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When you buy abroad . I have noted it is possible to buy the car ex vat . my question when i import back into the uk . I presume i pay at the uk rate correct and it goes to the uk customs etc or to the uk customs take the vat and forwarded back to the export country? can anyone help? thanks
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UK customs take the VAT and give it to Mr Brown,he then wastes it.VAT is is charged on your invoice price.
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I imagine you are talking about buying new? The rules are different for 2nd hand or for a car you have owned and used abroad.
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You cannot import a vehicle from another EU state as it is a free market you only import from outside the EU,if you by in Denmark thats a another story.If the vat is lower than the UK's allot to pay it in that state if its higher pay in the UK,best things to buy are pre reg or in Germany day reg cars of course you are at a disadvantage if you want rhd.There are so many Vat fiddles going on switching cars around the EU a bit like Irish butter a lot of it seems to done by rental companies.
The statement today in the UK press that new cars are still a rip off in the UK that Ibelieve is because of rhd if the UK was lhd prices would drop at an alarming rate.
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I guess that must happen with a lot of the rental cars in Spain,Avis,Hertz etc all seem to run 1000,s of Focus estate cars,but i never see any 1 year old plus examples driving around.Perhaps these are shipped elsewhere in the EU.
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AB, I know that you are very knowledgable and my info may be out of date; I used to buy cars in Germany, free of German VAT, and then, having kept them for 6 months and run them more than 4000 miles, import to the UK VAT free and sell on without financial penalty of any kind. Also I don't quite understand what you mean by "You cannot import a vehicle from another EU state". People used to source rhd cars from Holland and go over and collect them; they did then pay VAT on them but it was based on the lower price in Holland, and Holland is in the EU!
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Perfectly correct I thing I did not exlpain myself properly.Within a tariff free zone it is not importing or exporting its just like going to the next town as far as paying vat is concerned at the moment German Vat is 16% so paying the vat in Germany is better than paying it the UK and of course you are correct on keeping them 6 months thats why if you can get some garage to day reg a car there is a nice little earner going.
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I'm doing the opposite: I want a LHD car for mainland Europe, but I've bought it new in the UK directly from the UK importer. You save 10-15% on the price - by cutting out the dealership's margin I presume - and although I'll be paying UK VAT on the purchase, it's at a lower rate than VAT in France.
The car itself is built for the French market, but delivered and paid for in the UK.
Watch out for exchange rates too. The UK pound was stable at 1.41 Euros for ages, but last month it jumped up to 1.48 Euros (when UK interest rates were increased). Because I'm being invoiced in Euros this bit of good news has saved me around UK700 quid on a 20k purchase :-) Guess the same would apply if buying a car in Euros from anywhere in Europe right now!
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From experience when I purchased my UK spec V70 in Breda, Netherlands; as indicated above, yes, you pay UK VAT on the tax free price paid in the foreign EU state. The actual exchange rate to use is calculated by HM Revenue & Customs. What hasn't been mentioned so far though (forgive me if I'm blind) is that when personally importing a car to the UK you are not liable to the special car tax that you'd have to pay if you purchased the same car from a UK source. This nets a saving to you. I don't know if any other EU member states also have special car tax equivalents for the converse case of importing to one from the UK.
Exchange rates had all but wiped out the advantages of personally importing (to the UK) when I last looked, but back at Christmas 2002 (when I placed the order for March 2003 delivery) we saved a hill of cash, bettering even the best UK broker for a UK spec car. It was so easy to do, and the "how to personally import" pack so easy to follow, that I'm glad on this basis alone that I didn't pay a broker commission.
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