Getting Started – Import your vehicle tax and duty-free

Are you determined to bring your car? Let’s examine the process in more details. By E. U. and Italian laws, you are entitled to import an used car that you owned more than six months and it has more than 6000KM into the EU duty and tax-free. In my experience, no one could point out to me the exact law: not the American consulate, the motor vehicle office, the automobile club, or my import broker. However, after many hours of research, I found the actual publication from the Italian custom that states such right, I wrote a guide on how to import the vehicle yourself together with reference to the exact regulation governing the duty-free import of personal goods. It is available as part of the Essential Guide package if you find it necessary.

If you are buying a new car, I recommend that you own it for six months before shipping it, or drive it a lot. Otherwise you will pay the duty (10%) and IVA (22%). However, before you get excited about the prospect to export your car from the U. S. to drive it in Italy, you absolutely need to fully understand the implications involved. Without a clear step-by-step guide (and prior to this web site, there was none that gives any definitive answers), you will have a lot of headaches and get into nightmarish bureaucratic situations. I guarantee it.

Even with a clear checklist, you will still have frustration with the bureaucracy, the mounting expenses, and the wait. However, they will become more manageable and you can prepare psychologically and financially beforehand.

I prepared this web site because I was fed up with the lack of transparency and competency from every company and government agencies I dealt with, and their incompetency has cost me a lot of money. I hope that however few of you decide to undergo this tedious process, at least you’ll know exactly what you are doing.