hi everybody, today we made a trip to DE and on the way back we were stopped on border. the customs officer wants us to pay for our own car we had bought 3 years before we moved here!
we have never heard about it... never being stopped on any bourder during last 5 months saying this....only info we were told is we should have CH registration after a year...
does anyone have the same experience? do we heve to pay the custom when moving to CH for private things- itś like to pay for clouth, plates, iron, old TV....thanks for answers. zuzana

What plates were you using? Swiss license plates?
Did you declare the car when you moved here?

I did not have that experience but i know that you have to register your car here in CH. Your primary residence here in CH, right? Means you have a B permit? I guess you will not get around but pay the tax.

I am quite sure the customs are right. Within one year after you moved here your car should have been imported as a personal item/property and thus not being subject to tax, VAT and what not.

As a Swiss residents with a Swiss drivers licence you are, as far as I know, not allowed to drive a non-swiss registered vehicle in CH.....as weird as it may sound.

Methinks you have to pay.

You have to officially declaire the car when you arrive, then you have a year from taking up residence to register the car.

Once you have a CH driving license your not allowed to drive foreign registered vehicles unless you have declaired them to customs.

Every time you cross the border without declairing the car you are commiting a customs offence as you live here, you did not use the exemption when you arrived so now you will have to pay the tax.

It's the same everywhere in the EU, DVLC state as much on their website.

I just wonder how you managed to insure the car under these circumstances?

if you bring clothes, old TV and car to Switzerland they yes generally you would have to pay taxes and duties on them. There is an exception when those are your household goods and you are moving to Switzerland. For this tax exemption you need to fill out certain forms and declare the goods on the border.

This page will give you more info: http://www.ezv.admin.ch/zollinfo_pri...x.html?lang=en

Other than Delaware, where is DE?

Tom

To the internet (amazon.de, mediamarkt.de, etc.)

Next to Sea...

You HAD a tax free window when you moved into the country 3 years ago. If you didn't declare it then you are out of luck. Now you need to import it, pay duties, etc or sell it in whatever country it's registered in.

My main concern too

When we moved from the UK we had to have a complete list of everything we were bringing in - each box had to have a list of contents. They never checked anything, but they could have done. Our car also had to be imported with all the necessary documents and as we did it properly, we did not have to pay tax and had up to a year to register the car. We did it immediately to make sure we could be insured properly.

I think there is a misunderstanding - the OP bought the car three years ago but only seems to have been in Switzerland 5 months (or at least that's how I understood her post but I have to say it isn't that clear).

That's how I understood it too, so I've been waiting for a suitable reply. If you have a year to register a car, what is the window for declaring it as imported? I'm sure I've read about people on here who brought a car in Switzerland, drove it for almost a year on foreign plates/insurance and then sold it in the country of registration. Is that not legal, or did they officially import it and then export it when they were going to sell it?

You have a year to register it PROVIDING you have done it properly and declared it at the time of the move, with the proper documentation and importation number (for which you have to pay a small admin fee). If you don't do it at the time, then that's it - you have to pay import tax.

You have to declare it when you bring it over, no window according to law. Now, if you moved here and left a car behind, you have 18 months to import it as part of your household. The OP can of course try that, as I understand that no previous declaration has been made. If there is a record of the car being here for 5 months already, it might not work though.

All info available if you click on the link I provided earlier.

Ah, yes. Thank you. Sorry about that. It's on the official customs website. Who's going to dig that out?

ETA: I see Ullainga dug it out!



How much time do I have to import the items which are still abroad?

The household effects should be imported during the period of transfer of domicile. No problem is posed if this occurs within a period of 18 months. The main prerequisite that the articles should have been used for a period of at least six (6) months before the transfer of domicile must nonetheless be respected. With regard to subsequent consignments, tax exemption will only be granted under certain conditions.

The problem here is the OP has tried to smuggle the car in, rather than declairing it.

Yes, however the the correct country code is 'D', not 'DE'.

Tom