Question 17451 — water transport

Summary

Mr. Éric Bothorel draws the attention of the Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industrial, Energy and Digital Sovereignty to a concrete distortion of competition between French ships and ships from other Member States, notably Dutch, in the application of the VAT exemption provided for ships used for navigation on the high seas. European law provides, in Article 148 of VAT Directive 2006/112/EC, an exemption for certain operations relating to vessels used for navigation on the high seas and carrying out a commercial activity. The European Commission recalls that this exemption concerns international maritime transport and vessels used for navigation on the high seas. In France, this rule is transposed in particular into article 262 of the general tax code and clarified by the Official Tax Bulletin of 24 February 2021 - BOI-TVA-CHAMP-30-30-30-10 French administrative doctrine uses a strict method: to assess assignment to the high seas, the administration is based on the number of journeys made outside territorial waters, with a threshold of 70%, in number of journeys. This interpretation poses a major difficulty for French professional vessels which alternate between long offshore voyages and numerous short coastal outings. In this case, the criterion of the number of journeys does not reflect the actual use of the vessel. For example, La Nébuleuse, flying the French flag, armed for commerce in the French International Register, approved for all seas, having completed a crossing to Brazil in 2024-2025, may have covered the vast majority of its miles and spent most of its navigation time on the high seas. However, if he makes numerous short commercial trips to Bréhat at the same time, these local trips can represent more than 30% of the annual number of trips. The vessel then loses the benefit of the exemption, even though its actual use - in terms of distance and time - remains predominantly offshore. The Dutch doctrine appears much more flexible and more representative of real activity. The official text Dutch predicts that 70% usage on the high seas can be demonstrated by several methods: distance traveled on the high seas, number of journeys, navigation time or operational time on the high seas, or even an average over five years. It also specifies that a journey including a part on the high seas can be counted as a high seas journey. Thus, two vessels carrying out a comparable activity can be treated differently depending on their state of establishment. A Dutch ship, including a commercially operated heritage ship, can benefit from zero VAT based on an assessment based on distance or time spent on the high seas, and then sell on the French market with a reduced cost structure. Conversely, a French vessel carrying out significant offshore activity may be excluded from the exemption. only because he makes many small coastal trips. It is not a question of asking for a particular advantage, but for an alignment of French doctrine with a more balanced and economically realistic interpretation, already applied by another Member State. These French provisions being not legislative but falling within the doctrine of taxes, he asks him if he intends to allow French operators to demonstrate the threshold of 70% according to one of the following methods, of your choice and under documentary control: the distance traveled on the high seas; navigation or operating time spent on the high seas; the number of journeys made on the high seas. This development would preserve the objective of European law, avoid absurd threshold effects and restore fairer competition between French professional vessels and foreign vessels operating or being marketed in France. It would be particularly important for maritime heritage vessels, which incur high maintenance costs, contribute to the tourist attractiveness of coastal areas and contribute to the transmission of living maritime know-how. He therefore requests its support for a clarification or relaxation of the doctrine applicable to commercial vessels assigned to navigation at high altitudes. sea ​​and wishes to know his intentions on this subject.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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