mfesharne

As I understand it, you have to have owned the car in it's country of registration for at least one year before you begin the matriculation process & you have to begin that matriculation process within 6 months of obtaining your residencia.

Diddion

Thanks for this. So our plans as noted in post 10 should not lead to any problem, if I understand you correctly? Loafing Along - would you agree with this interpretation?

Loafing Along

I did mention before you seem to be right on the limit if your car ownership of one year is completed after you have left the UK but before you take up Portuguese residency . It is the dead period April - May I refer to , obviously you comply with the "One year's ownership" but very borderline if you add the phrase "In your country of residence before moving to Portugal".

mfesharne

As I see it, either you fit the (very exact) criteria or you don't so if it's a year it's a year........ what you need to be careful of is the residency issue........ You're not supposed to get the residencia until you've been here for 3 months & before 4 months.

Probably a good idea to consult a matriculation agent or even better the ACP.

Loafing Along

Excellent advice - a Customs Agent will clear up the issue of exact dates necessary to meet the one year of ownership in your country of residence.
Worth an email as you are dealing with a potential saving normally running into several thousand Euros. It would be sad to miss out for a few weeks.

Pilou

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
With professional help we want to import our car.
I read that it is not allowed to sell within 5 years. To be honest, I understand this!
BUT what if after 3 or 4 years the car has major problems and the value of the car would be almost nothing and needs to be replaced?
Do we need to pay taxes and how are they calculated if we could sell the car for 500 EUR? Are the taxes you need to pay (because of selling within 5 years) related to the price you sell for (EUR let's say 500 EUR) ?

mfesharne

It's nothing to do with the value of the car & all to do with the tax you avoided & is repayable on a pro rata basis of 20% per year.

In other words if you avoided €5000 in tax & sell after 3 years you have to repay €2000 or if you avoided €25000 & sell after 3 years you have to repay €10000.

Pilou

Thanks, so if you had for example an accident with your car after 2 years and it cannot be repaired, you need to pay back 60 % of the taxes you saved. Or if you gave a serious problem with the motor and it cannot be repaired, you need to pay back taxes on a car that is worthless.
Risky!!!

mfesharne

Not necessarily...... As I understand it, you'd only need to repay the tax if you actually sold the car and/or if ownership was transferred.

The tax free import can be a very good long term investment IF it's done with the right car.......... but note the big IF.

In my own case, I did it with a classic & it's value increased more than 10 fold with it's Portuguese registration compared to it's resale value in the country I bought it from & it's gone up more since then.

However, if you do it with a RHD puddle jumper that's only worth a few hundred quid, it's probably not worth the hassle.

dingg

how would the authorities police the sale in any event?

ie say nowt and no one will know or care (I'd bet)

hny

EMR

Transfer of ownership has to be registered , bet your life the reg no has file just to catch anyone thinking of dodging repayment of tax.

Loafing Along

The whole process is carefully documented and the registration book of the car will show it is an import .

The authorities do check - About six months after I had transfered my car I was shopping one morning when my mobile rang and it was a very pleasant lady from the Customs " We would like to see your car " . I replied " When ? " She said " Now, we are outside your front door !" . I finished my shopping, went home and two Customs officials were waiting with all the car paperwork . They inspected the car and then wanted to see local utility bills as another requirement is you must live in Portugal for at least a year after you have transfered the car .

mfesharne

They'd know in a heartbeat. lol!

Customs didn't check mine but it's also registered as a car of historical interest to Portugal so gets a road tax waiver every year which means they can/could check the waiver every year on line to see who owned it.

dingg

its starting to sound more like nazi germany lol

EMR

You mean stopping anyone taking advantage of the tax reduction by importing, selling
, import another and so on.
If you do not like the way things are done in Portugal, then ?