If your boat flies a non-EU ensign and you are not interested in paying import VAT to bring her into Europe, one rule lets you cruise France for a year and a half on the right side of the law. It is called Temporary Admission, and it is the single most useful customs provision in the cruising world. It is also widely half-understood, which is how people accidentally rack up a VAT bill on a hull worth six figures.
I have used TA across three seasons with a US-flagged boat a friend keeps in the Med, and I have sat through the awkward customs conversations of people who got the clock wrong. Here is how it actually works.
What Temporary Admission Is
Temporary Admission (TA) lets a non-EU-registered private boat stay and sail in EU waters for up to 18 months without paying import VAT or customs duty. The boat is "temporarily admitted" to the EU customs territory rather than imported into it. At the end of the period she must leave, or be put under another customs arrangement, or be imported (with VAT then becoming due).
The 18-month figure is the standard period for the discharge of TA for privately used means of sea transport. It is generous, far longer than the 90 days your passport allows you under Schengen, which is exactly why people confuse the two clocks.
The Conditions (All Must Be Met)
TA is not automatic for any old non-EU boat. Four conditions must be satisfied together:
- The boat is registered under a pleasure flag outside the EU.
- The owner is established for tax purposes outside the EU.
- The boat is used exclusively for private, pleasure and leisure purposes. No charter, no commercial use.
- The boat is used by a person also established outside the EU.
Miss any one and TA does not apply. The classic failure is the ownership and residence test: an EU-resident owner cannot put a non-EU-flagged boat under TA simply by flying a foreign flag. Customs look through that. If you live in the EU, TA is generally not your route.
The Two Clocks You Must Never Confuse
This is where careers in dock-bar misinformation are built. There are two completely separate time limits, and they have nothing to do with each other:
- The boat's TA clock: 18 months, governed by customs, about the hull.
- Your Schengen clock: 90 days in any 180, governed by immigration, about your passport.
The boat can legally sit in a French marina for 18 months while you fly home, return, leave again, and so on, never breaching the 90-day personal limit. People assume that because the boat can stay 18 months, they can too. They cannot. The two are independent. Read the schengen 90 day rule sailing breakdown alongside this and keep the counts in separate columns.
The Paperwork
For a formal TA in France you submit the customs declaration, historically via form CERFA 15678 (confirm the current reference and process with French Customs/Douanes, as forms and digital procedures evolve), with supporting documents:
- Registration certificate showing the non-EU flag
- Proof of ownership and the chain of bills of sale
- Proof of the owner's residence outside the EU
- Insurance certificate
In many cases TA can be claimed simply by the act of bringing the boat in, with the supporting evidence ready to show on demand, rather than a stamped form for every arrival. The safe approach is to carry the full evidence pack and to confirm the current procedure with Douanes before you arrive, because relying on "someone said it is automatic" is how disputes start. The arrival mechanics generally are in the guide to customs france by boat.
Resetting the 18 Months
Here is the part people want and the part where you must be careful. The TA period can be reset by taking the boat out of the EU customs territory and bringing her back. A genuine exit and re-entry starts a fresh 18-month clock.
The caveat: this must be a real departure, not a token wave at the buoy. Customs are alert to artificial resets where a boat nips just outside the limit and turns straight round purely to game the clock. A proper passage to a non-EU destination (the UK, Channel Islands, Gibraltar, North Africa, Turkey depending on your cruising ground) and a real stay there is the defensible version. Document the exit and re-entry. Keep marina receipts and fuel dockets from outside the EU as evidence of a genuine departure.
What Happens at 18 Months Without a Reset
Let the clock run out with the boat still in the EU and no exit, and you face the choice of importing her (with import VAT then payable on her value) or being assessed for that VAT anyway by customs. On a boat worth, say, 200,000 euros, EU import VAT at typical rates can run to tens of thousands of euros. That is the price of forgetting the date. There is a dedicated piece on the options for owners who want to stay longer, keeping a non-eu boat in france beyond 18 months, which weighs resetting against importing.
A Worked Example
A US couple bring their own boat to the Med in May. TA clock starts. They cruise France and Italy through the summer, leave the boat ashore in a French yard for the winter (the TA clock keeps running, the boat is still in the EU), cruise again the next summer. By the following autumn they are approaching 18 months. To avoid a VAT bill they sail to a non-EU port (for example across to North Africa or out via Gibraltar), spend real time there, and return, resetting the clock. Meanwhile each of them watched their personal 90-day Schengen count the whole time, flying home as needed. Two clocks, managed separately, no surprises.
Wintering Ashore Does Not Pause the Clock
A point owners get wrong with expensive consequences: hauling the boat out and leaving her in a French yard over winter does not stop the 18-month TA clock. The boat is still in the EU customs territory, on the hard or afloat, so the months keep counting. The only thing that pauses or resets TA is the boat genuinely leaving EU waters. If you plan a long stay split across two seasons with a winter ashore in between, do the arithmetic carefully: a May arrival, a winter in the yard, and a second full season can put you very close to or over 18 months by the second autumn. Plan the reset passage before the date forces your hand, not after.
The Mistakes That Cost Money
- Confusing the 18-month boat clock with the 90-day personal clock. The commonest error by far.
- An EU-resident owner trying to use TA. The residence test defeats it.
- Letting the boat tip into commercial or charter use. That breaks condition three instantly.
- Faking a reset with a token trip outside EU waters. Customs see through it.
- Losing track of the actual date and overshooting 18 months. Set a calendar reminder for month 16.
The Bottom Line
Temporary Admission is the backbone of how Americans, Australians, post-Brexit Brits with non-EU-flagged boats, and other non-residents cruise France without writing a cheque to the taxman. Meet the conditions, carry the evidence, watch the date, reset with genuine departures, and keep your personal Schengen count entirely separate. Do that and 18 months becomes effectively renewable for as long as you want to keep cruising.
If you own an EU-flagged boat instead, none of this applies to you, and the question becomes proving your boat vat status eu rather than claiming TA. Know which camp you are in before you cross a border.
Track your TA expiry, plan your reset passage, and map the harbours in between on BoatMap. The customs clock is just another date to manage, no harder than a liferaft service or a rigging check, as long as you never forget it is ticking.
