Unfair road tax on imported cars to be lowered next year

Paul Rees 02 May 2019

bmw Portugal’s government is being as slack as usual by correcting the road tax (IUC) payable on imported cars.

The reduction, forced by Brussels, will come into play in 2020 with thousands of owners still paying road tax as if their imported cars were new at the time of importation.

The legislation is working its way slowly and reluctantly through parliament, meaning that for this year, the current unfair regime will stay in place.

Público gives the example of an Audi Q7, registered is 2007 and imported to Portugal in 2008, pays road tax of €860, while the same car bought in Portugal would pay €62.

This is a problem that has dragged on since 2010 with Brussels opening two infringement proceedings against the Portuguese government. The first, nine years ago, was shelved. The second, opened in early 2019 should end up being ditched as the law will be corrected.

The payment of imported cars is higher because they are charged for the year of registration, ignoring the original registration date.

The European Commission gave Lisbon two months to explain why it continued to charge the high tax rate on imported car tax.

Brussels considers this to be in breach of Article 110 of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union.

Comments

0 #8 Ed 2019-05-07 09:29

Quoting BrunoG:

As a non resident I wanted to import a 8 yrs old car with a resell value of max €7000. The total cost of having PT license plates on it was €11400,00 No, this is no mistake, you can check it on the customs website.

Mine is 22k import tax for a car worth around 3,000 sterling

0 #7 BrunoG 2019-05-07 08:29

As a non resident I wanted to import a 8 yrs old car with a resell value of max €7000. The total cost of having PT license plates on it was €11400,00 No, this is no mistake, you can check it on the customs website.

0 #6 JamesAlgarve 2019-05-06 06:46

Meanwhile we all choke on filthy diesel fumes .

Come on Portugal get you act together.

+11 #5 Barb 2019-05-03 14:45

They'll never give refunds, no matter how deserved, this corrupt Lisbon leadership will never cough up, good if a class action could be taken up for monies owed

+12 #4 TT 2019-05-03 12:51

If and when the government rolls over and accepts they have been overcharging owners of imported vehicles for the past 12 years, I think it is only fair that those owners should be refunded. This will of course be very costly for the government and so naturally they will drag it on for as long as possible in the hope that it will either 'go away' or become a headache for 'the next lot'.
Not the best way to run a country.

+12 #3 Tony 2019-05-03 10:48

The import duty is illegal too.nobody knows very much about importing cars because they make it as difficult as possible.
I tried to bring a American car in from England a few years ago with NO emissions because of the catterlic exhaust system, so they changed the rules to only engine size and gave me an estimate of 19000 euros for a classic American car that cost £5000 so I took it back to uk.
I love living here but some of the rules they invent are edging on stupid.
Finally... more import cars = more toll monies and tax for the country... doooooh

+9 #2 G.Williams 2019-05-03 10:39

Whilst this whole subject is yet another example of non-compliance with EU norms one of the more painful spin-off consequences surfaced in the early years 2010 - 2012 of the crisis; at the time briefly surfacing on the Portuguese Government controlled expat sites before being stifled. British and Irish car owners, like myself, years before being forced to part exchange their vehicles for about a tenth of their value to dealers then being chased years later for the missing unpaid Portuguese road tax. The dealers not having re-registered the vehicle in their name so leaving us foreigners liable. Yet how were we to realise that years later we would be stung for hundreds of euros for something that was entirely out of our control?

+10 #1 Dierdre 2019-05-03 07:33

This is just one of so many glaring infringements by Portugal of EU Treaties. Lisbon must be chortling with glee whenever they hear of the 'Rule of Law'; being broken in EU states like Poland and Hungary. That the spotlight is so rarely turned on Portugal and its insistence on reinterpreting EU mandated law. Either totally skewing it as here or insisting on following the letter of the old pre-EU law even when it blatantly contradicts the spirit of the modern EU law. One of the main drivers towards the interminable waiting times to get justice (or as often intended, be out of time) in Portuguese civil cases.

Refresh comments list

You must be a registered user to make comments.
Please register here to post your comments.

JComments