Buying a Car in Switzerland when living outside Switzerland?

Transportation, Travel and Trips
1
Hello

I would be very grateful if anyone could tell me about buying a car in Switzerland, but living in Italy?

I have been offered a job in Lugano but am considering living in Italy. Would I have to buy the car in Italy? Or can I still buy the car in Switzerland?

Last time I bought a car in Switzerland I lived there, and had to get local licence plates at the point of purchase. How would that work if you live outside of Switzerland?

Many thanks for your kind suggestions.

RASZ

2
You can buy the car anywhere and import it if necessary. You get the plates from where you have your residence.

3
Any Swiss garage will be more then happy to accommodate you.

Might even qualify for a Fleet rebate.

4

From the Swiss point-of-view, things are quite simple. You buy the car, and you buy export plates from the canton where you purchased the vehicle. These plates are good until the end of the month, so if you buy them right at the beginning of the month, it gives you a full month to deal with the export formalities. The plates also provide the mandatory liability insurance.

The next step is to formally export the car from Switzerland. To do this, you first need to complete the online export form . (I found it was helpful to visit the Swiss customs desk at the border ahead of handling the actual export to have them explain how to correctly fill out the export form). Then you need to go to the customs point with the vehicle to handle the actual export. You'll get a stamped receipt, which you can also use to claim back the Swiss VAT you paid on the car.

Next, you'll need to import the car into Italy. I can't help with this process as I imported my car into France, but you should expect that you will have to pay Italian VAT, potentially import duty, and potentially registration fees. You will probably also have to have the car inspected. Here's what I turned up in a quick internet search: https://www.internations.org/italy-e...on-insurance-3

In my case, buying a car in Switzerland and paying all the fees to import it into France worked out about 5-10% more expensive than simply buying the car in France. However, the Swiss cars were generally lower mileage, in much better condition, fully-serviced at the main dealer, loaded with every option imaginable, and often sold with a second set of winter tires. That was worth the small difference in price and additional hassle of importing.

5
This makes no sense whatsoever.

Why would you buy a car in Switzerland (more expensive), pay 22% Italian VAT + import duty, complicated and costly inspection, etc?

The mind boggles.

Also, are you even allowed to live in Italy?

Tom