Another import query - NON personal import

[maser_spyder]

Hi Guys,

I'm half thinking of 'selling' my car to my B-I-L in Melbourne, where he may, in turn, sell it on for me....

It obviously doesn't qualify for the personal import as I have no intention of applying for Australian residency, but every place I look about importing seems to assume you want to do the personal import scheme.

What's the other option? Say you're an Australian resident and you want to import a car from abroad that you've only just bought, how different are the rules from the personal import scheme? Any pitfalls or difficulties?

The car already has door impact bars, etc. so I think compliance would be relatively easy, it's just the tax implications. Car new cost about £75k, but is now a few years old.

Any idea where I should be looking for the rules? Even the Australian customs website seems to assume you'll want to be doing it as a 'personal import' type thingy.

Cheers!

[ariddell]

Unless it's pre-1989 the only other way is through the RAWS (registered automotive workshop scheme) scheme. Basically geared towards workshops bringing in large numbers of a single model for retail purposes so -very- expensive and can in some cases apparently require the car to be crash tested etc.

Car needs to be on the SEV (specialist enthusiast vehicle) list to qualify to be brought in through RAWS, which excludes anything that was available in any significant quantity to the Australian market.

[deviant]

ariddell said:

Unless it's pre-1989 the only other way is through the RAWS (registered automotive workshop scheme) scheme. Basically geared towards workshops bringing in large numbers of a single model for retail purposes so -very- expensive and can in some cases apparently require the car to be crash tested etc.

Car needs to be on the SEV (specialist enthusiast vehicle) list to qualify to be brought in through RAWS, which excludes anything that was available in any significant quantity to the Australian market.

Note that if it is on the SEV list that does not mean you can just import the car. Tht list merely shows that a particular model is eligable for someone to apply for the license to be able to comply the car.

Whats the car OP? As ariddell said anything that was sold in full volume here will not be eligable for import. Full volume is considered 400 cars.

Having said that this is where things can get a bit tricky, there is nothing to stop someone applying to have a car added to the SEVs list before the Australian branch of that manufacturer has begun selling cars here. As an example the new Skyline GTR is officially sold here by Nissan as full volume but sale here did not begin until some time after the rest of the world so someone was able to get the car added to the SEVs list before Nissan Aus began selling them.

As a useless piece of information for you...To get your workshop RAWS aproved for a particular model it costs AU$100,000+. You might need to crash a car unless the car is rare or it is going to cause financial strife for the workshop or the crash test data is available to the man.
This approval will only cover that specific model though, I.E. if you get approval for a Mitsubishi Evo 6 GSR you can ONLY import and comply that model and not any other version or model designation of the car.
The RAWS schene is a good idea with the protection it offers the consumer but it has killed off any chance of varied and interesting imports coming in. As a business your only going to risk $100K+ if you can churn out cars that are not tooooo niche...Skylines at $20K a pop seem to be the norm.

[maser_spyder]

Guys, superb advice, thanks.

Car in question is a Maserati Spyder, which I'm guessing there's less than 400~ in Australia?

I'll do some digging on the RAWS scheme, although it sounds like it's going to be too much trouble sadly.

Cheers!

[ariddell]

If it's between 2002-2007 and is a GT, Cambiocorsa, 90th Anniversay or GranSport then someone already holds RAWS approval for them - so you could potentially get them to compliance it.

http://www.raws.com.au/SEVSRuling.asp?RulingID=259

[maser_spyder]

ariddell said:

If it's between 2002-2007 and is a GT, Cambiocorsa, 90th Anniversay or GranSport then someone already holds RAWS approval for them - so you could potentially get them to compliance it.

http://www.raws.com.au/SEVSRuling.asp?RulingID=259

Hey, thanks for that.

It is one of those models indeed.

Assuming compliance isn't a big deal, any idea what sort of taxes you would pay under RAWS?

[deviant]

maser_spyder said:

ariddell said:

If it's between 2002-2007 and is a GT, Cambiocorsa, 90th Anniversay or GranSport then someone already holds RAWS approval for them - so you could potentially get them to compliance it.

http://www.raws.com.au/SEVSRuling.asp?RulingID=259

Hey, thanks for that.

It is one of those models indeed.

Assuming compliance isn't a big deal, any idea what sort of taxes you would pay under RAWS?

Tell everyone to form an orderly line and you just stand there with your wallett open

The OP here outlines the fees associated with doing an import.

http://www.pistonheads.com/xforums/topic.asp?h=0&a...

The odd one will not apply to you but thats the gist of it.