Hi all, I am not a resident in France but have a home there. I intend to bring a car over for import and wanted to deal with paying the duty whilst travelling through Folkestone>Calais but cant find any record of where o go on the domestic route. All advice on line is about the HGV route.
has anyone done this and can offer some advice.
I am aware of the paperwork required, its just what to do at the port.
thanks
Why would you want to do that? Google importing a car to France and come back if thereās anything you need clarification on.
When I did it I paid at the local Douanes office to our home - the process took a little while and I needed to have an appointment. I would try to resolve it later rather than in your journey.
Detailed here:
Well Johnny thanks for your considered and helpful response.
āWhy would you want to do that?ā Well firstly, I was advised by my broker at Axa insurance to do it at the port otherwise there is a bit of hassle arranging an appointment and some offices require paperwork being sent in advance of the appointment. I am only spending 1 week in France and have various other things to achieve, I wanted to get as much done in advance as I could. The nearest office to me is a 2-3hr round trip so that would wipe most of the day out for the appointment. Way I see it, it shouldnāt take longer than an hour to do on route so itās a good investment of my time.
āGoogle importing a car to France and come back if thereās anything you need clarification on.ā
I have of course spent countless hours on google, ChatGPT and this forum searching for advice on this specific point and I couldnāt find anything at all, hence I posed this question on here. I do know how the internet and forums work buddy!
For those of you willing to spend your time being helpful, I forgot to say in my original post that I would be coming via Eurotunnel so was looking for advice on that route.
Should we take it that you have already asked Eurotunnel?
Me too. The local tax office, they were very helpful.
Yep - tried that but they didnāt have a clue. suggested I call the Douane in France which I did and just goes through to answerphone.
Iāve imported five cars here, two from the UK, one each from Italy, Germany, Ireland and never had to wait at my local tax office either to pay tax or get a quitus indicating there was no tax to pay. I just pitched up, no appointment, with the required paperwork (which is well documented) and I was dealt with swiftly and efficiently. Getting the car registered subsequently can be a different matter.
But fair enough, if your AXA Broker knows better. Good luck at the port. Faffing around there might take as long or longer than driving to your tax office and doing things the ānormalā way.
The OP is looking to complete the 846A procedure for cars coming in from outside EU. Certainly my local tax office cannot do this, maybe larger offices can - I do not know.
It might help if you called the Douane at Calais and tell them what train you are on to make an appointment. Otherwise you will have to tell them as you exit the train, where they will hold you in an inspection bay until all the other cars go through. This will add to the time to complete the admin. I hope your car is not ācomplicatedā eg classic or such, as this will add more time to assess the value.
Assuming before Brexit for the UK cars, thatās a quite different scenario and a different organisation.
So after many failed calls, i managed to get through to someone knowledgable on the ground who told me āFollow the SIVEP CUSTOM signs with orange lines on the roadā A while later on Google maps and found the entrance to the lane Google Maps
Hi,i can,t grasp from the initial thread what you are doing with the car when you are in France,are you leaving it here to use when you are on holiday,or are you moving over to France and are going to re-register it,depending on what you are doing would determine what if any tax is due.
Well done. That takes you right to the nerve centre, so you should meet up with someone who knows the procedure. You have already saved time!
Take as many docs on the car - original invoice in case they put too high a value on it, the registration docs and a utility bill of your house here.
I have dealt withem twice and found them very helpful and polite. Let us know how you get on!
One Douane, one to goā¦
Second time I did it on line. Didnāt have to go to a Douane office. Filled in a form. Attached V5 and bill of sale of vehicle. In short order cert of import charges sent. Paid up by IBAN and shortly after - a day or three - cert of import arrived the the post.
The first time, on advice I went straight to the Douanes office at St Malo. 45 mins later came out with import cert but 1220ā¬ lighter. This was a disaster because the vehicle turned out to be not economically repairable and I was refunded by the seller. But not before that Iād been back to UK and back to FR and then the final trip to UK and 80ā¬ return to FR as a foot pax.
I asked Douanes if the import charges could be refunded. The vehicle had never been re-reg to FR plates. I was told I should have completed a āre-exportā form, so no.
So to complete the story here, I traveled over on Saturday morning disembarked at 10.30 and followed the orange SIVEP signs which takes you to a large gated compound. Rang the buzzer and they let me through
I went in to their office and was dealt with straight away. Took just over half an hour and came away with my 846A
Back on the Road by 11.15.
Very glad I took 45 minutes out of my journey to get this done as the alternative would have been a 3 hour round trip to my nearest tax office
Glad it worked!
Are you happy with the amount they charged you?
Iād be lying if I said I was happy having paid 30% of the cars value but it is what it is.
My issue with French cars is that the ones Iāve seen are all over priced and yet the condition is very poor. So I feel better off having selected a well maintained car in the UK and even after the duty itās still cheaper than what I would have paid in France
Well done 6000MT, how was the value of the car arrived at?
If you have a current receipt/invoice for the car, they accept that.