Visit the Greek Embassy

Before leaving UK, contact the Greek embassy in London. I found it difficult to contact anyone as the phone was almost permanently engaged and when it was not I was held in a queue. A certificate of change of residence is required to import a vehicle and pay only 20% of the very high car tax. This car tax is referred to as registration tax or Special Car Tax.
Update August 2007 - Now reduced to 0%

This form is valid for 1 year but only for a month after the date that the car arrives in Greece. Careful planning is required as you will see further down.

Information is available on the Greek embassy web site, under certificates. This was out of date when I applied.

• Documents required were
   
  • 2 years council tax bills

I had to apply to the council for duplicate Council Tax bills that took about a week to arrive at my UK address.

• 1 utility bill
• 3 years P60 & final P45

I understand that some companies can supply duplicate P60 forms (look in Exchange & Mart), the tax office will not do so.

• Passport (plus spouse’s passport)

A note was hand written into my passport and stamped. I was told that this was so only one car can be imported under this scheme. Spouse’s passport will also have the entry as only one car is allowed per family

• Drivers Licence with computer print out section
• Vehicle Registration Document

Car must have been owned for 6 months before importing into Greece to qualify for reduced tax.

• Certificate of conformity. This is a vehicle document that I already had, having imported the car from Belgium to UK. It describes the EU approval that the vehicle is built to, especially emission control. We have been told that this is not actually necessary as the vehicle can go through a special test in Athens but we do not know anyone who has done this.
• You need to know your date of arrival in Greece (approximately).
• An address in Greece (although I didn't need any proof of it here, I did at customs in Greece).

I actually drove the car to Greece before getting the certificate from the British Embassy (I flew back to UK to obtain this as some papers had already been shipped with the household possessions).  Customs accepted an application to import within one month of the date on the form. I do not recommend this as the customs agent had some problems persuading the customs office to accept it.

Link to GREEK EMBASSY web site