Malta - British Expat Forum

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120404/local/eu-simplifies-cross-border-car-registration.414142

"The proposal put forward today means an improvement for persons who spend a part of the year in another EU country who are currently often requested to re-register their vehicle. The proposal introduces the principle that a car should be registered in the EU country where its owner lives, and that all other Member States may not ask her/him to register the car with them, even if the car owner spend a longer period there."

"Citizens who spend part of the year in a holiday residence in another EU country will not have to re-register their car there.

Citizens who move permanently to another EU country will have six months to re-register their car there.

Citizens who buy or sell a second-hand car in another EU country will not have to face additional technical controls and administrative problems.

Citizens who work in another EU country and use a car registered by their employer there will no longer have to register it in their home country."

I think of interest to most forum members is the "Citizens who move permanently to another EU country will have six months to re-register their car there. " compared to the very short window of 10 days (?) currently

No its 6months currently. We drove our car on UK plates for 6months to at least delay the chunky "registration" fee.

We got stopped 2 or 3 times by the wardens/police but showed UK car insurance and they were immediately ok with it...

Its not so clear from the article that the registration tax would necessarily be reduced. It is somewhat over the top 60 - 120% "registration" tax. Thievery

I got my own back by buying an old cheap, and very compact car (they tax you by the mm as well as engine size and co2 emissions), and still by the time I paid transport, registration tax, road tax for a year it doubled the cost of the car!

-doc

Have read this two or three times now on various sites but one thing seems to be missing...

Whilst they are 'simplifying' the procedures there is nothing to say that the registration tax will actually be reduced when importing a vehicle?

Seems that it will suit multi national car rental / commercial companies, but no real financial benefit to the general public.

doc wrote:No its 6months currently. We drove our car on UK plates for 6months to at least delay the chunky "registration" fee.

its only 6 months if you remain a tourist, and not get an ID card/residency certificate - ""Citizens who move permanently to another EU country will have six months to re-register their car there. "

pumabob wrote: Whilst they are 'simplifying' the procedures there is nothing to say that the registration tax will actually be reduced when importing a vehicle?

yep, appears to be the case - however, the story in the Times today
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120405/local/Brussels-plans-to-reduce-cost-of-importing-used-vehicles.414182

starts
"Anyone thinking of importing a second-hand car should put the plans on hold as Brussels will be unveiling proposals aimed at slashing the costs and bureaucracy involved in registering cars across EU member states."

Importing a vehicle FAQ
http://britishexpat.com/expatforum/malta/viewtopic.php?t=9355

2. Can I import a vehicle into Malta ?

Yes you can, but whether you can then use it depends on your residency status.

a. If you are a tourist, your vehicle can remain in Malta for 6 out of 12 months, and keeps its foreign number plates. (5a below actually mentions 7 months). Maltese residents (ie not just Maltese citizens, but anyone who has declared Malta to be their residence) cannot drive any vehicle displaying foreign number plates.

b. If you are resident in Malta, you cannot drive your imported vehicle until you have registered your car in Malta. By applying for an ID card, you have declared that you are resident in Malta. The legislation gives you 7 days to apply and fines of € 30 per day afterwards (see 1. above) In reality, it seems you are given 15 days to start the registration process

That's correct and if you want to delay the registration tax by 6months you need to delay also applying for your ID card, and thats what we did. If you leave within 3months and then come back I guess thats ok. Or you can go ask at a police station to extend your 3 months tourist stay.

I figured at least the vehicles registration value would also slightly fall as it'd be 6months older

You'd think it's such a high tax there might be frequent tourist people with 2 cars, to keep one off the road for 6months and use the other one.

Not sure if thats what people were up to, but in our previous apartment (large underground car park) there were several parked up UK plate cars that didnt move for months!

The police were certainly keen to check your docs were in order, my wife got stopped 3x, so they must have people attempting to dodge the tax! (Which is rather risky as they impound your vehicle if caught).


However I'm not sure if this latest EU initiative its going to reduce the overal car related tax really - they're still going to want to collect the revenue from somewhere, eg by increasing some other car related tax.

Now if only they'd use some of the road tax to repair the impressive pot holes on Sliema strand - if you dont dodge them you're likely to break your suspension! And some of the road is even only 6months old, they arent putting proper foundations and the manhole covers are collapsing into the road and such problems.

Anyway I'm not personally bitter about it - just buy an old, small, low C02 car, and enjoy the other tax benefits (capital gains, remittance etc)

(If you're not lucky enough to have owned something for 2 years in the EU you can use an exemption on).

