Exporting a car from the UK to Trinidad help

[craig2003]

I am looking for a bit of advice please
One of my colleagues out here in Trinidad has been thinking about buying a car in the UK and having it shipped down, due to the vast difference in purchasing price between the two countries
Has anyone done this and if so how do you go about it, can you give a rough idea of costs etc and any other considerations he should be thinking about.

[DavidHM]

1. I assume they're RHD?

2. Is the disparity due to taxation/duty? If so, the savings may disappear.

[craig2003]

He has accounted for the taxation loss, and yep all right hand drive here

[davepoth]

Easy answer is bung it into a container, and lash it down.

Duty wise you'll be looking at between 25% and 40% depending on engine capacity, assessed on the cost of the car, the freight and the insurance. Then add 15% on top of that for VAT.

[craig2003]

davepoth said:

Easy answer is bung it into a container, and lash it down.

Duty wise you'll be looking at between 25% and 40% depending on engine capacity, assessed on the cost of the car, the freight and the insurance. Then add 15% on top of that for VAT.

Duty to be paid in Trinidad?

[davepoth]

Yup, to be paid before the car is released from customs.

[craig2003]

Thanks Dave, I will pass on this thread details to him.

I had a feeling it was not going to be as clear cut as he thought

[cailean]

I looked at this in 2002 and it only made sense if you were a returning resident and the car was high spec and over 3 or 4 years old. I think you also had to have owned the car for over a year or so. The duty exemptions given in T&T were in place to encourage trinis to return home but they couldn't buy a new car and ship it down. This may have changed now. At the time all the information was available from T&T customs. Shipping had to be done by RORO ship (possible from UK back then) or just secure it in a container (about £3k back then). It didn't make sense for a trini resident in T&T to ship a new car down as you then had to pay the duty, VAT etc that a dealer would have to.

Edited by cailean on Sunday 25th September 22:33