Importing car to UK

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Vetteran

Original Poster:

238 posts

177 months

Friday 29th April 2016
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As a complete novice I thought I would give some advice that may help anyone completing the VAT paper work involved having learnt the hard way.My situation was importing a car I had purchased and registered in France paying VAT and eco tax in France. The car less than one year old with 3000 miles on the clock. The first part of the process is notifying HMRC VAT office by way of a NOVA. I completed this form with some apprehension fearing possibly the VAT office would ask for payment of VAT and leaving me to try and reclaim from French car dealer. In order to complete the form you need to open an HMRC Gateway account which is straight forward. Unfortunately the NOVA form needs to cover a large range of different types of vehicles so it is not clear as you complete each section if you are likely to have to pay VAT and then reclaim.The main point of this post is that when you come to the section that asks how much did you pay for the car IT DOES NOT SAY LESS VAT if you fill in the form with the price including VAT you will receive an email from the VAT technical office saying you need to amend your submission with the price less VAT. This actually means you need to complete the form all over again(half an hour+) and the process starts again timewise Considering how much info the VAT office are seeking on their form it would have been very simple to make it clear PRICE LESS VAT !!

nickfrog

21,088 posts

217 months

Friday 29th April 2016
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Annoying I guess- I haven't imported a car for a while and the old system just relied on you supplying the invoice that verified you had paid VAT in the EU.

Why did you buy a car in France ? Wasn't it more expensive with the ecotax and low £ ?

Vetteran

Original Poster:

238 posts

177 months

Saturday 30th April 2016
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Only place I could buy a Porsche GT4 .UK Porsche dealer returned my deposit surprise, surprise.

Lagerlout

1,810 posts

236 months

Saturday 30th April 2016
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I think the online NOVA system is great, I got an answer in under four hours, which was totally unheard of a few years ago. It's a great improvement. I agree the forms aren't perfect, but it's loads better than sending a form off and waiting weeks for a response.

Lagerlout

1,810 posts

236 months

Saturday 30th April 2016
quotequote all
PS worst "I just bought a new Porsche GT4" thread eva. wink