Cyprus-Forum.com

[G.Man]

If it is in the UK, and you have owned it over 6 months, you shouldnt be paying anything to bring it in except a registration fee and road tax if you are coming to live here.

Hi G.Man

I have only recently joined this site. However, I read a thread that you contributed to on here as regrads importing a car from the UK. I have spent 4 months trying to research whether or not I will have to pay excise duty on importing my car from the UK to Cyprus. I can not find a definitive answer and it is trully stressing me out as we are due top move out within a month and I need to let the shippers know whether or not I want to take the car!

Can you confrim - does the 6 month rule apply only to those who are retiring to Cyprus? I will not be retiring.

I have a Honda Civic Type R. I have owned it for 9 months here in the UK. I bought it second hand. Its 1997cc and has CO2 emmissions of 215. I will be residing permanently in Cyprus and have a 1 year tenancy agreement to this effect.

Do you know where I can find wriiten confirmation that I wont have to pay the excise duty (which would be about CY£4000 GBP£4800!!!)? As the CYP MOF website seems to indicate that I will still have to pay the excise duty?

Soooooooo confusing!!! I cant sell the car in th UK as I would lose too much money.

I appreciate any comments.

Regards, Simon

If you have owned it in the UK for 9 months, have proof of insurance, employment, and housing in uk, and are permanently relocating to cyprus you should not pay duty...

Many people import from uk and pay minimal duty...

dont worry, its just a bit of an admin headache, but worth it for the cost savings

[G.Man]

If it is in the UK, and you have owned it over 6 months, you shouldnt be paying anything to bring it in except a registration fee and road tax if you are coming to live here.

Hi G.Man

I have only recently joined this site. However, I read a thread that you contributed to on here as regrads importing a car from the UK. I have spent 4 months trying to research whether or not I will have to pay excise duty on importing my car from the UK to Cyprus. I can not find a definitive answer and it is trully stressing me out as we are due top move out within a month and I need to let the shippers know whether or not I want to take the car!

Can you confrim - does the 6 month rule apply only to those who are retiring to Cyprus? I will not be retiring.

I have a Honda Civic Type R. I have owned it for 9 months here in the UK. I bought it second hand. Its 1997cc and has CO2 emmissions of 215. I will be residing permanently in Cyprus and have a 1 year tenancy agreement to this effect.

Do you know where I can find wriiten confirmation that I wont have to pay the excise duty (which would be about CY£4000 GBP£4800!!!)? As the CYP MOF website seems to indicate that I will still have to pay the excise duty?

Soooooooo confusing!!! I cant sell the car in th UK as I would lose too much money.

I appreciate any comments.

Regards, Simon

Simon,

There is an overwhelming amount of advice on this and other forums that it is better to leave your car at home.

You might bring it in with no problems but you are more likely to end up with an administrative nightmare and possibly end up paying thousands in duty or having your car impounded.

I met a guy in Pissouri a while ago – I told him not to bring his car over but he assured me that now we are in the EU they can’t stop you, his accountant would sort them out, his solicitor would complain, etc. Last I heard his car had been impounded pending payment of duty.

sorry but if you have owned the car for 6 months + and are relocating to live in cyprus, your advice is just plain wrong!

Proof of use and living in uk and then moving to cyprus "permanently" is all you need to prove and its easy if drawn out...

[cyprusgrump]

sorry but if you have owned the car for 6 months + and are relocating to live in cyprus, your advice is just plain wrong!

Proof of use and living in uk and then moving to cyprus "permanently" is all you need to prove and its easy if drawn out...

I’m not debating the facts of what you say and there are undoubtedly people that have done so successfully.

However, there are also plenty of people that are struggling to do so. Perhaps they upset the guy at the desk or the guy was having a bad day but there are countless stories of people trying for extended periods to get their vehicles in and being asked for the most ridiculous paperwork.

Given even the faint possibility of your vehicle being held up or impounded is it worth the risk? And does anybody posting on this board really want to spend their first six months in Cyprus running around trying to sort out the importation of a car?

[paphosfan]

Thanks for all the comments guys.

