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Importing a Brand New vehicle from UK


Junkfriend

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Hi Guys.....

Is it possible to import a brand new vehicle from UK to Sri Lanka without involving our local authorized agent? I'm planning have a UK exporter buy a vehicle from UK authorized agent and import it to sri lanka as a brand new vehicle without registering it there (to save VAT/taxes as a export vehicle).

Is this something possible?

cheers! everyone have a nice weekend :)-
 

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I'm afraid its not possible. Only the official manufacturers can send brand new cars from UK to SL and that too only to the official agent in SL. E.g. you can get a range rover brand new imported from UK from the official dealer here but the other "car sale" dealers would have to buy one there, pay taxes, register, cancel registration and then ship to SL.

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10 hours ago, zeristo said:

I'm afraid its not possible. Only the official manufacturers can send brand new cars from UK to SL and that too only to the official agent in SL. E.g. you can get a range rover brand new imported from UK from the official dealer here but the other "car sale" dealers would have to buy one there, pay taxes, register, cancel registration and then ship to SL. 

Thanks for the detailed answer, I owe you a beer :D . So only way to get a brand new RR is to register there pay the 20K GBP VAT/TAX and deregister it and ship it to Sri Lanka? But if you have exporter in UK that get VAT refund you can get a VAT refund when exporting it right? For a RR LWB P400e VAT is about 18K GBP so that lot of money ;)

only other way I can think of is to export is to some magic island outside EU register there and re export it to LK :D

Edited by Junkfriend
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According to what I've heard ( could be off the mark as well), this is how most of the gray market exporters work. They negotiate with UK Car dealerships and buy the car. The dealer will deliver the registered car and our exporter friend will deregister it, ship to SL and claim the VAT as the beast has left the UK. 

Some exporters share that profit with the end customer by reducing the end price.

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You must be fricking kidding yourself if you think you have figured out a new way of getting a car down to sri lanka for a lower price.

EVERY trick in the book has been mastered by our car importers. They are light years ahead if you.

Some of our car importers have their own dealerships in UK, Japan and even South Africa (wh33l$ l@nk@ has in all 3 countries. R@m@n@y@k@ has in japan and uk. Most of the big name importers have delaerships inJapan. Some of them even have scrapyards to get written-off vehicles to have them shipped over.

So tough luck if you think u can strike a gold mine.

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11 hours ago, Insedious said:

According to what I've heard ( could be off the mark as well), this is how most of the gray market exporters work. They negotiate with UK Car dealerships and buy the car. The dealer will deliver the registered car and our exporter friend will deregister it, ship to SL and claim the VAT as the beast has left the UK. 

Some exporters share that profit with the end customer by reducing the end price.

yhh most of the local importers are not interested in passing the VAT refunds (or they have no clue) but most of the UK exporters that I have talked with are willing to pass the VAT refund keeping a fee as administrative charges.

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17 minutes ago, Junkfriend said:

yhh most of the local importers are not interested in passing the VAT refunds (or they have no clue) but most of the UK exporters that I have talked with are willing to pass the VAT refund keeping a fee as administrative charges.

Most of the known importers get the VAT refund otherwise you cant price most of the vehicles at going rates today.

Fuel quality will be the biggest issue as most of the vehicles are tuned for 98 octane and very low sulfur diesels

 

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1 hour ago, kush said:

Most of the known importers get the VAT refund otherwise you cant price most of the vehicles at going rates today.

Fuel quality will be the biggest issue as most of the vehicles are tuned for 98 octane and very low sulfur diesels

 

From what I see I dont think every importer is getting the VAT refunds or at least UK exporter is keeping a big margin to pass the vat refund to the local importer. But guess local importer their own company in UK  can get the full VAT benefit or you can re export it to a different country outside EU and export back to here.

https://www.gov.uk/taking-vehicles-out-of-uk/newly-bought-vehicles   

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9 minutes ago, Junkfriend said:

From what I see I dont think every importer is getting the VAT refunds or at least UK exporter is keeping a big margin to pass the vat refund to the local importer. But guess local importer their own company in UK  can get the full VAT benefit or you can re export it to a different country outside EU and export back to here.

