Importing car into Finland

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ruben
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Joined: Mon Sep 11, 2017 4:25 pm

Importing car into Finland

Post by ruben » Mon Sep 11, 2017 4:42 pm

I'm moving from Belgium to Finland in a couple of weeks and taking my car with me.
How can I calculate what I have to pay for import tax?



Importing car into Finland

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Piet
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Location: Finland

Re: Importing car into Finland

Post by Piet » Tue Sep 12, 2017 1:53 pm

You can find that somewhere here, search for the make model and year in these lists, these are the lists from the customs and tax decisions.
Sadly only in Finnish.

https://www.vero.fi/henkiloasiakkaat/au ... tuista_ve/

the list of august: https://www.vero.fi/contentassets/f3326 ... a-2017.pdf

you will be looking at the last vertical row called Autovero

Luckily when I moved it was still allowed to take one car with me for free :mrgreen: (had to pay for my motorbike though).
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tavastia
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Re: Importing car into Finland

Post by tavastia » Wed Sep 13, 2017 8:21 am

if you own the car for 6 months before you more you can take it as moving goods and you will not pay taxes for it. There are some restrictions to this: only you and your family members from the same household can drive it for 3 years and also if you sell it less than 3 years after import you will need to pay the tax.

ruben
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Re: Importing car into Finland

Post by ruben » Wed Sep 13, 2017 12:53 pm

Piet wrote:You can find that somewhere here, search for the make model and year in these lists, these are the lists from the customs and tax decisions.
Sadly only in Finnish.
The thing is that the car is under my company's name (limited liability company/bvba in Belgium) and I would put it in my Finnish company (so it has been in my possession for over 6 months but under my company's name). So not really sure if I'll have to pay. I intend to keep it for at least 3 years to come.
tavastia wrote:if you own the car for 6 months before you more you can take it as moving goods and you will not pay taxes for it. There are some restrictions to this: only you and your family members from the same household can drive it for 3 years and also if you sell it less than 3 years after import you will need to pay the tax.
Thanks for the lists, my little (but growing) knowledge of Finnish sufficed to decode it ;) I saw a very similar car in the list of 2 months ago that paid around €1000 import tax so it wouldn't be the end of the world.

Upphew
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Re: Importing car into Finland

Post by Upphew » Wed Sep 13, 2017 2:29 pm

tavastia wrote:if you own the car for 6 months before you more you can take it as moving goods and you will not pay taxes for it. There are some restrictions to this: only you and your family members from the same household can drive it for 3 years and also if you sell it less than 3 years after import you will need to pay the tax.
That applies to 31.12.2017 and for cars bought before 31.12.2014. If the move happens next year or car is newer... tough luck. Or at least that was my understanding when I read about muuttoajoneuvon Suomeen tuonti from http://www.vero.fi
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Upphew
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Re: Importing car into Finland

Post by Upphew » Wed Sep 13, 2017 2:33 pm

ruben wrote:The thing is that the car is under my company's name (limited liability company/bvba in Belgium) and I would put it in my Finnish company (so it has been in my possession for over 6 months but under my company's name). So not really sure if I'll have to pay. I intend to keep it for at least 3 years to come.
Just remember that using a car owned by company is taxable income. Check www.vero.fi/autoetulaskuri
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ruben
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Re: Importing car into Finland

Post by ruben » Thu Sep 14, 2017 12:42 pm

Upphew wrote:
ruben wrote:The thing is that the car is under my company's name (limited liability company/bvba in Belgium) and I would put it in my Finnish company (so it has been in my possession for over 6 months but under my company's name). So not really sure if I'll have to pay. I intend to keep it for at least 3 years to come.
Just remember that using a car owned by company is taxable income. Check http://www.vero.fi/autoetulaskuri
Also when I'm owner of the company and it is a one man business? (Tmi/ private trader)

Upphew
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Re: Importing car into Finland

Post by Upphew » Fri Sep 15, 2017 11:24 am

ruben wrote:
Upphew wrote:
ruben wrote:The thing is that the car is under my company's name (limited liability company/bvba in Belgium) and I would put it in my Finnish company (so it has been in my possession for over 6 months but under my company's name). So not really sure if I'll have to pay. I intend to keep it for at least 3 years to come.
Just remember that using a car owned by company is taxable income. Check http://www.vero.fi/autoetulaskuri
Also when I'm owner of the company and it is a one man business? (Tmi/ private trader)
Nah, then you just keep driving log and either use deductions in your own prefilled tax return or do the deductions in your company's accounting, depending if you have more personal kms or job kms.
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rob360
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Re: Importing car into Finland

Post by rob360 » Fri Sep 15, 2017 3:30 pm

Sorry to jump in this thread. If I purposely bought a car from other EU countries such as Sweden or Germany and bring it to Finland so I will have to pay the autovero.

