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Buying a German car to bring to France


Kiwi
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Has anyone had any first hand experience of buying a car in Germany and then bringing it into France?? We see the advantages of the initial price benefits but are wondering what the steps are for a current UK resident to firstly register the vehicle in their name in Germany and then take it to France where we have a house.

How does the insurance work, is there a time limit on the insurance from Germany.

I guess another question is - is it possible to avoid paying the VAT in Germany by bringing it into the UK first?

Any urgent help on this would be muchly appreciated.

Kiwi

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If you buy a new car in Germany in order to bring it into France you will have to pay the VAT, and buying the car without VAT in Germany is only possible if you are a VAT registered company.

The only way to avoid the VAT issue is to buy a car that is 6mths or older and has got at least 6000km on the clock. If you find a vehicle like that you will have to bring it over on customs plates and then register it within 7 or 14 days at your local Prefecture. The time is determined by the insurance cover for the customs plates. I don't know if you can arrange that cover with an insurance other than a German company, but it is worth checking in France or the UK. In Germany there are two insurance companies that will cover export plates: the ALLIANZ and the GOTHA. Once in France you will need a declaration from your local tax office that there is no VAT payable, a Certificat de Conformité and the international Fahrzeugschein (issued by the German authorities). I don't think that you can avoid any VAT by registering a new car in the UK first.

Hope this helps.
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The tax is relatively easy to sort out, but it will need to be paid before you can register in France. The registration is also straigntforward and should be done within a couple of weeks as the vehicle will usually be issued with temporary (2 week) regisration document and plates.  They will provide you with a European confomity certificate. Make sure this is filled in for registration in France as it will include the CV fiscal.  In theory Prefectures should accept the European certificate for registration directly , but some try to play stupid or simply refuse so if neccessary speak to the supervisor . If this doesn't work you will need to get the French version from the French HQ of the manufacturer, speak to their homologation dept - which is also very quick.

BTW cheapest new cars in European tend to be Denmark and Holland. Belgium is also usually cheaper and the advantage of Belgium is that they can usually provide the French conformity certificate directly.

A word of warning - ensure you compare like with like , options tend to be very different between countries. In addition a trick we have used is to get a quote(you always need paper evidence) from say Holland and then use this to negotiate with a dealer in France. They can not usually get down to the exact same price but it is surprising how far they can come - often down to a level where it is not worth the hassle of buying abroad.

best regards

Richard

 

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Many thanks Richard, this is very helpful. Everything is so much easier if you know what to expect. Our choice of Germany is that we have a good friend there who has also lived in the UK and who can help us with the interpretation etc.

Thanks again, Kiwi

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