Good evening, I'm moving to Basel from Italy and I want to take my car with me.
The issue is that the car is registered to my father, even if I have alway used it. This is a common way to do in Italy but now I don't know how to proceed.

The options that I have until now are:
- Do nothing, leaving the italian plates and paying the italian car insurance. But what about the parking permit?
- My father provides me with a statement that he owns the car but I can use it. Shall I change the plates? And the insurance?
- Make a change of ownership. Is there a way to not pay importation duties?

Any of you have had this experience? Any advice?
Thank you!

You can drive an EU car for up to a year before importing it I believe. That might help you, by giving you time to decide.

Yes. You have one year from your registration date to play this game with the car. Then you'll have to change ownership and pay import taxes or give it back to your papa.

Hello Giolen, I am exactly in the same situation as you:
-italian;
-auto registered in the name of the father and with italian plate;
-going to Switzerland (Zürich);

And yes, I am not worrying about it since there is one year to switch the plates and even I dont think its necessary.
By the way my plan is to switch the priopriety to my name in Italy, take an insurance in Italy for the minimum period (maybe 6 months but I am not sure...) and then re-immatriculate it in Switzerland. But this plan is valid since is still valid the "Bersani Law" which I dont it still is... Do you know something about?

p.s. Ma che strano scriverci in inglese fra italiani. Cmq, se vuoi contattami in privato! Salutami l´Italia e dille che mi manca!

In Zürich, they seem to care more about usage than ownership. If you can prove prior ownership, but not usage, you may have to pay taxes, but, if you can show personal usage for the 6-months prior to moving, then you can import the car as personal goods and avoid the tax.

http://www.stva.zh.ch/internet/siche.../FZimport.html

Translation for languages other than English please.

What about a parking permit, can you get one without Swiss Plates?

p.s. how strange is to speak english between italians. Anyway you can PM me if you want! Say hello to Italy from me and tell her I miss her

Ciao Andrea, The Bersani law is still valid but you have to be in the same family status (Stato di famiglia) of your father, and I don't...
But there is still the cost of the property change that is around 450€...
In fact this is what I'm planning to do, at the Italian custom I will show a declaration from my father that states that he is the owner but I have always been the user and that he agrees on that.
I am now investigating on how to manage the change of plates and the insurance...

Strange? it's englishforum-

Good idea, exchange PM so the "solution" will be kept by your community of "italiens speakers" only.


So basically it's an italian posting (it matters apparently) waiting for getting an answer. But because he is italian he should get private messages from italians to get the answer.
Non italians speakers can go to f3ck , they are useless anyway-

Hi,
How about the owner sell the car to you for let's say 100chf, then you officially import and pay the "IMportation duties"?
It's 8% + 4% based on the value of the car...

I don't think it's an Italian posting as in my opinion it applies to anyone whose parent owns the car s/he uses.

See what I found in the customs website: http://www.ezv.admin.ch/zollinfo_pri...x.html?lang=en

Great! So I don't need to change the ownership of my car!

...I quickly checked the rules and I havent read that is forbidden to write in another language and since its the english forum SWITZERLAND and italian is an official language in CH I dont think I have done something so bad. About the PM, it was not related to the solution of the problem.

Dude, clam down.

I know that in Zürich there is no problem getting (paying for) a blue zone parking permit on foreign plates as long as you own the car. It is also no problem exchanging it when you change to Swiss plates. Just make sure you import your car within 1 year of arriving to Switzerland. In Zürich it is really easy, you can do it at Zollamt. No need to fill in any papers at the border.
Your car will also need to pass a test. When talking to Strassenverkehrsamt in Zürich on the phone, I have been given the information that for that you have to wait for 2-3 weeks. That's not true, it's 4-6 weeks.

So, to sum up, even if the car you're driving is in the name of another person, you still have to change the license plates?

Some people told me yesterday that in that case, you don't have to, since you can't force the owner to change the plates. But, it smelled like a hoax to me, so that's why I searched for a thread like this...

Once you have a CH license, you can not drive a foreign registered car in CH, unless you have officially declared the car to customs on arrival.

We just successfully imported a Vauxhall Agila from England.

1) You need a serial number when you go through customs which costs 20 CHF (alternatively you can get this at an office in Bern)

2) You car must be taxed and insured in the original country until you get the Swiss plates and insurance. You must make sure that your car insurance covers driving outside of your country, as not all do.

3) Take your car to a garage. You need an emissions test and they need to make sure it's fit to drive (and clean!) before you take it for the MOT (or MOT like procedure that they do).

4) You may have to change lights or various other components to match with Swiss standards. This can be expensive.

5) You get the all clear from the test, go into the office and get your plates. They send you a bill for car tax and the plates and the test.

6) You need to inform the country of origin that the car has been exported. I know in the UK you could also declare it as SORN but that might complicated things in the future. If you do nothing, they will fine you when the tax runs out.

The last part is where not having the vehicle registered in your name will be an issue.

Is it really the case? I haven't seen anything mentioned in this link, though.

And what happens in that case? Annual tax for using foreign registered car in CH?