IMPORTING A CAR

Importing a car when moving permanent residence to Greece (Zakynthos)

Below are the steps to import your car.

• Visit the Greek Embassy for a certificate of change of residence.
• Import the car into Greece.  Update Feb. 2007 - it was reported in the local newspaper that when you bring your car into Greece you should register it with customs at your point of entry.  This also applies to tourists who are importing a car for less than 6 months as well.  We do not know any one who has done this or where you can do this.
• Get Greek Tax Number.
• Get a 5 year Residents Permit. - This could take longer than the one month allowed before importing your car.
• Visit Customs within one month of importing the car. Use a customs agent who specialises in importing cars. Zakynthos customs sent us to a customs agent in Patras.
• Pay reduced Registration Tax and have an entry in passport by Customs.  Update August 2007 - We have heard that the reduced tax is now 0%.

          (see calculation Special Car Tax)

• Take vehicle to KTEO, the government test station for a “MOT” test.
• Visit Vehicle Registration at the Transport Department.
• Pay € 75 at the Piraeus Bank.
• Buy a folder to contain all paperwork.
• Second visit to Vehicle Registration.
• Third visit to Vehicle Registration.
• Visit Tax office to pay annual car tax.
• Fourth visit, take receipt back to Vehicle Registration and collect Greek number plates.

         (more information on visits to Vehicle Registration)

• Get Greek insurance.
• Send export slip from UK vehicle registration document to DVLA. It may also be possible to get a refund on UK car tax.

KEEPING A UK REGISTERED CAR LEGAL IN GREECE

Any car over 3 years old must return to UK every 12 months for an MOT test. Annual road tax must be paid and current tax disc displayed.  It must be insured to driver in Greece.

The other problem of keeping a UK registered car in Greece is insurance. In the past Greek insurance companies have issued insurance for foreign registered cars. At the time of writing this practice seems to have stopped as it is against EU agreement.  However, it may be possible to get UK insurance with a green card but if you make several claims they may find refuse to pay if they become aware that you have been out of the country for more than 6 months.

Note: The car I imported was a year old and had been purchased in Belgium and first imported into England. (We planned this as I wanted to have a left hand drive and it is nearly impossible to buy one in the UK new)

Note: According to EU rules you can take a car to another EU state for 6 months. After that time it must be exported for at least 6 months before it can re-enter that same state. We cannot find any way to import a car without paying some tax. This is against EU rules but we are told that the Greek Government will continue to pay EU fines. Information about Special Car Tax/Registration

Update February 2007 - We have now been told that customs have fined and confiscated some foreign plated cars.  So rumour would now appear to be fact.

Link to BBC Importing a car into Greece 

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 of arrival specified on the form. 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.

• 1 utility bill
• 3 years P60 & a 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.
• You need to know your date of arrival in Greece (approximately).
• An address in Greece (although I didn't need any proof of it)

I actually drove the car to Greece before getting the certificate from the British Embassy (I flew back for one night to obtain this).  Customs accepted an application to import within one month of the date on the form.

Link to GREEK EMBASSY web site  

Greek Tax Number

We already had this as we had purchased a property on a pervious visit to Greece.

The tax number is obtained at the local tax office, it was not hard to get but you are better to have a Greek speaking person with you who knows the system.  Beware there are some people who will charge up to 200 Euro to do this for you when I am sure a friendly Greek or English person will help you for nothing.

Residence Permit

A 5 year residence permit is required. This can be a bit of a catch 22 because you need to be in Greece to get the resident permit but you must apply to import the car within one month of arrival. Our permit they said would be 3 days, but we did not pick it up for 2 weeks, so it was probably done fairly quickly. Update August 2006 - We have been told that it may now take longer to get these permits in Zakynthos.

Payment of Tax

I could transfer the money to the agents bank account and courier my passport, but I thought it safer to take the cash & passport to Patras. The bus was very useful here and much cheaper than taking the car on the ferry.

My passport now has more writing & another stamp in it. I also have a handful of paperwork. It is time to register the car.

KTEO

Step one it to have it tested at KTEO. The fee for this is €23.50. The receptionist did not speak very much English. I could have had it tested right away but I had not thought to take my passport. I went back in an hour and waited for about an hour while 3 or 4 other cars were tested. It passed.

Visiting Transport Department (My experience in Zante)

1. I visit  Γραφείο Συγκοινωνιών (transport department). It is next to the National Bank on the second floor at the rear of the building housing the customs office.  We found the correct office & the officer spoke reasonable English. I am told to go to the Piraeus Bank & pay the €75 fee & on the way back buy a folder to contain all the paperwork.
2. Fee paid, back to the same office. He takes all the paperwork in my nice new folder & tells me to phone him in 2 days.
3. The paperwork was ready, I collect a form & go to the local tax office to pay the annual car tax. For my car this is €372. I now have the 05 sticker for my windscreen. Note: It is the middle of September and I have to pay for the whole of 2005 and then in January pay for 2006. There is no reduction for a part year.
4. I take the paperwork back to the transport department and collect my number plates (red on white to denote a tax concession). I am told that I cannot sell the car for one year and when I sell it I must obtain paperwork from customs.

Insurance

All that remains is to unscrew the UK plates, screw on the Greek ones and put the tax sticker on the windscreen. I must also arrange Greek insurance before I take the car on the road with Greek plates. In order for the fully comprehensive insurance to be accepted by the insurance company, my car must be photographed by a local bodywork shop.

DVLA (uk)

I have sent the export slip from my UK registration document to DVLA. I have also downloaded a form from the internet (DVLA V14) to claim a refund on my UK road tax. My UK insurance company will not cancel my policy until they receive the Certificate of Insurance from me. That could take a few weeks knowing the speed of the postal service.  

Note:- sometime later I got a "Failure to Tax a Vehicle" form sent to my old address in the UK .  This matter was settled as they accepted my argument that since they refunded my Tax, they must have acknowledged my vehicle being exported.

Information about Special Car Tax/Registration Tax

The following information was gained from a department of customs in Athens, Tel: 210 324 5486. Registration tax is calculated as follows:

Wholesale value of the car – allowance for age + 600€ transport & insurance (delivery charge??) x 50%

Wholesale value of the car can be obtained from one of the customs departments in Athens Tel: 210 453 6532. My car 1 year old Nissan X-Trail has a wholesale value of € 15000. (In Belgium & UK it cost about
€ 30,000 and in Greece € 40,000)

The discount for age is as follows:

This calculation was not used in my case. The value of the car was declared, the agent advised on this.  It turned out to be about its UK second hand value. Registration tax is then 50% of this value.  The 50% figure may be lower with cars that have smaller engines.

I hope the information above will be of some help.   We would however strongly advise anyone to think very hard before importing a car as it is not easy, not particularly cheap and fraught with obstacles along the way.

If we can help in any way please