Scottylad

Good luck but I'm sure I'll be in touch again before you leave. How easy is it to get your car in and is it really 127%? Any ideas how much new and second-hand cars are in St Lucia and where to find them?

pgtips

There is always a few cars for sale in the St Lucia shopper magazine
http://www.theshoppermagazine.com/

glitterycloud

Fraid so, just check out St Lucia's customs and excise website its all on there, we wanted to take a vehicle over but when we found out the environmental tax we dismissed the idea straight away!

A_Zimbo

The thing is though Glitter that thanks to the taxing to death of 4WD vehicles by the Labour Govt in UK the price of second hand Land Rovers etc have tumbled. You can get a Freelander for a steal now. By the time we stick the freight on and then add about 127% in duties and taxes it still comes out cheaper than a tired Vitara which is what the second hand car market seemed to comprise of down there.

Did you also work it out to be about 127% in the various Taxes as well then Glitter? Just wanted to check you got roughly same figures I did.

glitterycloud

We worked out that a Vitara in the UK that we looked at would cost us an extra £3200+ on environmental tax and £900 to ship, which when you consider the vehicle in the UK was £1300 we could not justify paying that amount out im sure that we could get a cheaper nicer vehicle than the all the shipping and taxes put together, which is why we didn't bother with shipping a vehicle out. It would have been nice to have the security of knowing it had had an MOT and was "really" roadworthy than the rust buckets I have seen on the roads over there!
We will be putting "getting a vehicle" at the top of the agenda once over there. I work it out to be about 315% in taxes and shipping for us to take over an older vitara hence getting knocked for the expensive environmental levy, we couldn't afford a newer model!!

glitterycloud

Just a quick update .....

We flew in to St Lucia yesterday and am glad to report that the dog made it fine and well, although it will take him longer to get used to the heat rather than the UK weather! Airpets were fantastic and he was sent in a nice secure wooden box with water he was happy but very tired when he got here. We are off to customs in a short while to see about our container I wonder what lies in store for us!!
I will post what happens at custom.

Scottylad

pgtips
Had a look at this site earlier today and I can quite understand why people import vehicles. Those advertised seem to be old and overpriced when compared with UK prices and it may well be worth knowing your own vehicles history and paying a bit extra for import in the knowledge that your own vehicle is safe to drive. I have seen new vehicle showrooms on the road into Castries and would like to know what their vehicles cost. Do you know where I can find new prices?
In view of the prices quoted, even importing older vehicles might not seem as bad as I first thought.
With exporting contacts in Japan is this an area where new business can be formed with any Government concessions?
As we are seriously interested in starting or buying into a business in St Lucia, myself with over 40 years' experience of accountancy and general business experience and my wife with many years' in the care industry, much of which was in a senior position and most recently in a Chief Executive position in autism, we would welcome any suggestions.
In brief we have a wealth of experience in finance and management which we feel would give us both the capability to carry out any number of positions
and individually, if necessary, the ability to specialise in finance and management.
We are prepared to make a financial contribution to any prospective business which we think would be suitable for us, and will welcome any ideas.

A_Zimbo

Reference the car issue Scotty. I quite agree and it is what forced our hand. We took a look at new vehicles down there a couple of months ago. A bog standard Ford Pickup (I think they call it a Ranger) was around a minimum of 100K EC$. For anything with a few knobs and whistles we were talking in excess of this. As you say, the second hand car market here in the UK has been very depressed and we took advantage of that to buy a four wheel drive that we will take down there.

Like yourself, we took one look at the second hand car market and realised that there was little between buying second hand down there or buying here and exporting to SL except if we exported to SL then as you say, at least I know the vehicle, even though by the time I get it there it will be nearly 200% on top of what I paid for it. Essentially there are two main taxes. The import Duties and taxes and then an environmental levy. The former is about 127% and the latter is a rising scale of charges up to 12K EC$ for a vehicle over 5 years. My vehicle is over 5 years old so I am copping for the full whack Environmental Levy. You could buy less than five years old but then I worked out that I would still be paying more for the vehicle and also the 127% Duty so you get hit either way round.

Regarding your other point about a business. My wife and I are also going to invest in a business. We have registered a company for trading under and in June / July will be starting the ramp up phase of that. We'll pass on any information.

