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Can I import car if I enter as tourist?

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canadian9999
  8/28/2019 07:03 EST

Hello,

I am Canadian, plan to live in Portugal permanently; however, it seems overly complicated and time consuming to go through work visa process. The consulate services in Canada are abysmally under staffed. I won't get into a rant, but needless to say, to go through all the proper channels will delay my plans to travel by at least 3 months if not more.

So I am planning to enter as tourist (no visa required from Canada), and then within days of arriving, I will start to work. Yes, I already have a job offer by a valid company (no documentation yet, but it is a 100% guaranteed thing). I will then apply for work visa from within Portugal.

Anyway, my question is not related to any of that. If I arrive as a tourist, and I ship a car via boat container, will I have to pay IVA or ISV taxes?

From the perspective of customs I am only in Portugal temporarily, so I wouldn't expect to pay IVA or ISV... so assuming that's the case, after I get my work visa ... what happens with my car? I am aware I am not allowed to legally drive it after 90 days since that's when tourist max stay ends. So if I am in Portugal, without yet permanent residency status (it takes 12 months after work to request residency), what happens to my car from a tax perspecitve? I would not intend to drive it, so it would sit in the driveway until I have permanent residency... my question is more about taxation. Essentially what is the process to legally avoid paying IVA and ISV on my imported car in the situation I described?

I am not sure I will get proper legal advice here, but thought I'd try. Assuming such, can anyone recommend a Portuguese lawyer or person expert in this area that can give legal advice?

Thanks

realspear
  8/28/2019 13:06 EST

You probably want a lawyer as you are as the authorities will probably not be accommodating to your wanting to go outside the system.

You can't work on a tourist visa no matter what. You can't get paid. I doubt the company will pay you in violation of the law, these types of things carry large penalties here.

Regarding the car...first of all, you need to look into whether it's worth it. You need to get it certified in the EU, which probably requires some changes. At a minimum, the lights have to be replaced, but there are other issues. Once it matches EU requirements, you need to get a COC.

In my case, the US corporate office for the car manufacturer could not tell me what needed to be done and the Portuguese office told me they couldn't help and I had to speak with the US office.

Then, you have to look at servicing. I had a recent US car but some parts were not available for it in Europe as the model sold in Europe was slightly different. One issue is that it wasn't available in Europe with an automatic. Another was that the electronics were not the same. I was told parts would be ordered from Japan and could take a while and that it would cost more to have a technician trained.

Regarding duties, you will need to apply for an exemption or pay all the duties. You can apply for an exemption after you have obtained residence but there are some time limits. There are also some requirements on time the car was owned.

Most people decide it's easier to buy here than to import a car.

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canadian9999
  8/28/2019 17:08 EST

Hi, thanks for your comprehensive reply, much appreciated!

That said, I must disagree on several points. Yes, I do intend to consult a lawyer, as per my original post, it would be silly not to.

1. You can't work on a tourist visa
- Technically you are right; however, in practice you are wrong. All you need to do is go on youtube and check the dozens of Brazilians that arrive without permanent residency, work for 12 months paying their monthly taxes (anyone can get a NIF), all while staying at least 6-9 months illegally in the country because their 90 day visa expired.

So what are the repercussions ? It's actually pretty laughable, coming from Canada.

a) If they paid taxes for (illegal) work for 12 months, they are granted an additional 1 year permanent residency!

b) yes they get a slap on the wrist and have to pay a fine from 200-500 euros for overstaying their visa

c) Once they have residency permit for 1 year and continue to work, they can request an extension after that, then another, eventually leading to citizenship.

And it's not only the Brazillians, there's countless immigrants from Eastern european countries doing blue color labour jobs, chinese, Indian, you name it. If there are laws against this, my gut feeling is that the Portuguese gov is turning a blind eye because they are so desperate for more immigrants.


