The Fiscal Service is preparing to fight the existing schemes of illegal import of cars with foreign registration into Ukraine

Recently, a lot of cars with foreign registration have appeared on Ukrainian roads. Mostly Polish, Czech, Latvian, Lithuanian. Previously, their number corresponded to the number of non-residents in Ukraine. Moreover, cars with foreign license plates are more and more often involved in road accidents.

According to the law (Article 380 of the Tax Code of Ukraine), only non-residents (foreigners) have the right to drive vehicles with foreign registration in our country. At the customs they register cars for temporary importation for up to a year, and customs duties are not charged. This period can be extended for another 60 days if the car owners have a force majeure situation, which must be documented. According to the Rules of vehicle registration, such cars imported for more than two months are registered in service centers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the period allowed by customs (up to a year). At the same time, they are issued Ukrainian license plates and a temporary technical passport. At the end of the temporary importation period, the car must be deregistered, receiving foreign license plates and documents, and taken out of the country.

When importing a car on the territory of our country, Ukrainians must pay all the necessary taxes (customs clearance of the car), within 10 days to register it in the service centers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, receiving Ukrainian license plates and technical passport.

Residents can also temporarily import foreign vehicles for a period of up to one year, having given a written commitment on their return export and having paid customs duties (these funds are collected as a deposit and returned when the car is exported abroad). Ukrainians also have the right to import a car of foreign registration in transit mode (for example, from Poland to Russia). The period of stay of such a car in our country is limited to 5-10 days, after which the "transit vehicle" must leave the Ukrainian territory. This opportunity is often used by residents of border regions, who, in order not to clear their cars, cross the border every 5-10 days. Such people have even been nicknamed "peresichnykyky". There are quite a lot of "transit drivers" in border regions, and it is they who contribute to the emergence of multi-kilometer queues at customs checkpoints, preventing other citizens from entering and leaving Ukraine. Moreover, sometimes such car owners even try to block the border, "stimulating" lawmakers to pay attention to them and allow residents to temporarily import cars for up to a year without paying customs taxes.

An unregistered car may be confiscated

The head of the Ukrainian Association of Automobile Importers and Dealers (VAAID) Oleg Nazarenko warns against buying foreign-registered cars. According to him, many Ukrainians mistakenly believe that for violation of customs rules you can pay a fine of 8 thousand 500 hryvnias once, laminate this receipt and drive with it all your life on a non-customized car. This is not the case. "You do not think that, having driven through a red light once and paid the fine, you can drive through a red light all your life? No! - Oleg Nazarenko gives an example.

The Customs Service is not going to put up with such a situation. According to Evgeniy Safonov, Director of the Department of Customs Control Organization of the State Fiscal Service (SFS), today there are about 11 thousand cars that are on the territory of Ukraine with violation of the customs terms of entry. In order to cope with such a large-scale illegal importation of vehicles, employees of the fiscal service are going to take active measures in the near future. Serhiy Kramer, using confidential sources of information, declassified the plans of the State Fiscal Service. According to him, the customs is now preparing lists of all cars imported into Ukraine under the temporary import regime since January 1, 2007 - that is, it is collecting the base for almost ten years. "All cars that violated the customs regime for more than 48 hours will be declared wanted," said the business consultant. - From November 1, 2016, they plan to launch a system of computer analysis of regimes and the search will be made automatically. Now the clear record holders from Bulgaria and Lithuania, who imported more than 2 thousand cars per legal entity, have been identified. The absolute record-breaker is a Lithuanian company, which transported to Ukraine more than 3 thousand 800 cars in the regime of temporary importation". According to him, in order to identify cars with foreign registration, tax officials will start patrolling the streets together with police officers.

So, those who are already driving an unregistered car, should get ready for serious problems in the near future. Such a vehicle is subject to confiscation. It will be possible to return it only after paying fines and full customs duties, which is a lot of money! Another option is to give such a car for dismantling and at least partially reimburse the money spent on buying an "inexpensive" foreign car....