What benefits "if any" does being HISTORIC and 30+ years old bring to a car.......

Hi KDS
a lot is still very much country specific. Which country are you importing to?
Holland for instance has a lower tax for old cars 25+ years while other EU countries have a standard tax for all cars regardless of age.

 

Hopefully guys from some different EU countries will chime in here with individual rates. I know that Holland has lower rates for vehicles over 25 years while the UK (I believe) has a standard rate for all vehicles regardless of age. VAT in the UK is 17.5%, in Germany 19%. It's all a bit mixed up. Holland seems to be the normal way of import into Europe for a lot of classics so might be worth posting something in the Dutch section. Also don't forget, Switzerland is not in the EU.

Ton, you out there? You know what the rates for Holland and the UK are.

 

I brought my 1986 328 GTS into the UK back in 2004, as well as a 1997-model BMW motorcycle. Late last year I imported two vintage motorcycles to the UK. In both instances I paid no duties. As I was not impacted, I have no idea what the guidelines or rates are. Sorry...

 

Hi,

I bought my 308 a year ago from Switzerland (non-EU) to The Netherlands (EU). Car was thirty years old and original, which meant I only had to pay 6% VAT and no import tax. If the car had been less than 30 years old and if there were questions about originality I would have had to pay 10% import tax + 19% VAT.

Other reasons why 30 year old cars can be interesting to import to The Netherlands:
- no road tax
- MOT is every other year, not every year
- classic car insurance is very low

Hope this helps.

p.s. once a car has been imported into one of the EU countries it can be transferred freely between EU countries without taxes.

Best regards, Peter

p.s. disclaimer: I'm not an expert, just telling my experiences

 

Peter is right. Import a 30 year old non-EU car to the EU via Holland. You only pay 6% tax. Nothing else. From that moment it is a EU car and can be imported all through the EU without paying extra tax.

 

Thanks guys. I knew Holland had to be good for something.....only joking

 

Hahaha... ;-)

 

Don't make me come over Simon!

Actually, I'm planning to come to Switzerland in June this year and try to meet up with the previous owner and shop and Henry and Lilo without whom I'd never been able to buy the 308.

 

Not really. If you import a EU car to Portugal you still pay the taxes to have it registered. There are no longer exceptions for >30 year old cars in Portugal.

 

In Poland historic cars are both VAT and import duty exempt so you would only need to pay a 100 Eur registration fee. It's then an EU car so should be registrable in any of the other EU countries with no added costs.

 

Been looking this up and it seems things aren't so easy anymore. Car has to be 'unique' to be tax/duty exempt. So mass produced classics (for example a Ford T!) will have the full duty applied :/

 

If importing to Holland, say from the USA, what is required to get the car registered there?

I live in England, and I want to import a car from USA, so obviously going through Holland is the cheapest option, but does anyone know if it needs to be registered with a Dutch owner??

Thanks, Felix

 

Thank you my friend