I appreciate that some people get it all sorted in next to no time and others have to jump through hoops - but at the end of the day if jumping through hoops is all it is, i'll happily do it and keep the £4-5k in my back pocket.

Just out of interest though - I think that perhaps my car is impractical for life on the Island. Therefore, I am considdering buying a second hand mitsubishi L200 (Warrior) on about a uk 2004 plate. From reading the cyprus Ministry of Finance webiste I see that such twin cab vehicles have excise duty at 15 cents per C.C of the vehicle.

Has anyone on the board here taken an L200 to Cyprus and can you confirm the excise duty will only be 15 cents per C.C. ? (plus the 1 cents per cc additional)

Many thanks, Simon

[Svetlana]

Why bother to import one, we have thousands of double cabs here!

Lana

[cyprusgrump]

As Lana says, the double-cab is the national car of Cyprus – there are thousands of them here.

However, given that you have chosen to ignore the advice on this thread and the dozens of others on the board about importing cars, why don’t you bring it over and publish your findings here so we can all see how easy or difficult it is?

[paphosfan]

Lana - thanks - the information I am really after is the cost of such a vehicle (L200) in cyprus. I am trying to go with the most cost effective route.

Cyprusgrump - I am not ignoring any information and I am simply researching. Thanks for your useless input, hope it floats your boat.

Simon

[Svetlana]

I am not sure what the comparative costs of doublecabs in the two countries is but it cannot be great and if it avoids shipping/any contact with Cypriot Customs it must be better to buy one here, plus local warranty (such as it is LOL!) etc.

Paphos is 'Doublecab City', there are at least 8 doublecabs per resident and you will have a very wide choice, of new old and very old models!

Lana

O/T but did you know we consume around 200,000 goats a year in Cyprus? That's about half a goat per adult, per year!

[Crivens]

Personally things have been going alright with us. It helped though that we knew people who had done it before and warned us to save every bit of paperwork for years. Which annoyingly is not in my nature. Luckily we get fridays off so it hasn't been too bad getting to the offices each time (get there really early, and don't forget it's only open till about 1pm). Basically you can go anytime something like a week or two before the extension runs out. We have been twice so far (with 3 months extensions for both, which from what I gather is as good as it gets), and now apparently we do not need to bring anything else but our new Cypriot bank statements. Although we did have to bring pretty much every other document I had ever recieved.

We did have everything they asked for though, with the only exception being a couple of photocopies not being the right size (my passport one was actual passport size and they want A4), and I was missing a couple of council tax bills (they asked for the last 3 years, and I was missing 2005, but because I went back to 2000, and brought that with me, they were satisfied). Also we got the same women each time. She was very nice and we were very nice back. I've heard the stories when people get a bit annoyed so was trying extremely hard not to say anything picky. Overall, based on my minimal experience of Cyprus (but it is quite a bit when you move here completely), I think I would rather deal with women here than men. I have dealt with very nice cypriot men (my accountant, my bank bloke, and my medical insurance bloke), but have dealt with some right grumpy gits when I have been nice as you like. And I haven't dealt with a women yet who was as bad.

Oh, and listen out for when they call you. Last time I was number one (you pick a number like in the doctor) after getting then seriously early (about 8am), and a woman who was number 4, I think, tried to get in when the woman called (they do greek first then english normally). Ok, I was a bit dozy at that time after waiting for like an hour (is worth it to get away early), and I guess she thought no-one would notice because the majority were english (and they had only said something in greek at that point), but pretty much everyone turned around and started grumbling. Heh, don't muck around with a dozen or so english people who had just been sitting around for about an hour doing nothing else but grumble about how annoying this duty stuff was. She soon sat down.

So far so good then basically. Only worry left really is about them turning around and saying no more extensions (like mentioned previously). Cross my fingers...

Out of interest, I have no worries paying duty, just not thousands. It's the principle of the thing. Even with the recent drop in the amount I was still told it would be about £3000 on my car which cost me £10000GBP 2 years ago (was a good deal though). More annoying is it is a 2 seater convertible with a 1.8 engine. A friend of mine brought in a 4 seater convertible with a 1.6 engine and she paid something like £200 for the duty. Eh? Well annoying.

Cheers