Dear Anthony1406,

I am roughly in a similar situation. I want to import a car that belongs to my mother and make it my own.

Can I ask you a number of details?

Did you do a ownership passage in the Netherlands and then you imported the car?

Or did your sister brought the car to Switzerland with NL plate and then performed the car exportation in the Swiss Inland (so basically, instead of doing the paperwork at the border you do it at your Zollamt?), including property passage?

Thanks in advance for your kind reply,
Edo

Funny

Hi All,
very interesting thread.
In the very first post is mentioned the VAT is 8% +4% tax.
Will it be possible to claim back the 'other country's VAT for an used vehicle? sometimes the dealers mention 'separate VAT in the invoice'

thanks all

Mike

For cars that we are importing as personal property (owned longer than 6months) do we still need to get the CoC or CoO? and if we do, do we need this prior to importing/arriving at the Swiss border?

That depends upon the country. For the UK the answer is only if you buy the car new, and specifically state you wish to export it before purchase. The VAT refund permission must be obtained before the day of purchase. It cannot be done restrospectively once the vehicle is purchased.

CoO (Certificate of Origin): No, as no duty is due on such an import.

CoC (Certificate of Conformity): Maybe, not 100% sure, I would recommend it. It is not needed for the import but for registration. It definitely will make life easier if you have it.

Just discovered this video from the Swiss customs authority on how to import an EU vehicle...

In English:



In French:



In German:

Planning to import my second car. With the first one, I was shy and purchased "certified pre-owned", with two years' warranty but lo and behold, the Swiss do not support it.

Does anyone of you have experience with BMW Premium Selection from EU country importing here and if it works? Any comments or recommendations if this is worth paying for welcome.

Rubbish videos

They do not provide the important information, and, for having imported several cars, it's useless. I can not imagine any custom officer which would easily provide the "temporary form" without accurately naming it the "15.25 form".
It's also lacking a lot of important information like where to get the import list (from e-dec or paid to an import company), neither it's mentionning about the CO2 certificate (stamp, in fact) to the form 13.20 which needs to be presented to the technical inspection (to be obtained by sending recorded mail to a specific co2 department in Bern), for new vehicles.

The video hardly constitute a remote introduction but are very very lacking. Where to get the docs done, how much they cost, how long each steps lasts, etc...

Normally not, but that depends on the laws of the exporting country, not Switzerland. You would have to ask them.

Tom

I disagree, although it's a question of interpretation. Are we talking about a private sale or buying from a dealer/garage? If you buy your second-hand car from a VAT-registered dealer—and that's most car dealers in Europe—and the car is not on consignment as a private purchase, then the dealer has to charge VAT (around 20% in the EU). If this case, the VAT is refundable if the car is exported. I've bought a car and a motorcycle in Germany for import to CH and got 100% of the German VAT (MWSt) refunded.

Having said that, I don't know if Italy has a problem with VAT refunds. I'd expect some sort of EU harmonisation on this issue.

If you buy the car in a private sale, no VAT is charged so none is refunded.

European laws are clear on this, when exporting something newly bought out of the EU you can get the VAT back, however this is not a right and a seller is not obligated to work along with this, therefor be sure to agree on this before you buy something and have it on paper with an autograph given the size of the numbers.

Some countries have extra rulings, when exporting from Holland there's also the possibility of getting a (total or partially) refund of the BPM (Not VAT related) depending on the age of the car. This can be high numbers, if the car is new and a diesel and does for example 150gr/km co2 the refund is € 15.550,-, if the car is 5 years old, the refund is about half, still interesting numbers when exporting a car from the Netherlands. And the more environmental unfriendly the car is, the higher this BPM refund will be.

The CoC is necessary for registration.
I just stumbled into this roadblock right now.

I have all other paperwork ready, but it will take up to thirty-five working days (35!!) to get this nice little document from the issuer.
Obviously, there's a fee involved, and regrettably there's no urgency procedure even by paying extra money.

This issue will make me break the 12 months limit for car registration.
Does anyone have any recommendation on how best to cope with a late registration?
I will avoid to use the car, but will need to drive it to the garage for pre-inspection and to the Verkehersamt for the inspection.

I did mine after a year and there was no problem whatsoever. Just don't get into any trouble in the meantime.
Incidentally I think there's a rule that the Manufacturer has to supply one CoC for the car free of charge. I emailed BMW directly (not a dealer) and they sent me one for free within a week.
I still don't get the pre-inspection stuff but it's your money.

As long as you do not use the car on the road you are fine. No issues with late registartion in this case. The pre-inspection can be done now. No excuse for doing it later (if you think it is needed).

For the MFK inspection you can get permission to use the car on that day to drive directly to the inpection place. Check with your local StVA/SAN what is needed in terms of insurance, paperes, etc. Could be that a insurance quote in the system is enough, could be that you will need day plates. One small risk, if it is found to be not road worthy and unsafe you can only remove it from the lot on a trailer.

__________________
On Strike - ChatGPT knows more than I, so use it (or doesn't it?)

Or get a garage to do it for you.

Tom

Thanks. I just called the Nissan Customer Service, and they explained that they don't issue the CoC and go through this external company.
I have the strong suspicion that this is country dependent.

Yes, I've read the different opinions on the pre-inspection.
I've had enough trouble with Swiss bureaucracy that I'd rather be safe than sorry, even if it costs some extra bucks.

Have a mechanic that you know deal with it for you.

I did, twice (though the second time I chased down most of the paperwork myself).

Tom

Hi Tom, going through a mechanic is how I discovered the missing CoC paper... I had asked a garage to do all the bureaucracy for me.
They gave me the appointment for today, and voilà, here I am to deal with the issue on my own.

Incidentally, a colleague imported a car in the Neuchatel canton (I'm in Aargau) and he said that the local traffic office procured the CoC for him (rather than he providing the CoC to them), and he got a next day appointment for the inspection.

In my case I need to first have all docs, including the CoC, then book the appointment the timing of which is uncertain.
I have the strong feeling that my car will stay in its parking lot for a while.

For the time being it's all uphill, and just getting worse.

Had I known this from the start, I would avoid buying the car outside Switzerland - which I have to believe is the reason behind this ton of buraucratic adempiements: discourage people.

I should have learned first time around.

Second time, I was even personal friends with the Swiss importer of Ducati, the local shop, people at the factory where I had bought the bike, etc. and we still had problems!

Took a year to get Swiss plates!

Meanwhile, the head of MFK BL and I had some phone and fax discussions, at which point he told me to give it one more try with the locals or he would do it for me in BL, as all my faxed paperwork was in order.

In the end, I got it done locally, but with the aid of the factory, importer, and local dealer.

Tom