Importing and re-registering a car in Cyprus

[zeeb0]

hmm.. i knowi get some dispention as it is my personal car and if i ever sell it is get forked.. also as i am now familie numerosa i get other allowences... would be nice to know before thogugh... the worst case is that it is classed a camper!! that is v v bad!...

[steveg63]

Here Zeeb0 or Voltron.... try this link, you can work out the tax. CUSTOMS & EXCISE - Vehicles - Vehicles from member states of the European Union - Software for the calculation of the excise duty for vehicles

Steve

[steveg63]

This might be of interest in helping on the duty, tax and relief from these: http://[URL="http://www.mof.gov.cy/mof/customs/customs.nsf/ced01_en/ced01_en?OpenDocument"]www.mof.gov.cy/mof/customs/customs.nsf/ced01_en/ced01_en?OpenDocument[/URL]

If it works let me know how to understand it!

Steve

[zeeb0]

Im sure i have said this before so apologies for repitition if i have!

Ok i have the official rules about car shipping from my removals company. you DO need to own it for 6 months to not have to pay massive tax.

[xen]

Originally Posted by BabsM

We often have questions on the costs of bringing cars to and re-registering them in Cyprus. We have just completed the whole process so I thought I would tell people how we did it and what we paid.

Our car is a Land Rover Freelander TD4 Automatic. It was originally registered the UK in Aug 2003. It had done over 140,000 miles. It would have had little value in England had we sold it and would have cost well over 10,000 Euros to buy here. As the container was coming anyway and had space in it, we brought the car. We wanted to register the car without paying the excise duty as we are both retired.

The container arrived in early May. The clearance documents were all completed by Burke Bros and MK Worldwide so I don't know what they involved, however the representative handed over quite a few documents when we went to customs to collect the car, whilst all we did was hand over the log book, our passports and our driving licences and sign a few documents. We were told that, until registration was complete, it must not be driven by anyone other than the owner & his spouse, we couldn't take it into Northern Cyprus and we couldn't sell or dispose of it. We paid 172 Euros to clear the car and the container.

We were given a yellow C104 form that had to be kept in the car. It gave us a month before we had to go to Nicosia to renew the form. To complete this document customs calculated how much time we had already spent in Cyprus over the last year and deducted that from a 6 month's allowance. This told us how long we had before the car could be re-registered.

We went to Nicosia Customs Office a month later (June) with copies of all the documents we thought we needed to re-register the car. Maria, who does the re-registration, looked at the documents and identified what was missing. She gave us a document (in English) to complete when we came back. Then the registration department renewed the C104 and told us to return in early October, with all the documents, to complete registration.

We then went back to Nicosia Customs Office in October with a large file of documents and the form. we sat with Maria for an hour or more as she went through and checked every document. She was looking for proof that we have lived, worked, paid utility bills and tax in the UK for over a year. She also looked for proof that we had moved our home and finances to Cyprus, that we were receiving pensions here and that we had started paying utility bills here. She required copies of our Cyprus bank statements, certified by the bank, to prove we had an income. She wanted to see our Alien Registration and our passports and the health card, in effect proof that we were now permanent residents of Cyprus. She wanted proof that we had owned, taxed and insured the car in England for the time that the log book showed that we had owned the car. This was for every year on the logbook showed, not just six months! In our case, we no longer had the insurance certificates for all years so she accepted copies of the insurance schedules. She had a document with lots of tick boxes, when she was satisfied that every box was ticked she told us that she would put the car forward for registration and that we should receive the papers in the post within a month. Believe me, every box had to be ticked! We had one box missing at one point and she wasn't going to accept the car but then I found the missing document.

Within the month, as promised, we received a letter saying that we had been granted exemption from excise duty and we could register the car. The document could be taken to a Customs office of our choice for the next step. We went to Larnaca Customs but they sent us to a clearance agent as we had to obtain a form E72. The agent sent us to the Department of Transport in Aradippou to get a certificate showing the CO2 emissions for the car. We misunderstood and thought we needed to get a CO2 test done, fortunately we didn't! We then took the form back to the clearance agent and waited for two days whilst she got the E72. When she got the form she called us, we had to pay her 109 Euros for completing it.