Regards
AZ

pgtips

There is a need for speech and language therapist on the island and much more is needed for the care and understanding of Autism and the disorder.
Your wifes experience could prove invaluable. You could open a centre for care and education in this field. Maybe you could have a look what they do at the dunnotar school and see if you could offer any assistance.
Have your wife check info on their website and see what she thinks.
http://www.definitivecaribbean.com/Charity/SLADD.aspx

glitterycloud

Hi everyone, I wanted to report back my experiences of the Customs procedures that we went through today.
Our container arrived on 9th April.
Firstly we went to M & C's to collect the paperwork for customs, this was the Bill of Lading, and a couple of other I cant remember (its been a long day!)
We then went onto Customs, we were seen by a customs officer who said that we will need a broker he called one for us and she turned up straight away.
The broker charged us $1200ec for clearance of a full container and $300ec clearance for the empty container as we pruchased the container aswell. I am led to believe this is the current rate.
We had to provide the paperwork that M & C's gave us along with a detailed inventory with prices of goods. The broker went through our inventory list and made a note of the more larger items ie fridgefreezer, lawn mower, dining table, tv ect and also wanted the material that they were made from (?) the broker turned our inventory into a "SAD" form which had to be produced a bit later.

We were entitled to "Movement of Persons" as my husband is a returning St Lucian, this meant we paid no import duty.
We needed a customs registration number before we could proceed, our broker took care of this for us. Once we had a registration number we went onto see a Mr Gaskin at Customs, he went through the paperwork the broker supplied and interviewed us to insure we fitted the requirements for "Movement of Persons"

Once the interview was over Mr Gaskin went through our "SAD" to ensure we only had used items and no new items. My husband had to sign a residents concession declaration form.

We were told that we would have to pay a deposit (Which turned out to be more like a down payment) out of which the customs charges would be taken and any monies left over refunded. Our broker tallied up the total cost of duty for all of our items, I say all but it was mostly large items they were intested in. Ours came to around $8000ec (not alot hey!!) Out of this a percentage is paid as a deposit, we paid $2000. We also paid $125 for 2 customs officers to come to our home to go through the contents, we had to pay this as they class it as overtime as they come out only after 4.30pm. We also paid $616ec for duty on the container.

(following so far!)
We made a trip to SLASPA to see about any storage charges as it has been here since 9th April, luckily it was Easter inbetween and our free storage ran out the day after, so no charges there.
Once the monies had been paid the broker arranged for a truck to bring the container to our house and for it to be destuffed. The container arrived swiftly and after collecting (yes we had to pick them up and drop them off!) the Customs Officers from their office in Castries they began the long task of destuffing.

A word of warning - we had 2 female officers come to destuff and they went through EVERYTHING, opened every box and listed every electronic item on their form. They were very thorough until they got tired then they just wanted us to point out electornic items to them. I had organised the packing so every box was numbered and corresponded on the inventory with each box detailed seperatly. I neednt have bothered as they paid no attention to the inventory and was more interested in reading our books, looking at our items and generally the feeling of authority.
we now wait and see what price customs will charge us for our things, it wont be more than $2000 as that is all the deposit we paid. I think it will be around 5% we will have to pay.

We also have to wait for the bill for the truck and driver, though that in itself was a nightmare, as we purchased our own container we needed it to be off loaded onto our land but the truck that came could not do it on its own and the second truck needed wasnt available until the next morning so here we are with one truck still outside our house for the night and the next truck coming tomorrow morning to put it onto our land.

Still I am very glad that the whole stressfull shipping is over, it looks like everything made it here in one piece and now we have the unenviable task of unpacking

I hope this helps some of you, if you have any questions i will try my best to help.
Glittery

glitterycloud

If any one is interested I can give you the name of the broker we used if you pm me, she was very good - pushy, bolshy and arrogant but I think thats why we got it done on one morning!!!

pgtips

This all sounds exciting, finally landed eh !!!
I would have thought your husband being a returning national would have been able to bring his goods in duty free.
Anyway good to hear the begining chapter of your new life in the Caribbean has finally began. Good Luck

glitterycloud

no he missed out by a few years he's only been away 7 years rather than the 10 to qualify

Scottylad

pgtips
Thanks for the information. We have looked at the site and can see that a lot needs to be done,and not just for autism. Unfortunately we need to earn an income for a few years yet and there doesn't seem to be any decent funding in St Lucia in that sector. However my wife knows the set up now and will no doubt contact various people over the coming months to see if she can assist in any way.
I will let you know if we make any progress.

Scottylad

Glitterycloud
Sounds like a real horror story and quite off-putting. We will be at least a year before we have to go through this process and definitely not looking forward to it. Customs are scary enough at the best of times.