Quick question about importing cars (sorry its not normal forum material) as I am sure someone on here will know thee answer of the top of their head.

If I bring a used vehicle (8 years old) into the UK that does not qualify as a personal import (ie I have not had it for 6 months), how much tax/charges do I need to pay.

I have looked hard at DVLA websites etc but without being able to walk down to a british post office and pick up the information booklet it is very difficult to get an answer.

Coming to the UK soon (hopefully with Scooby).

 

er no expert but not sure wot personal import is & how that will be any different to any car import but wot i do know is the joys of tax oh & less than 10years old will mean u still need to do an SVA before u can use it in the UK etc etc anyway:
basically add 10% import duty on total cost of car to get to UK ie purchase shipping insurance clearance charge etc etc
then costs to sort it dunno how much these wood/will be.....
then 17.5%VAT woohoo nice!!!!!
Si

 

Cheers, that is helpful. Personal Imports are cars that you have owned in a country for more than 6 months and you are bringing them back for private use. No VAT I believe.

I don't know if it worth it for me to get a scoob then. I can pick up a 96 WRX here for 2500 quid. ship for 400 quid. Probably about 400 quid on import charges etc, and then VAT on that about 700 quid. Brings it up to UK prices! Might have to own it here for 6 months first to make it worth it.

 

yeah i guess it kuz there are so many scoobs in UK it's less of a cost benefit to import one from Japan etc although the cars themselves are usually better spec & condition than similar UK uns as a rule....
Si

 

well, it is worth it, you should see the markups dealers put on it!


your looking at

500-600 shipping

10% import duty

17.5% VAT

450 to sva

and then car tax registration and mot (usually done with sva)

however, even with this in mind you can get a nice
wrx in for about 2.5-3k less than the price in uk for import!

bearing in mind and example, 1998 sti 4d silver 35k (km) 4.5 auction grade, in county all done 4 £6500. You would not get a v4 sti for that money in uk!!!

regards
frosted

 

I know the owners have changed since I lived in HK but when I brought my bike back in 1996 I paid no import duty or VAT. Just a registration fee which I think was about £70 then.
Sold it in the UK 2 years later for more than I paid it for it! And that was after 1 extra year blasting it up and down Ting Kok road.
I know the AA in Hong Kong organise car shipping overseas so they might be worth a call.

 

but i now see you haven't owned your car in hk...so ignore all that above

 

Cheers for the tips M.

I own an MR2 and will bring that back. May also buy a scoob and hang on to it for 6 months before bringing it back too!

 

I thought the 6 month thing only applied to new cars, not cars more than 6 months old?

An old trick was to register it in an EU country (Holland or Ireland) and you can get round it that way.

Probably all changed now, 3 years ago I bought my 95WRX from a Jap auction, my broker shipped it to Holland and I brought it back as a personal import, no duties.

 

Would be interested as to whether that loophole's still open...

 

Can anyone recommend any auction agents in Japan? What sort of cut do they take?

 

that loophole is closed. On the basis you can now ship direct to the UK which is better anyway.

You can ship it Holland if you like but there will be no benefit unless you live there