Car import
 

I am moving to South Africa on a retirement visa and wish to take my car with me, but can't find any information on whether my 4-year visa allows me to do this. Shipper's websites say permanent residency does qualify, but I haven't got that yet. Has anyone done this already?
Thanks
harrym

Re: Car import
 

Hi Harry

I don't know - I'd imagine you need an ID number (and therefore PR) to do this. I know you needed to have been able to prove ownership for at least 12 months and a letter from someone (the bank?) confirming you didn't owe any money on it. Some info here https://www.aa.co.za/travel/into-afr...portation.html and here Importing a second-hand or used vehicle | South African Government

I'd probably ask why you'd want to go through the hassle? With the Rand/£ as it is you could probably pick up a half decent car (even at SA's inflated prices) for a decent price and keep the £1000s it will cost you to ship and clear / taxes and duties etc.

Re: Car import
 

Hi Ededed, Thanks for your response. The car in question has a low resale value in the UK and is almost twice the price in RSA, so the sums work for me. i will buy a half decent car in addition to this one. I have seen the links you sent me but they are not much use; the contact on one left the service last December and the other link is to a page error! Searching for the forms doesn't work either and the only reply from ITAC was 'contact SARS' but their site doesn't tell me anything. One shipping website says I can import but may not get the tax breaks of a permanent resident, but when I call them they didn't really know any details. I just wanted to know if anybody had actually done it.

Re: Car import
 

The 2nd link takes you straight to the official SA government website on importing a vehicle. Sorry if this isn't exactly what you wanted - maybe I should import a vehicle myself and then write a "how to blog" just to make this process easier for you?

Why don't you find a few removal companies, ask them to quote you on a door-door car shipping service and see what they say? For example https://www.pickfords.co.za/services/moving-vehicles/. I hope that link works for you. I tested it a dozen times, just to be sure. They're experts and paid to be up on the importing regulations.

That took 20 seconds of googling. I'm sure there are more experts you can find who do this for a living that can give you up to date information.

Re: Car import
 

I shipped a car twice with Pickfords. They provided an almost door-to-door service for the car (pick up in the UK, drop off at their depot in Jo'burg) and took care of all the paperwork, clearing etc. Just what I wanted - zero hassle.

I'm out of date on the tax implications. As I recall, if you were only a temporary resident, you used to be able to bring in a car on some kind of temp basis without being hammered for tax - but if you stayed, or wanted to sell the car on, then you had to deal with it.

As Ed says, in general it's far easier just to buy a car when you're there.