Advice on importing a classic please

[vario-rob]

Advice please.

I am in the process of importing a car from Melbourne and god willing in about 6 weeks time I will be rocking down to Tilbury to collect, or so I though!

I had a call made to customs and excise on Friday and the Strassi member who took the call informed us that the car although being 1982 and costing about £10k plus shipping will be subject to 10% duty and 17.5% VAT to get it off the docks! This adds up to about an extra £3k and of course is £3k for absolutely nothing and will only be wasted on god knows what. If the car was another £3k then no problem, this just seems a different proble, a waste if you will

Does this sound right? I felt this might just have been somebody at customs and excise being their usual self’s or have I got to get it shipped to Jersey, register it here and drive it over keeping my fingers crossed?

Any advice or experiences on this would be much appreciated.

For what it is worth it is that all elusive De Tomaso Deauville so hopefully some of my fellow Piostonheader’s would like to see such a noble steed at Pistonfest or a VMAX!

[IOLAIRE]

vario-rob said:

Advice please. I am in the process of importing a car from Melbourne and god willing in about 6 weeks time I will be rocking down to Tilbury to collect, or so I though! I had a call made to customs and excise on Friday and the Strassi member who took the call informed us that the car although being 1982 and costing about £10k plus shipping will be subject to 10% duty and 17.5% VAT to get it off the docks! This adds up to about an extra £3k and of course is £3k for absolutely nothing and will only be wasted on god knows what. If the car was another £3k then no problem, this just seems a different proble, a waste if you will Does this sound right? I felt this might just have been somebody at customs and excise being their usual self’s or have I got to get it shipped to Jersey, register it here and drive it over keeping my fingers crossed? Any advice or experiences on this would be much appreciated. For what it is worth it is that all elusive De Tomaso Deauville so hopefully some of my fellow Piostonheader’s would like to see such a noble steed at Pistonfest or a VMAX!

Rob,
this seems totally wrong to me.
What is the VAT element for, it's a private sale and it's an old vehicle?
When a dealer here sells a second hand car there is VAT due on the mark up on the vehicle; i.e. the difference between the buying and selling price.
This is payable only by the dealer selling the vehicle, not the buyer, and it doesn't apply to private sales.
If they are charging you import duty as well I was under the impression that it could only be on a portion of the price of the vehicle when new, and that that portion decreased with each passing year.
Check on the Government web site.
The rules should be on there.
I wouldn't trust a Customs Officer as far as I could throw them!!

[vario-rob]

Sorry, omitted to say it is from a dealer although I can not see that would make any difference?

[crankedup]

This is a question I asked myself recently, try here for a good lead www.dvla.gov.uk/vehicles/exptimpt

Many thanks to pals over in the aacint.

[gogsy]

Was this car manufactured in the UK originally?
If so you should enquire about Returned Goods Relief. If it qualifies then there's no duty. The VAT is due before DVLA will register it though, and I don't think a Jersey coonection will help.

[gogsy]

Áh just noticed it's a De Tomaso, so RGR is no good. I seem to recall there's some other relief for old motors so don't give up.

[IOLAIRE]

gogsy said:

Was this car manufactured in the UK originally? If so you should enquire about Returned Goods Relief. If it qualifies then there's no duty. The VAT is due before DVLA will register it though, and I don't think a Jersey coonection will help.

Why is VAT due Gogsy?

[gogsy]

Imports from outside the EC usually attract VAT on the value at import, and so far as I know you can't register an imported vehicle in the UK without showing DVLA that the VAT's been paid. But it's a complicated system with special duty rules for collectors/antique stuff, especially where the original manufacture was in the UK.

[gogsy]

Rob
I spoke to somebody today who has a better understanding of this than I do. Returned Goods Relief apparently applies to anything originally manufactured in the EC, not just the UK. Therefore if you can come up with some evidence which is listed on the C&E website, and persist, you should at least get it in duty free. The RGR public notice is on there as is the contact for written enquiries, which is where you should go for a ruling. I'm assuming that all De Tomaso's were built in Italy.

[vario-rob]

Gogsy, inch perfect timing mate! the De T is indeed Italian

I spoke with my company accountants yesterday and the interesting thing on the VAT situation is that if an item is considered of ‘exceptional rarity’ or thereabouts you can pay VAT at 5%. I will now need to set about proving that a 1982 car is just that as with only a handful left in the UK this should be a workable objective

Many thanks for the information on the duty position, I will pick up on this point as well.

The worst case scenario is £3000, the best one is £500, game on!

PS See the other thread on the said Deauville!