Who’s entitled? What can you save? Is it worth the hassle?

There are a lot of myths and bar talk about duty free cars. It is a complicated subject and changes happen often. I will explain basically what you need to know and how it can affect you later.
 
Who’s entitled? Non-working retired Europeans that are resident to Cyprus. The non working part is essential as you may even have to singe a disclaimer that non of your family will ever work while you have the duty free car. The resident part is the main criteria of qualification. What the customs in Nicosia are looking for is that you have your M. 62 or pink slip as it was called, however it is now yellow. To gain your M.62 you need to apply to your local immigration office and then wait about nine months for it to be issued at Nicosia and posted to you. If you have you pink slip and you are not working most of the other documents required or and application you will already have. Basically what they are looking to see is that you can support your self and family with a fixed regular income for example a pension. There is no hard rule for your income but they want to see for a couple about cy£10,000 p/a , and for an individual cy£7000. You need to have proof of this with bank statements and pension statements. All in all you need to produce about 50 documents to make the application from this point you can expect about 4/6 weeks to get an approval.
 
What can you save? The duty is charge per cc this starts at £0.51 per cc and goes up to £8.00 per cc. If you buy a Toyota Prado 3.0 you will save £24,000 compared to the duty paid price, however if you buy a 1.0 Yaris you will only save £500. Unfortunately you can’t buy just any car duty free, I must not have been used on the road in Cyprus and it must be under 5 years old when it arrived. All new cars can be duty free except twin cab and motorbikes.

Is it worth the hassle? Yes and No. If you intend to buy a large engine vehicle and keep it for ten years when the duty is exempt then duty free is a great plan. I must make you aware that if you intent to sell the car before the ten-year period is up then you or the purchaser is responsible for the duty. If you are not sure that you will stay in Cyprus for a long time then you may have trouble selling your car if you want to leave. It is however possible to take a duty free car from Cyprus to the UK and register without paying any duties.

To sum up duty free is a lengthy process with lots of different steps that are in place to ensure that only people entitled to the relief get it. The savings on large cars are vast but the duty is only deferred, if you want to sell to someone else in Cyprus or if you intent to start working you will have to pay.

If you have any other question about cars in Paphos, Cyprus and you want a straight answer call Simon Emery on 00357 99315649.