Importing A Car Into Uk

[kickstart]

I am negotiating to buy a 1989 F3000 in the US and planning on bringing it back to the UK. The car was exported from the UK to the US in Feb 02 and was driven in period by Blundell.
Customs tell me (on their helpline) that as the car did not come in the top 3 during its racing season that import duty and VAT is payable. Does anyone have any experience of importing racing cars into the UK

Thanks for any info
Kickstart

[carrera]

If you can supply evidence of the car being of significant historic or national importance or interest then you could appeal on these grounds.

[kickstart]

Thanks for that - will speak again to Customs on Tuesday

[MGDavid]

if the car is British-built then Import duty should not apply (returned goods of UK origin). If VAT has never been paid, ie exported when new, then yes you will be liable for that on re-import. But if you can purchase it through a company the VAT may be reclaimable. If VAT was paid originally and it was exported later without reclaiming any VAT at the time of export, then again you may not be liable. Caveat - it's a very long time since I worked in airfreight so my knowledge is rusty...

[kickstart]

Thanks for that MGDavid, the car certainly is British Build and VAT was paid back in about 1990. The owner of the car in the US quit ereasonably thought that VAT etc would not apply as it is being returned to UK - what I was told eventually by someone who seemed far from sure on the Customs helpline was that the returned goods exception only applied if it was being returned back to the same person who originally exported it.
Good old Customs and excise seems that they want two lots of vat on the same goods plus import tax of 10%.

[PeterMorley]

If the VAT was not reclaimed when the car was exported (very unlikely) then it is not liable when you re-import it - that is what the VAT directive says (with any product VAT can only be charged once - it might be reclaimed at various points along the way but once it has been paid up that is the end of it).

If it was originally sold within Europe it is questionable that it is liable to duty either - everything due would have been paid when it was new, and if it hasn't been reclaimed it has already fulfilled the requirements.

The issue of low rates for items of historic significance is tricky - and I think depends a lot on who is doing the importing (e.g. their relationship with the customs officer, who can make the decision). And they have changed the rules recently - tightened up on simply accepting anything old as being of historic significance.

One problem is you might need the original invoices to prove that it was originally a European item (it doesn't matter whether it was UK or European these days).

British VAT try to make their own rules but they are obliged to follow European law - the only problem is that someone needs to be the first to do it (we had an issue with buying a new car for someone in the UK - the difference in VAT rates is trivial and paying the VAT in the country of purchase is so much simpler (no transit plates etc) but UK tell you you would have to reclaim it and pay the UK which is not true, according to the people who wrote the rules - they then asked if we would like to be the test case to sort the situation out.

Best thing is to talk to one of the specialist shipping services they have a relationship with customs & exercise and know how it will be treated. One of the biggest used to be called something like Cars UK - not sure if they are still going.

[Alfaholic]

It may be worth applying for a Binding Tariff Information (B.T.I.) decision to try to get the 5% VAT applicable for vehicles of historic interest.


If that fails, import it through Felixstowe and get the agent to ask for me when they submit the import entry to Customs.