UK narrowboat ownership and French boat tax

Banking & Financial Tax & Social charges
1

Hi,
As a French tax resident I believe I “should” pay a tax if I owned a boat over 7m in length, regardless of where the boat is located.
Now some websites say I have to pay this tax to fly the French flag to use the boat in maritime waters and is mandatory if the boat is over 22HP or over 7m long.
But I want to buy a narrowboat (approx 8m long) in the UK and keep it on the UK inland waterways, for which I do not need to register the boat (according to UK waterway regulations) and I don’t need to fly any flag.

So my questions:
a) How does the French authorities know I have the boat?
b) And should I have to pay any French annual taxes on it anyway?
c) I’m guessing I should declare any Capital Gains when I come to sell it but the chance of making money on boat is highly unlikely anyway

thanks in advance,

Richard

1 Like
2

Deleted
My bad - misread the op.
Indeed, why would you pay a tax in France for owning and using a boat in the UK?

3

You have to pay to moor a boat on UK inland waterways, which is another way of registering your boat.

4

I own a narrowboat in the UK, it is moored in a marina on the Grand Union canal. It is licensed via CRT (Canal & Rivers Trust). I have never found any evidence that I need to pay any tax in France for owning a leisure craft in the UK. A bit confused I have to admit !

5

Do you get any income from the narrow-boat, e.g. from renting it out to others?

If you declared that income to the Fiscal authorities, they might presumably have had an interest in where it was berthed.

Or so I naively suppose, but that’s just a guess on my part!

6

No income from it Peter, just used for us when in the UK. To rent out a narrowboat entails different insurance and different safety certificates (bit like an MOT every four years)

7

Richard, it might help us if you could explain where you have got information which leads you to question the situation…

8

If it can move you don’t pay the taxe fluviale, you only pay impôts fonciers and taxe d’habitation if you live in it in France - I don’t know what taxes you might pay, unless it is considered a second home perhaps.