What is the best and legal way of doing this?
If my boyfriend is visiting me who is an EU citizen, can he freely drive my swiss licensed car? I have the insurance for the car, but not the driver. Can he make for those days he drives an extra insurance?
Citizenship is not important and not relevant!
If he a resident in a EU country he can drive the car only in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Its a custom violation, the car can be seized, and a fine of a multiple of the cars value might have to be paid because it is considered smuggling.
If he is a resident in a non-EU country he can also drive the car in the EU.
Otherwise he would need a valid driving license and must otherwise not impaired (alcohol, drug, tiredness, etc.)
If you have doubt, simply ask your insurance.
This was also discussed a short time ago in the media (sorry in German)
Where is he resident?
That is all that matters.
Tom
Yes.just like he could rent a Swiss hire car and drive it here.
He can drive the car legally in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, but may not take it across the border into the EU.
This bloody EU!
Only if he is resident in an EU country.
Tom
So, in full.
He can drive the car legally in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, but may not take it across the border into the EU if he is resident in the EU.
Exactly.
The oposite is also true, i.e. a Swiss resident can drive an EU registered vehicle in the EU, but not in CH+FL.
Tom
I am interested to see exactly what the law says. Do you have a link?
The actual law has been linked many times in past discussions on this very topic.
But here you go: Art. 7 Customs Act which says: In General, any good which is brought into the customs area is subject to duty and must clear customs. From this follows, that for any good where this is not the case, there must be some exception and special rule. Like the Istanbul convention on temporary admission which allows non-resident tourists to bring in motor vehicles w/o paying tax or duty, w/o any formalities, given they use it only themselves and remove the vehicle within a certain time period.
Thank you for the links. I cannot find anything that prohibits the boyfriend from entering the EU (regardless of his place of residence) in a swiss registered car as long as he declares it as a temporary admission. The same would apply for someone entering Switzerland.
Please feel free to correct me if I have missed or misinterpreted something
They can take over the border as long as they temporarily import it into the EU country and then export it again when the bring it back into Switzerland.
It’s down to customs regulations.
It’s not something you’d do for a day trip or a short holiday.
European Customs Regulations, and how European Customs interpret said Regulations.
I remember the kerflufal a few years back when EU nationals were renting Swiss registered cars at GVA and driving them to French Ski resorts.
Correct. But Swiss Customs only grants a temp admission in a few exceptional cases: https://www.bazg.admin.ch/bazg/en/ho…-benutzen.html
Obviously, for a EU resident the EU customs rules would be of relevance, not the Swiss ones. As said in the many other threats the relvant part can be found in Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 Article 215:
As you can see, using a private foreign car is not covered by the EU nor the Swiss customs regulations.
They fixed this issue May 2018. See 2a above.
Ah, thank you.
Especially as you need to pay CHF 300 or so each time!
Tom
I think he can’t
It works in reverse too. There was also a big problem when Swiss peeps took their cars over the border for service or repair, then got a EU-registered loan car, which they tried to bring back into Switzerland temporarily. When they got stopped at the border....