I read the list from PDF file and I guess that verotusarvo is the price of the car purchased or it is the standard price used by Finnish Tax Service to determine autovero ?

Does country of origin of the car affect how much the tax you have to pay ? (Ex : buying from Germany gets higher tax than from Sweden)

FinnGuyHelsinki
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Re: Importing car into Finland

Post by FinnGuyHelsinki » Sat Sep 16, 2017 10:15 am

rob360 wrote:I read the list from PDF file and I guess that verotusarvo is the price of the car purchased or it is the standard price used by Finnish Tax Service to determine autovero ?
It's the "standard" price, i.e. an estimate what a similar car would cost if bought in Finland.
rob360 wrote:Does country of origin of the car affect how much the tax you have to pay ? (Ex : buying from Germany gets higher tax than from Sweden)
No.

rob360
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Re: Importing car into Finland

Post by rob360 » Sat Sep 16, 2017 1:44 pm

FinnGuyHelsinki wrote: It's the "standard" price, i.e. an estimate what a similar car would cost if bought in Finland.

No.
Okay, so in case I got cheaper car in Sweden the tax authority will still count the tax based on their "standard price".

For example : I buy a Volvo V70 which cost 5,000 euro from Sweden. Tax authority will not count the tax from the paid price in Sweden but from their own "standard price" list.

Is it correct ?

PJG
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Re: Importing car into Finland

Post by PJG » Sun Sep 17, 2017 12:00 am

rob360 wrote:
FinnGuyHelsinki wrote: It's the "standard" price, i.e. an estimate what a similar car would cost if bought in Finland.

No.
Okay, so in case I got cheaper car in Sweden the tax authority will still count the tax based on their "standard price".

For example : I buy a Volvo V70 which cost 5,000 euro from Sweden. Tax authority will not count the tax from the paid price in Sweden but from their own "standard price" list.

Is it correct ?
Correct. They don't care about value or taxes paid elsewhere in Europe, only how much they value it at if you were to purchase it in the local market.

rob360
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Re: Importing car into Finland

Post by rob360 » Sun Sep 17, 2017 7:43 pm

PJG wrote:
Correct. They don't care about value or taxes paid elsewhere in Europe, only how much they value it at if you were to purchase it in the local market.
Geez, I wonder if buying a car from other EU Countries will end up cheaper than buying in Finland along with the hassle of picking the car and drive it to Finland, taking care all of the paperwork from the country and at Finland.

Does anybody here have recent experience buying cars from other EU country ?

PJG
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Re: Importing car into Finland

Post by PJG » Mon Sep 18, 2017 12:06 am

I have registered a couple of cars here from other EU states.

It all depends on what you're looking to buy to be honest. If you're going shopping with a 5000 euro budget to buy the same model of car already sold here in Finland, you won't save much if anything at all by the time you consider travel costs (ferry/fuel/train/flight etc), import/registration katsastus, number plates, registration tax, decent winter tyres and engine/interior heaters etc. Closer to 10,000+ euro, there are some cars that start to become more attractive IMHO, from the point of view of being able to find something with a little lower mileage and maybe a bit less salt on the underside. You might save a good few hundred or maybe a thousand euro. If you're pushing to the 15k+ budget, yes, go look to mainland Europe. You can start making a real saving there or if you're comfortable spending what you'd spend here anyway, you'll be able to get a car with a much higher equipment specification level.

rob360
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Re: Importing car into Finland

Post by rob360 » Mon Sep 18, 2017 10:15 am

PJG wrote:I have registered a couple of cars here from other EU states.

It all depends on what you're looking to buy to be honest. If you're going shopping with a 5000 euro budget to buy the same model of car already sold here in Finland, you won't save much if anything at all by the time you consider travel costs (ferry/fuel/train/flight etc), import/registration katsastus, number plates, registration tax, decent winter tyres and engine/interior heaters etc. Closer to 10,000+ euro, there are some cars that start to become more attractive IMHO, from the point of view of being able to find something with a little lower mileage and maybe a bit less salt on the underside. You might save a good few hundred or maybe a thousand euro. If you're pushing to the 15k+ budget, yes, go look to mainland Europe. You can start making a real saving there or if you're comfortable spending what you'd spend here anyway, you'll be able to get a car with a much higher equipment specification level.
I see. So in your experience the more money you spend for the car in mainland EU the more you save for the car. I have seen quite attractive priced Volvo in Sweden or German brands (VW, Merc, BMW, Audi) in Germany, compared with the one advertised at Nettiauto. That is why I asked about this thing since I am curious if buying in mainland and bringing it here would be cheaper than buying in Finland.

Also about the diesel or gasoline powered cars, which one has cheaper yearly tax ? With the assumption of same model like BMW 320d with 318 gasoline which has almost the same engine size and driven about 1,000 km / month.


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