The TA regime is laid down in Articles 250 to 253 of the UCC. For the specific case of means of transport (yachts), the conditions to be fulfilled for granting total relief from import duty are established in Article 212 of the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 of 28 July 2015 Delegated Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 (“The DR”):

“(a) they are registered outside the customs territory of the Union in the name of a person established outside that territory or ,where the means of transport are not registered, they are owned by a person established outside the customs territory of the Union;

(b) they are used by a person established outside the customs territory of the Union, without prejudice to Articles 214, 215 and 216.”

TA customs formalities

The corrections introduced by the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/651 of 5 April 2016 correcting the DR removed the obligation to submit any kind of declaration in order to qualify for TA benefits. This approach was previously confirmed on November 2018 by the Spanish Department of Customs and Excise Duties which issued a note clarifying the appropriate procedures for yachts registered outside the customs territory establishing a soft interpretation of the customs code regulations and concluding that the mere fact of crossing the customs territory was enough for a yacht meeting the above criteria to benefit from the temporary admission exemptions.

In the event the yacht owner submits an oral declaration, as per Article 165 of DR, the declarant shall submit a document asset out in Annex 71-01 containing the following information:

• Name and address of the declarant;
• Description of the goods, their value and quantity;
• Place of use and kind of use of the goods and means of identifying them;
• Period for discharge;
• Customs office(s) of discharge.

The supporting documents required by Spanish Customs will depend on the ownership structure of the yacht, whether it is owned under personal or corporate structure. The list of documents typically includes:

Personal ownership

• Copy of the owner’s passport;
• Certificate of registration of the yacht;
• Copy of the hull insurance policy;

Whereas in

Corporate ownership

• Certificate of incorporation of the company owning the yacht;
• Certificate of incumbency of the company owning the yacht;
• Copy of the passport of the company director(s);
• Certificate of registration of the yacht;
• Copy of the hull insurance policy;
• Notarized and apostilled power of attorney of the person acting on behalf of the owning company (if different from the company director, typically that would apply to those situations where the captain acts before customs).