VAT on imported car
Discussion
I'm looking to import a second hand car from France that was once registered in the UK.
It still has UK plates on it and was never registered in France because to do so would have required an engine conversion which the current French owner is not willing to do (thus the reason for sale).
According to the DVLA the car has been officially exported so to re-register it in the UK I will have to send a form off to NOVA who assess the vehicle for whether any VAT payment is due on the car.
For a car to be exempt from any VAT charge I have to pass two tests:
That it is second hand (i.e., over 6 months old and over 6000KMs)
That I have paid VAT on its purchase in the Member State of supply
The first point is passed (dates from 2006); the second point, apparently means that I must be able to prove that the car has had VAT paid on at some point in its life. That obviously happened when the car was originally purchased from the manufacturer by the original owner. We don't have the original receipt so we can't prove this.
However, the DVLA has a record of this car being registered in the UK (also the car is manufactured exclusively in the UK.) We also have 4 MOT's dating back to 2009.
I wanted to know if anyone has any experience of dealing with NOVA and/or thoughts on whether I'm going to have to pay the 20% VAT charge (gulp) on this vehicle.
All help really very much appreciated.
Cheers
It still has UK plates on it and was never registered in France because to do so would have required an engine conversion which the current French owner is not willing to do (thus the reason for sale).
According to the DVLA the car has been officially exported so to re-register it in the UK I will have to send a form off to NOVA who assess the vehicle for whether any VAT payment is due on the car.
For a car to be exempt from any VAT charge I have to pass two tests:
That it is second hand (i.e., over 6 months old and over 6000KMs)
That I have paid VAT on its purchase in the Member State of supply
The first point is passed (dates from 2006); the second point, apparently means that I must be able to prove that the car has had VAT paid on at some point in its life. That obviously happened when the car was originally purchased from the manufacturer by the original owner. We don't have the original receipt so we can't prove this.
However, the DVLA has a record of this car being registered in the UK (also the car is manufactured exclusively in the UK.) We also have 4 MOT's dating back to 2009.
I wanted to know if anyone has any experience of dealing with NOVA and/or thoughts on whether I'm going to have to pay the 20% VAT charge (gulp) on this vehicle.
All help really very much appreciated.
Cheers
If you have the chassis number, I'd expect Caterham would have documentation relating to the sale and whether VAT was paid at the time. If the car was registered in 2006, accounts should be available for seven years, so there's still a chance they could be traced.
Secondly, if the car was sold as an export, VAT may not have been paid.
Secondly, if the car was sold as an export, VAT may not have been paid.
The Vin Plate on right hand drive cars is just behind the peddle box this is a rectangular aluminium plate with details including chassis number you may also be interested in this detail from the Lotus 7 Club
Also worth taking the pedal box cover off: VIN number is stamped on pedal box this is the actual frame/chassis number which should match the plate.
http://7faq.com/owbase/ow.asp?ChassisNumbers
And here
http://www.blatchat.com/t.asp?id=169483
Also worth taking the pedal box cover off: VIN number is stamped on pedal box this is the actual frame/chassis number which should match the plate.
http://7faq.com/owbase/ow.asp?ChassisNumbers
And here
http://www.blatchat.com/t.asp?id=169483
Edited by Toaster on Sunday 3rd November 19:59
S1X OK said:
If you have the chassis number, I'd expect Caterham would have documentation relating to the sale and whether VAT was paid at the time. If the car was registered in 2006, accounts should be available for seven years, so there's still a chance they could be traced.
Secondly, if the car was sold as an export, VAT may not have been paid.
Six OK - big thanks for this advice - I found the chassis no and rang Caterham this morning and voila they sent me a copy of the original invoice a few hours later. Magic.Secondly, if the car was sold as an export, VAT may not have been paid.
So now I am armed with the original receipt which clearly states the VAT paid on the car and the V5. As it qualifies as a second hand car surely now I am exempt from paying VAT again?
Thoughts on that?
Previously I have done this before without any issues. However, last year I attempted the same thing (bringing a Caterham in from Jersey) and was met with poor clarification of the exact process from the relevant bodies. Ultimately I contacted the import office and it appeared that there was an element of discretion involved! Even though I had the original VAT invoice from when he car was originally purchased in the UK I could still be eligible for the VAT again due to the period the car had been out of the country.
Hopefully the info I received was duff and you will get it sorted I just didn't fancy chancing it int he end.
Hopefully the info I received was duff and you will get it sorted I just didn't fancy chancing it int he end.
Sorry, I couldn't find the correspondence from my failed import attempt. From memory I think one of the issue was the fact that the car had been out of the country for over 3 years and was on foreign plates. Therefore I couldn't bring the car back under the radar and register it as I would need the import papers to re-register and out back on UK plates. Your situation sounds a bit more straightforward but I would still want confirmation from the import office first.
Thought I'd follow up on this as I bought the car in question and it was delivered to the UK from France on Saturday. On Sunday I then decided to face the one thing that has been eating away at me for the past month - sorting out the VAT issue on this car.
I spoke to several specialist car importers about whether I'd have to pay tax on this car and they all said no. HMRC themselves just don't know and I would avoid speaking to them as all they do is fill you with doubt that there is a consistent process to it all.
If you're thinking of importing a vehicle to the UK from another country the people you have to speak to are the Orwellian-sounding Personal Transport Unit in Dover on 01304 664171. Now this number is infamous; if you Google it you will find blogs of people that have never ever got through on this number and when I started trying, sure enough, it was always, and I mean always engaged, no queuing system and not even an answer phone. The trick here is to find 20-minutes of spare time and and to get a phone with a quick redial button and just sit there continuously redialling until, voila, it will ring eventually and you'll get to speak to someone - and, to be fair, this lot were super-helpful.
So I went and registered with HMRC online on Sunday and filled out the NOVA form and got an answer instantaneously that no VAT was due. Happy days!
What I discovered through talking to the PTU, was that if the car is older than 6-months AND has done over 6000-miles under its own steam, and it comes from within the EU you won't have to pay VAT. If you get an erroneous result (which the PTU admitted can and does happen) you can ring the PTU and they will manually over-ride it.
Anyway, I hope this is of use to someone in the future.
I now have the DVLA to deal with and an MOT to pass before that.
I spoke to several specialist car importers about whether I'd have to pay tax on this car and they all said no. HMRC themselves just don't know and I would avoid speaking to them as all they do is fill you with doubt that there is a consistent process to it all.
If you're thinking of importing a vehicle to the UK from another country the people you have to speak to are the Orwellian-sounding Personal Transport Unit in Dover on 01304 664171. Now this number is infamous; if you Google it you will find blogs of people that have never ever got through on this number and when I started trying, sure enough, it was always, and I mean always engaged, no queuing system and not even an answer phone. The trick here is to find 20-minutes of spare time and and to get a phone with a quick redial button and just sit there continuously redialling until, voila, it will ring eventually and you'll get to speak to someone - and, to be fair, this lot were super-helpful.
So I went and registered with HMRC online on Sunday and filled out the NOVA form and got an answer instantaneously that no VAT was due. Happy days!
What I discovered through talking to the PTU, was that if the car is older than 6-months AND has done over 6000-miles under its own steam, and it comes from within the EU you won't have to pay VAT. If you get an erroneous result (which the PTU admitted can and does happen) you can ring the PTU and they will manually over-ride it.
Anyway, I hope this is of use to someone in the future.
I now have the DVLA to deal with and an MOT to pass before that.
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