Importing into Italy for restoration - Duty question

If you participated in the MM I understand the car had a valid registration. No problem with customs formalities in that case, as a officially registered car is a means of transport. The actual car most probably will be unregistered, thus it is simply merchandise. The standard procedure in that case is straight import, meaning paying import duties and VAT. After that the "merchandise" is is so-called free circulation, meaning it can he kept or sold without limitations within the EU.

There are certain excemptions from this, one is temporary import, the other processing. The first is e.g. temporary import of trade fair items, but also race cars. Basically everything which is not personal travel belonging (up to a specific limit of course) or registered means of transport (not only cars but also ships and boats), and which will be taken out of the country again after a certain period. For such goods a document named "Carnet" needs to be issued. It is a kind of "passport" for the goods in question, describing it briefly including value. One copy of the Carnet remains with the customs office at the point of entry (into the EU), another copy is stamped and remains with the goods. The Carnet needs to be cleared after a specific period, meaning the declared goods must be export cleared again (not necessarely at the same customs office). In order to avoid illegal sale of the goods customs authorities normally ask a deposit which covers the theoretical import duty plus the VAT. In case the Carnet is not cleared by re-export such deposit will be cashed, or refunded of course if the Carnet is cleared.

Another form of temporarely import is contract processing. This chapter of customs regulations is rather complicated and requires special knowledge. Not all transactions are "processing" by customs definition, but for this special case I believe it is enough to know that the restoration of a car is indeed contract processing. Basically it is a similar procedure as that of temporarely import on Carnet basis, however, the documents of course are different. But also for these transactions it is common to require a deposit. Although the Carnet procedure may be the easier one I do not recommend it, because the description of the item may be a different one when the job is finished and the car is presented to the customs authorities for export clearing.

Normally these customs formalities are handled by forwarders, this is daily business for them. Large forwarders with a good reputation normally are released from the deposit obligation, and it is a question of service and customer's reliability whether they ask such deposit from the clients or not. But as this transaction most probably is a one-off I sincerely doubt that there will be any possibility to drop the deposit obligation. There's no need to do this in cash, a bank guarantee normally is sufficient.

 

Elad:
There are different approaches to the problem, but none of them are simple. And now that your car is with custom and you indicated the purpose and destination of the car, difficult to change the approach.
In other words you could have your car serviced in Italy during or after the MM, or little bit longer...you then settle your invoice locally and then take your car to next destination. You may have problems with the country of origin, but the car may not come back there for some long time, so long you don't need it there and there is no legal / regulatory obligation.

Or you send the car there with a clear intention of being restored and while paying the invoice, to claim the Italian , in this case, VAT back and then re export and pay the duties in the country of origin. And of course this is where the problem starts with the Italian authorities as they want to be sure if you don't pay or you claim the local VAT, the car will be re exported. The custom agent will not accept to take this risk because he does not know you and by law he is responsible if the car is not re exported. So to my knowledge and experience, the only solution to this approach is to post a guarantee usually in the form of a bond. How this is technically done and how much it costs is variable. But it has a significant cost and one of the solution is a garantee that is not refundable, but for an amount of course less important that the bond, that should be refundable.

Hope this help and your custom agent should be able to guide you through this process. I remember pre EU enlargement being ultimately unable to ship a car from EU to abroad for some retorartion work, as no custom agent would accept to cover the risk. I had the truck waiting and ultimately left empty!

 

If you drove the car over, no issue. If it's trucked, you have to do the paperwork. You have to pay the 20% duty if the origin of the car is the EEC, the UK included. Better have the right invoices, with wire transfers backing up payments. If you Bond into Italy, no VAT is due. Best to call Eddie Daepp at Car Logistics, he does it hassle free- first time out the box
+41 31 888 14 26 or +41 58 356 14 79 , e.daepp@car-logistics.com