Thinking of buying a new car to ship .. No VAT to pay ?

[squarepusher]

Hi,

 

I've been considering the options of buying a new or second hand vehicle in the UK to ship to Australia. Unfortunately I wont have owned the vehicle for a full year by the time we leave, so i'll have to pay import duty on it.

 

The other side of the coin is that should you declare you intend to ship a newly purchased vehicle to a non EU destination , HMRC will waive the VAT.

 

Exporting motor vehicles outside the EU - the Personal Export Scheme

The Personal Export Scheme is for visitors to the UK from outside the EU, and EU residents who intend to leave the EU and remain outside it for at least six months. Under the scheme, when you buy a motor vehicle in the UK and you're going to export it, you don't have to pay VAT.

When you buy a vehicle under the scheme, the supplier will give you an application form VAT 410.

 

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/sectors/consumers/personal-vehicles.htm

 

The question is , would i save money buying a new vehicle here , shipping it and paying Australian import duty , compared to just buying it there ?

Has anyone done this ? Does anyone have any figures on the shipping costs and associated tax duties ?

 

Thanks

 

SquarePusher

[pwkl]

There are couple of sticky threads giving you all the details about costs, however, to personally import a car you must have owned and used it for 12 months prior to applying for the import certificate. Also you will always have to pay import taxes, nothing to do with how long you've owned the car, unless you are imported a pre-89 vehicle.

[Jin77]

I would suggest checking our Iron Lady .they have imported out two cars a 5 series and an x3. The service was very good and they know their stuff .

[skellysgirl]

I have to admit, i am wondering if this a path too, i hoping to be there next July, which in theory gives me few month to get a car. Mine hits 3 yr old in May, so it would be time to change anyway.

 

The question is what car to buy to take? i dont have a huge budget, tops 9k, and i will be looking for a 12m old car

 

I know people would say buy over there, but i will not get anything as nice for the money over there, plus is suspect ill comprimise and buy something older and the funds will slide into my resettlement costs.

 

If i buy now, its a totally different budget, plus ill be happy knowing i have a reasonably new, and reliable car, with no debt attached.

[furkew]

you pay duty on ALL cars brought into Australia.

 

If you havent owned the car for 12 months you cant bring it. No way around it.