Importing to UK/EU
Discussion
I know this has been discussed a few times on here over the years and I have searched and read through these posts however things often change and I would like to some advice to see if my idea is possible.
I live in Spain, recently moved here and in the process of getting residency.
If anyone here has lived in Spain you will know the price of second hand cars is crazy over here, later in the year I would like to buy something nice (Porsche 991, California or similar), having looked in the UAE I can comfortably pick one of these up for atleast half of what it would be here.
Shipping is no problem and I fully understand I will have to pay VAT and import tax however I am currently looking for a cost effective way.
The problem I might have is the car having being a GCC and not having a EU VIN, apparently it makes it almost impossible to register the car in Spain however I can see a lot of people on here have imported in to Croatia, I presume there is some loophole where you can register it there in a company name? Can anyone elaborate on this and if I was registering it via a Croatian company can I then reclaim the VAT paid?
I am the director of a couple of companies in the UK so I know how the business side of things work and setting up a foreign business for the purpose of this doesn't faze me.
My second though was bringing it the UK via a ltd co and reclaiming the vat is possible however if I was to register it in the UK I might hit problems with it being a LHD car and passing an MOT (lights not being correct for example), if the car is registered in another EU country it will make things easier. I also have no problem with the car being 'owned' by a business on paper as I will be sole director.
I commonly see flash cars driving around where I live and they are often on Andorra, Luxembourg or Monaco reg which got me thinking about the above...
Any advice appreciated.
I live in Spain, recently moved here and in the process of getting residency.
If anyone here has lived in Spain you will know the price of second hand cars is crazy over here, later in the year I would like to buy something nice (Porsche 991, California or similar), having looked in the UAE I can comfortably pick one of these up for atleast half of what it would be here.
Shipping is no problem and I fully understand I will have to pay VAT and import tax however I am currently looking for a cost effective way.
The problem I might have is the car having being a GCC and not having a EU VIN, apparently it makes it almost impossible to register the car in Spain however I can see a lot of people on here have imported in to Croatia, I presume there is some loophole where you can register it there in a company name? Can anyone elaborate on this and if I was registering it via a Croatian company can I then reclaim the VAT paid?
I am the director of a couple of companies in the UK so I know how the business side of things work and setting up a foreign business for the purpose of this doesn't faze me.
My second though was bringing it the UK via a ltd co and reclaiming the vat is possible however if I was to register it in the UK I might hit problems with it being a LHD car and passing an MOT (lights not being correct for example), if the car is registered in another EU country it will make things easier. I also have no problem with the car being 'owned' by a business on paper as I will be sole director.
I commonly see flash cars driving around where I live and they are often on Andorra, Luxembourg or Monaco reg which got me thinking about the above...
Any advice appreciated.
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