 

Most gray Importers work as one Unit ( UK  and SL ) and they sell the cars off to Car Dealers in LK. I guess this applies to Car Dealers who do not have their own presence in the UK. Of course this means, even at a best case scenario, you still have to account for 2 parties who will add to the end price. 

One can argue it makes sense *not* to cut out the Car Dealer in SL ( and work directly with an importer who will directly import it to your name) as the former will provide a warranty, but I guess it's a personal preference.

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1 hour ago, ajm said:

so if one buys brand new in UK and exports to a third country(like Germany) and re-export to SL, then no UK VAT required?

no exactly! germany is within EU so you have to pay VAT there you need to export it outside EU register there and deregister and re export it to LK. IMO, due to the extra shipping/administrative costs this method would only profitable for super luxury vehicles.  

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2 hours ago, Insedious said:

Most gray Importers work as one Unit ( UK  and SL ) and they sell the cars off to Car Dealers in LK. I guess this applies to Car Dealers who do not have their own presence in the UK. Of course this means, even at a best case scenario, you still have to account for 2 parties who will add to the end price. 

One can argue it makes sense *not* to cut out the Car Dealer in SL ( and work directly with an importer who will directly import it to your name) as the former will provide a warranty, but I guess it's a personal preference.

make sense,  Im not sure why most of the smaller/midrange local importers are not forming companies in UK to save the additional costs as forming a foreign own  company in UK with a VAT ID is extremely easy.

Edited by Junkfriend
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On 4/9/2018 at 2:08 PM, Junkfriend said:

make sense,  Im not sure why most of the smaller/midrange local importers are not forming companies in UK to save the additional costs as forming a foreign own  company in UK with a VAT ID is extremely easy.

Forming a company might be easy, but then once the company is formed you have to actually "operate" it; which means, paperwork and documentation,  filing the proper paperwork as required on a timely basis, filing for certifications, etc...maintaining staff  and doing the paper-work (tax withholdings, etc...) for the staff; and the list goes on (you do have to do these even if you don't sell a single car or make a loss or even if you have just one staff member).  A lot of people underestimate and over simplify the actual running of a company because the "registration process" for one is simple.

So a lot of things need to be considered before one registers a company just for the sake of getting VAT refunds. So its much easier and even cost effective to just partner up with an existing UK based supplier.

 

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57 minutes ago, iRage said:

Forming a company might be easy, but then once the company is formed you have to actually "operate" it; which means, paperwork and documentation,  filing the proper paperwork as required on a timely basis, filing for certifications, etc...maintaining staff  and doing the paper-work (tax withholdings, etc...) for the staff; and the list goes on (you do have to do these even if you don't sell a single car or make a loss or even if you have just one staff member).  A lot of people underestimate and over simplify the actual running of a company because the "registration process" for one is simple.

So a lot of things need to be considered before one registers a company just for the sake of getting VAT refunds. So its much easier and even cost effective to just partner up with an existing UK based supplier.

 

Well if you do it in a conventional way may be yes. But it looks very simple to open and maintain a company in UK, the costs would be under 4000/GBP year including CPA fees etc. and you can manage it remotely. To be honest I don't have first hand experience in UK but I do have in other countries. Btw your reply is based on personal experience? if so what would be the most complicated aspect in running a company there?   

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1 hour ago, Junkfriend said:

Well if you do it in a conventional way may be yes. But it looks very simple to open and maintain a company in UK, the costs would be under 4000/GBP year including CPA fees etc. and you can manage it remotely. To be honest I don't have first hand experience in UK but I do have in other countries. Btw your reply is based on personal experience? if so what would be the most complicated aspect in running a company there?   

Not in the UK....but in Japan and a few other places....the comment was in general. Many over look the fact that after you register the firm you actually have to run it even if you don't do anything for it. Like someone else said before...the car company guys have tried almost every trick in the book to try source cars for cheaper....I am sure plenty would have tried this.

 

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Mind you AFAIK the new plugin hybrid diagnostic tools are exclusively available at Agents. Incase of a repair they will charge you a hefty amount for registering a grey import vehicle just like some german brands.

And again as per what i got to know, The agents have done a mixed bulk orders of all model ranges and receiving the shipment by June.

