Car Import from the UK - Anyone actually done it?

by **visuvesi2009** » Fri May 25, 2012 11:13 am

I have inherited an old sports car from my late uncle in the UK and needs some help regarding having it shipped to Finland.

The car is not really worth much (other than sentimental value) as we restored it about 15 years ago (hence me being gifted it in his will) and its lived in a garage untouched for the last 12 years so will probably take some work before being road worthy.

I have found a company to ship the car into Turku port. this part was easy... I have all the paperwork (registration Document etc)

The car is more than 25 years old and as close to factory standard as is possible and of course RHD so should be classified as a historic vehicle
http://www.tulli.fi/fi/yksityisille/aut ... /index.jsp

This is where it gets difficult...
Every place I look for information on the taxes, duties and procedures for importing give conflicting advice.
Has anyone here actually got a hard and fast list of what we need to do?

From what I can work out the duty is car tax is calculated on the value of similar vehicles in Finland. Looking at the ones currently on sale in Finland the prices for this model vary between €8-12,000, these are however in far better condition than my car (fully restored etc). Then there is the VAT etc. So soes this mean they will base their tax valuation on the cost of a perfect car and not take into account that the car needs work?

Can anyone help here?

**Sponsor:**

by **Rugbysteve** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 12:13 pm

Hi, it's a shame that no one has answered your question.
I am also looking to get a car from the UK, but cannot find concrete evidence of what the costs are.
An import company, that unfortunately doesn't import from the UK, said it is the following.
purchase car price + 23% of the value of a similar car in Finland, and then about 500€ for paperwork.
I'm looking to get a Subaru Impreza WRX STi, purchase price in UK ~6000€ cost of car in finland is 24000€, 23% tax is approx 5500€.
so the car should cost 6000€ + 5500€ plus the 500€, so 12000€, half the price of Finland. yet another source told me the tax is actually the 23% tax and then 23% tax on the tax......

Anyone able to shed any light? and apart from the steering wheel being on the other side, the only thing additional needed would be the under car corrosion stuff.

cheers

by **Upphew** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 1:15 pm

http://www.tulli.fi/en/finnish_customs/ ... /index.jsp

by **Kutittaa** » Mon Jul 02, 2012 1:45 am

Maybe no one answered because it's been asked a million times.

by **Pursuivant** » Mon Jul 02, 2012 7:32 pm

The tax is assessed by the "trilby method" as in "pulled from the hat". What you can do is go browse the statistics from past years, find similar make & model, and get the "ballpark" figure. They have these scientific mathemagical formulae that nobody can make a headless tail out esp. on classics. It does help if you add pictures in the customes declaration of the "state of the car" as yes, they look at the "condition" - that is if they're in a good mood.

And yes, then theres un-VAT that gets charged on the tax. Its not VAT but un-VAT, as the EU has banned charging VAT... I'm not going there. Theres a few blokes that have done the import recently - haven't heard the horror stories (people seldom come back to tell how they got a new orifice) but I know one bloke who does import stuff fairly regularly so if you PM me I can give his number. He might have some pointers as I know the system of the "goodf old times" and they change their damn rules all the time.

by **nismo** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 6:32 pm

Done it personally years ago, just started it again last week. I never learn. It goes something like this;

1. Get car into Finland.
2. Inform customs that your car is here and inform them that you want to register it in Finland.
3. You get 5 days to get all the papers to the customs office, with make/model size of engine, and sale of receipt.
4. Then the ball starts rolling with the taxes, and the guess how much your car might be worth and charge you tax. The tax bill might take some time to arrive.
5. Go to Katsastus, they tell you what's wrong. You fix it/get papers. Car is registered.

You can of course, upon receiving the car get temporary plates to get it home and start the registration process whenever you like later if the car is standing on your property.

RugbySteve: If you need a car from England, I have a company which has imported many sports cars into Finland, including my recent one, so if you are interested, let me know. Don't want to advertise openly!

But the lights obviously will need to be changed, that's one of the main issues and if the car is a JDM car, it might get ugly.