matriculation law change ?

[alf1956]

just been on the "ex pats forum"&seen this post on the change in the law that will make importing a uk registered car much cheaper than it was before.does anybody know if this is true ?
shelby

Joined: 24 Oct 2006
Posts: 1949
Location: Tabua, Central Portugal
Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2011 10:47 am Post subject: Chez car buying thread an update?

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A bit more on Chez's recent thread and as I don't read all the posts I thought a new one would bring it to attention..................

Bumped into someone this morning and he asked if I had heard anything about this and I replied that it had been on the Forum recently and it had received a fairly negative response.

He had a bit more information,

It seems that as part of the bailout package Portugal received certain taxes have to be brought into line with other EU countries and Portugal has had to agree, no choice but to agree!

The car importation tax being one of them.

He to is aware of several people ( almost 100% the same as Chezer) who are adamant that they have imported a UK plated vehicle into Portugal for €400.00 and that they have not met the previous strict conditions which I won't bother to list.

Also he said that he had a meeting with a well-known local registered estate agent who is now advising clients of the change in the law and that he had also asked a Portuguese motor dealer who has also confirmed the new law. The estate agent is completely bi lingual and keeps abreast of such changes.


With regards to where to buy with a Belgian or Dutch vehicle you have to buy a number plate which stays with you and is moved from car to car (???) making it a bit more problematic for foreigners.
German / French cars require a local address for insurance purposes so one from that country would have to be brought in on a trailer but a UK plated can be bought cheaply road taxed,insured and then legally driven down to Portugal.

The implications of this ruling if correct affects not just foreigners but the entire car buying Portuguese population, car values, dealers, etc etc etc.

I am going to email my accountant on Monday and ask if he has heard anything, can I ask others to ask their contacts and reply.

Last edited by shelby on Sat Jul 23, 2011 11:21 am; edited 1 time in total

[Aitch]

That's interesting.

We should therefore be seeing a dramatic reduction in new and, consequently, used car prices within Portugal

[joeysoap]

ireland operates under the same cloud as portugal and there is also a huge difference in price between northern ireland and republic. obviously a differnt name but effect is the same. here its called vehicle registration tax or VRT for short and it's prohibitive to import a used car from uk to ireland, which is partly the purpose of the tax.

looks like there is a new EU directive effective from july this year and perhaps that is the reason for the change in Portugal?
don't think the VRT (or importation duty to give it a real name) has changed much in ireland anyway as a result of this directive.

http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/vrt/index.html

[Joanne53]

Could someone tell who the knowledgeable Estate Agent is, sounds like he would be worth knowing, sand as I am looking for an Estate Agent anyway, I would prefer someone who is bi-lingual as well as up to date with happenings.
Thank you, Joanne

[EMM]

There is no evidence on the forum you quote that the costs and beaurocracy involved in matriculating a car from the UK to PT has changed.

IE Still 12 month prior ownership of the vehicle and transfer of residency from the UK to Portugal required to obtain the most cost effective matriculation.