We then took the car, the logbook & the emissions certificate to an MOT garage. It took about 3/4 hour to do the MOT and cost 34 Euros. As part of the MOT they check all the VIN numbers, and the engine number against the logbook and record the gearbox number. One problem we had here was that the garage couldn't find the engine number as the car is old and had years of salt over it... fortunately he managed to clean it enough to see it! We then had to take the car and the forms to the Department of Transport in Aradippou for a technical inspection, this was effectively a rubber stamp on the form as the MOT had only been done minutes earlier. Once the technical inspection was complete we went to the office to get the forms stamped and a registration number allocated.

We then went to the Department of Transport with all the forms, our passports, alien cards and proof of address. The lady, who spoke good English, completed all the paperwork, relieved us of 850 Euros for the registration fee based on the size of the car's engine and the tax disk plus six euros for official stamps. If we had delayed registering our car we would have had to pay all the back road tax too!

We then had to take all the papers to a car accessories shop who made up and attached our new Cypriot number plates. This cost 20 Euros.

If you have any questions please ask away !

BabsM

I heard the Cyprus Government might be getting rid of customs tax on vehicles imported into Cyprus in the New Year. Has anybody heard any truth to this?

[steveg63]

Just had an update from our shipping company, if you are bringing in a vehicle to Cyprus from UK you must have 'lived in the UK for at least 12 months and have owned the car for the past 6 months, if you pass both of these then there will be no import duty, hope this is correct????

Also he did state that the EEC are trying to get Cyprus to abide by their laws on import duty so that they fall in line with other members, if and when this happens will make the more expensive items cheaper.

Steve

[chrisjac]

Originally Posted by steveg63

Just had an update from our shipping company, if you are bringing in a vehicle to Cyprus from UK you must have 'lived in the UK for at least 12 months and have owned the car for the past 6 months, if you pass both of these then there will be no import duty, hope this is correct????

Also he did state that the EEC are trying to get Cyprus to abide by their laws on import duty so that they fall in line with other members, if and when this happens will make the more expensive items cheaper.

Steve

Hi, we are a couple retiring to Cyprus and we simply want to know whether it is more economical to import a car we own already from the UK, i.e bring one over in a container, or alternatively buy a car on the island when we arrive, we understand that we would not need to pay duty on a new car in Cy as we would be retired, but which is the cheaper option? can anyone clarify please..

P.S Does anyone know if it is possible to get to/from Cy by ferry now and do they take pets and cars?

[Veronica]

Originally Posted by chrisjac

Hi, we are a couple retiring to Cyprus and we simply want to know whether it is more economical to import a car we own already from the UK, i.e bring one over in a container, or alternatively buy a car on the island when we arrive, we understand that we would not need to pay duty on a new car in Cy as we would be retired, but which is the cheaper option? can anyone clarify please..

P.S Does anyone know if it is possible to get to/from Cy by ferry now and do they take pets and cars?

Hi welcome to the forum.
This subject has been well covered in several threads.
It might help you if you were to take some time looking through some of the threads and then ask any other questions you might have.

Veronica

[chrisjac]

Thanks Veronica, we have been looking at the responses etc on the forum but none seem to answer the question definitively, we are hoping someone out there may be able to advise from experience simply whether importing is a viable option or whether it is cheaper and easier to just buy something on the island when we arrive since we would be retired and as such exempt from taxes..

[Veronica]

Originally Posted by chrisjac

Thanks Veronica, we have been looking at the responses etc on the forum but none seem to answer the question definitively, we are hoping someone out there may be able to advise from experience simply whether importing is a viable option or whether it is cheaper and easier to just buy something on the island when we arrive since we would be retired and as such exempt from taxes..

As things stand at the present time time you can buy a car duty free if you are retired. However you cannot then sell it unless you pay the duty on it. The same applies if you bring a car in.
It is far easier just to pay the duty as it saves problems later. However as the rules seem to be subject to change once the Cyprus government comes into line with EU laws duty should be abolished anyway.
At the moment the whole thing is very much a muddle and no one really seems to have a definitive answer.