2. "Importing a car is not worth it". I've seen several people on this forum claim this, but I have to wonder if they've done the math. My example is that I have a $15,000 car here in Canada. When I looked up nearly identical car, same year, mileage, model etc in Portugal... the price was almost 250% more! I couldn't believe my eyes! It was absurd. To be sure, I searched for other people selling the same car and sure enough, it was not some weird edge case. In short my car there is worth the equivalent of $37,000 Canadian dollars!!!!! Now imagine, that my wife is also entitled to take her car, which is worth a bit less than mine bu the cost scenario is the same. Even when you factor in that we have to pay ~$6000 CAD to put the 2 cars in a shipping container, pay some customs agents to deal with some of the paperwork, pay some inspection costs, carbon tax, etc ,etc.. It all still does not add up to more than $9000 for both cars. Meanwhile our cars have gained in value nearly $40,000 for a rough net gain of $30,000 !!!!!

For those kind of gains, I'm willing to go through the utterly frustrating and time consuming process and take my chances.

What almost nobody mentions in this forum (I've read about 40 pages worth), is that by declaring that you are permanently moving to Portugal and terminating your native Canadian/US etc residency, your car import is tax exempt. And those taxes are not little taxes, we're talking 23% VAT and the ridiculous complicated ISV tax that nobody can figure out without a PHd, even with an ISV website calculator, but which can add up to 10's of THOUSANDS of dollars depending on your vehicle.. probably like close to the $30,000 net gains I'm talking about for 2 cars.

With all this said, I will warn anyone wanting to import a car to Portugal... start your research early. The bureaucratic process is probably the most convoluted thing you will encounter in your move to Portugal. So yeah, plan way ahead of time, do lots of research, consult lawyers, talk to your consulate etc. I would also suggest that if your car is worth less than $10,000, it may not be worth the hassle because the shipping costs alone may eat up most of the paper gains you might make after selling it 1 year later, if that's what you intend to do. For me, I'll probably keep it for several years, because it's just way too ridiculous to buy a car there for the prices they ask. Now I understand why people drive such tiny cars over there and it is very rare for any young people to own cars. You won't see many 16 year olds driving cars there like you see in Canada, that's for sure.

dancebert
  8/29/2019 03:58 EST

> pay some inspection costs, carbon tax, etc ,etc..

etc includes making the car compliant with EU standards. Are you sure that's possible? And if so, what it will cost?

craigandmicki
  8/29/2019 05:14 EST

To "Canadian"....Brazilians have different rules about living in Portugal as a former colony.

whatsnext
  8/29/2019 07:31 EST

"What almost nobody mentions in this forum (I've read about 40 pages worth), is that by declaring that you are permanently moving to Portugal and terminating your native Canadian/US etc residency, your car import is tax exempt."

My understanding is that, as third country nationals (non EU citizens), that tax exemption is valid for one year IF you arrive on a legal residency visa. Not sure how you're going to get that if you're trying to come in through the back door.

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Sixyears
  8/29/2019 08:18 EST

Well this makes sense(about the car thing) but why not buy a car in a country over there that is less and drive it to Portugal. Say Germany if the cars are less money. That way there is no shipping cost and you save that money also. If you go on a tourist visa and have it for awhile wouldn't that be more cost effective?. We have a great F150 but the cost of fuel there will kill us .

johnwm4159
  8/31/2019 10:16 EST

We are Canadians also and tried to import our car also but we found out our cars is not sold or produced in Europe so we would have to get it certified at a AA mechanic and from reading other posts this can take months to get required parts. Make sure to check this out before you try

Explorer88
  9/2/2019 15:52 EST

From what I have read, it is possible to import a vehicle into Portugal without registering it, as long as it is for your own private use, it is registered in your name, and the stay does not exceed 180 days. However, I don't see any way to avoid the initial import tax, which could be considerable. I imagine your shipping company could tell you. There is relief for people who become permanent residents, with certain restrictions. Of course, if your goal is to slide into Portugal and ask for forgiveness later, which may be a legitimate strategy in some cases (who knows?), then go for it. Once a vehicle is actually in the country, I doubt they could do much about it if you wanted to "legalize" it later, just like your plans for legalizing your residence. Please let us know how your adventure works out - no judgement!

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