands. Why this
happened is a mystery.
In France there is no longer any TVA reduction on
long-term boat charter contracts, while in Italy the
tax authorities have transposed the EU directive,
interpreted it and changed the rules, but allowed
for the incentive to be still somehow applicable.
This gives us some hope that it will be possible
to benefit, at least partly, from such a significant
instrument as the boat leasing.
Meanwhile, the French Marine Industry Federation
has risen up and is putting pressure on the go
-
vernment to promptly withdraw the guideline.
Boat leasing: France
cancels VAT
incentives
E u r e p e a n l a w s
The French tax authorities
published a bulletin which
cancels the VAT reduction
system on boat leasing in a
more drastic way than in Italy
by
Gabrile
Poole