-Doc

doc wrote: You'd think it's such a high tax there might be frequent tourist people with 2 cars, to keep one off the road for 6months and use the other one.

being off the road makes no difference legally in terms of the max 6 months in 12

Ah think I recall this now from previous comments on this forum.

Pretty much buying two cars wont work then, unless you live in Sicily or something.

Speaking of which is it even allowed to be a tourist for more than 6months (with no more than 3months contiguous stay or by extending tourist visa) in a year? If not that would make it moot anyway and tie in with the 6months.

-Doc

My original point was that by deferring it for 6 months doesn't mean the actual fee paid is going to get any cheaper.

The EU quote a current average of 400euro registration fees....they obviously didn't include Malta in those figures

(Nor do they hint that the fees will be capped/set at 400euro in the future)

Yeah it does get cheaper, by waiting, but only a little bit.

First you dont have to pay the circulation tax for 6months (cost is between 100 - 1767 euro/year+ depending on age and CO2 emissions), and the UK tax disk is always less than that. Then if you're lucky the value of the car goes down because its 6months older (depreciation) and higher mileage so the registration value and therefore tax is a little lower. I think I saved a little on the valuation, it definitely went down by waiting 6months, its not just year cut-off but pro-rated somehow I think.

I think there are boundary cases were it makes a bigger difference also, eg if the car is under 6months old and you can wait until it is over 6months old you dont have to pay VAT on its registration value (another 18%).

(Also you can save 6months interest or bank loan to pay it

And who knows maybe you coincidentally have a change in circumstances and have to go back to your previous country residence, then you never have to pay it. There are no refunds once you've paid it, never be in a hurry to pay something that can be paid later!

Also something I didnt understand at first, but when you see local advertised car prices you think wow its cheap to import, but the trick is if you tried to resell an imported car, you wouldnt get that price.

People put a premium on local cars because of lower mileage and lower rust (no exposure to ice, road salt etc). So there are two prices: local car or imported car, you have to compare like with like (if you're factoring inf eg trading in or reselling your imported car after some time).


But some anomaly here I just tried the adt registration tax site

http://www.valuation.vehicleregistration.gov.mt/motorVehicle.aspx

and it says I'd have to pay eur1400 instead of the eur1200 I paid 2 years ago. Thats got to be wrong its now two years older, its registration value is eur1750 vs eur 2400 2 years ago (looks ok) but the reg tax is very wrong and its mileage is 10k higher. Calculating the current registration tax myself manually from info in this:

http://www.doi.gov.mt/en/archive/Budget2009/images/Vehicle%20Reg%20Tax.pdf

I think correct would be eur540.

Or maybe they significantly changed the tax formula since that pdf was published? Weird.

-Doc

I found this FAQ (pdf link from the page) https://secure2.gov.mt/vehicleregistration/faq?l=1 on the same site as the registration tax calculator and the tax figures given based on CO2, length, age etc are EXACTLY the same as before.

So I sent them an email asking if they could check if there is something quite wrong with their calculator.

I guess lesson for now is check the calculation yourself manually first. I lost the spreadsheet I made before.. and the site I put it on seems to have suffered bit rot. But I guess a bit of head scratching and a calculator with the above pdf you can figure it out.

-Doc

Well the transport people were quite efficient and answered my query about why the registration tax is higher now than 2 years ago on a petrol year 2000 registration car. Seems there was a change in the tax rates introduced in this years budget, they sent me a pdf and searching for its title it is online here:

http://www.transport.gov.mt/admin/mediacenter/PDFs/1_POL%2002%20-%20Registration%20and%20Licensing%20of%20Vehicles%20%282012%29.pdf

though the rates doc linked from the registration web page is old.

The new rates mean they will tax you more CO2 related tax if the car is not euro standard 5 or 4 emissions for petrol & diesel cars. They also take into account as before particulate matter for diesls. (euro 5 is the current eu standard and euro 4 is the previous emissions standard). So for me that bumped the rate from 0.23% to 0.35% and changed the tax from eur540 now to eur1410. (And I paid eur1200 2 years ago with 10k less mileage).

I think they maybe mis-classifying my car as euro 2 where as because of its year of registration I think it is probably euro 3 but cant find anyone who can confirm what it actually is!

So from that point of view you maybe should avoid delaying registration if there is a new budget due!

Cant say I disagree with improving air quality despite the cost.

Annual circulation tax appears unchanged.

-Doc