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11 hours ago, iRage said:

Not in the UK....but in Japan and a few other places....the comment was in general. Many over look the fact that after you register the firm you actually have to run it even if you don't do anything for it. Like someone else said before...the car company guys have tried almost every trick in the book to try source cars for cheaper....I am sure plenty would have tried this.

 

Not much clue about Japan, I have to guess it's complicated there. I have to assume (and pretty sure) the costs are very low (its similar to US) as you don't need a local nominee director unlike unlike in SG or AU. So you costs are yearly CPA fees for the tax filing + registered address/agent fees, looks pretty cheap to me.  Only part thats looks complicated is to open a bank account there specially if you are a not a established business person etc.. 

Quote

 

 

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10 hours ago, zeem35 said:

And again as per what i got to know, The agents have done a mixed bulk orders of all model ranges and receiving the shipment by June.

The first stock suppose to come by August due to the delays as far as I know. Even I don't think we would see them in uk loads till early March, correct me if im wrong.

Edited by Junkfriend
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20 hours ago, Junkfriend said:

Not much clue about Japan, I have to guess it's complicated there. I have to assume (and pretty sure) the costs are very low (its similar to US) as you don't need a local nominee director unlike unlike in SG or AU. So you costs are yearly CPA fees for the tax filing + registered address/agent fees, looks pretty cheap to me.  Only part thats looks complicated is to open a bank account there specially if you are a not a established business person etc.. 

 

Yes..it is complicated in Japan....you need to have a Japanese partner as a majority shareholder OR invest a minimum of X USD OR employ X number of Japanese employees over Y period of time showing Z amount of profitability/cash flow/etc....Most of the paper work itself is not that complicated...only hitch for some reason and ironically is that a lot of foreigners find the double-entry book keeping "hard"

Edited by iRage
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On 4/14/2018 at 9:15 AM, iRage said:

Yes..it is complicated in Japan....you need to have a Japanese partner as a majority shareholder OR invest a minimum of X USD OR employ X number of Japanese employees over Y period of time showing Z amount of profitability/cash flow/etc....Most of the paper work itself is not that complicated...only hitch for some reason and ironically is that a lot of foreigners find the double-entry book keeping "hard"

wow that sounds super complicated with comparaison to that UK seems super easy as you can open one remotely under 500GBP but if you are exporting cars you would probably need need to consult a SPA/EA first so that would cost around 500-1000GBP then of course you have to fly there to open the company bank account so all that could cost around 5000GBP. Something I found recently is that if you dont do business you can file a zero return online which would cost you only 100GBP.    

Edited by Junkfriend
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On 4/8/2018 at 12:23 AM, zeristo said:

I'm afraid its not possible. Only the official manufacturers can send brand new cars from UK to SL and that too only to the official agent in SL. E.g. you can get a brand new imported from UK from the official dealer here but the other "car sale" dealers would have to buy one there, pay taxes, register, cancel registration and then ship to SL.

It looks like this is not the case, any UK citizen or company can export a vehicle to SL without paying any taxes there in the first place, saving the 20% VAT according to https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-notice-707-vat-personal-export-scheme/vat-notice-707-vat-personal-export-scheme , any takes?

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7 hours ago, Junkfriend said:

It looks like this is not the case, any UK citizen or company can export a vehicle to SL without paying any taxes there in the first place, saving the 20% VAT according to https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-notice-707-vat-personal-export-scheme/vat-notice-707-vat-personal-export-scheme , any takes?

Don't you thikn this is what is been done currently with all these UK imports coming in ? If all the UK taxes were still applied, together with the SL import taxes, these Civics should be astronomical in price.

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  • 1 year later...

If i want to buy a brand kia stonic Europe version .. ( the reason is the one selling by kia sl agent does not have good safety features and other's which available in Europe edition)..  what is the easiest and best /!trusted way? Also how do I ensure that it is a brand new one ? One importer told

me they provide the original commercial invoice? But I don’t believe through that i am able to ensure

the vehicle exact condition ( for japan vehicle we can ensure the vehicle status though the original auction sheet and some web sites which provide service after payment- ex www.jpcenter.ru)

 

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