I suspect your movers didn't really know what they were doing and just wanted to cross the border. My household effects were never formally declared. The border guard just waived me on despite me stopping.
I got the 13.20 form for my car a few weeks after I brought it over. No-one asked for the household effects form or to see the car. Neither the Germans nor the Swiss. No-one ever ever asked me for car details for the six months it was on UK plates despite regularly crossing the border. "Your mileage may vary".
Where did you get your 13.2 form at the customs border? I will use it only occasionally. But if you want to change your plates to swiss you will need eventually 18.44 form.
Also I wouldn’t worry myself about importing it illegally...
Hello all,
This topic was helpful, but I do have one question.
I am also moving to CH in the next few days, but I have one more question.
I am also owning a car since 1.4. 2021 (contract of sale), but the car was registered on the 14.4. 2021.
I wanted to register that the office on Monday, 4.10.2021.
Based on my understanding, and please help me if I understand that correctly the date that is important is 1.4. when I bought the car, right? So therefore I can use the household effect, right?
Also, if the car is leased - do I need anything else?
Thank you all,
It's a good question, but the language used in some documents suggests that it's the date of the first registration the counts. But it's not completely clear to me. And it's the date of your arrival in Switzerland (the date on your permit), not the day when you show up with the car at the border crossing.
Furthermore, to avoid the CO2-tax, it's necessary that the car has been used in traffic for at least six months before importing to Switzerland. They explicitly say that only used cars are exempted, and imported cars are considered to be used if and only if they have been admitted to traffic for at least six months abroad.
For a leased car you normally need a permission from the car owner to register the car in Switzerland.
Hi all, not to start a new thread - I recently moved to Switzerland (Zurich area) and I wanted to import my car, which I have owned for ~2 years.
I have all the paperwork I got from the dealer and I wanted to get it through customs on the border, however they said I had to fill some electronic form first and they won't help me with this.
The form is not very intuitive and is available only in German, so now it's been almost 3 months since I came here and I still have not got it through customs.
I understand big part of the paperwork here disappears if I've had the car for over 6 months, which is the case, but still it's very confusing for me how to proceed.
Are there any places near Zurich which import cars and could take care of this for me for a fee?
I really don't want to get rid of my car and get a new one here just to be able to drive around.
Go to a customs broker and get them to do it for you, it's quick and simple, at Singen frontier costs around Chf 150.-- per car.
Try TGS AG Thayngen custom broker : [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) / Tel : 052 645 02 22
I was actually at the Thayngen border to do that, and no one was willing to help.
To clarify - by someone (like a garage etc) who could take care of the formailities for me I meant the full process of getting the car registered in Switzerland.
When you get to customs at Thayngen you go to TGS (after Swiss customs offices and at end of car park), 2nd floor) to do paperwork and electronic forms, then you go to customs office and present papers and credit card for payment, they give you necessary paperwork.
You take this to your Cantonal Auto authority and they handle the rest, it's fairly simple, just need to follow the rules.
I think that's exactly what I did, I was advised to go to that blue building to get the paperwork (2nd floor, 1st one was German customs if I remember correctly). The problem is they told me that I have to have the electronic already filled, and when I asked them if I can do it now and if they can help they refused.
Again, I tried filling it myself but it's really not that intuitive.
I might go to the border again on Saturday in that case and try again.
And regarding the rest of the process - is it really that simple? I mean I've had the car for 2 years so there's that, but I still have to get the technical inspection, MFK etc done, right?
TGS do both papers, one for the Germans, one for the Swiss. It is an independant company, nothing to do with customs and is located about 150m inside Switzerland after the customs house.
Find yourself a freight forwarder, pay him and get them to do everything, it will be easier for you
I am very surprised... Your car is part of household items? You freshly came to Switzerland? There is usually a little leaflet in the customs explaining the process in short. Just point to that section and they should do the rest.
Once you are in Switzerland for a while, then yes, if you import vehicle, you have to fill in electronic form yourself or hire freight forwarder / import officer (not sure what is the right term)
You deal with registration office later. First sort out customs.
I couldn't find online exact leaflet I took at the border, but here is an instruction from Vaud, and in general steps would be the same. You will need to follow "B":
I wanted to import it as part of my household items actually, biur both times I crossed the Swiss border the customs office was closed. So I had to go back, and once I did, there was no help from the customs officer. If anyone can recommend any company that can do all this stuff for me I’m happy to pay just to avoid the hassle.
I had something like this when I crossed the French border into Switzerland. They said I had to get an expediteur (or something like that) to do it. In the end they said cross from Germany, they'll be more help. This was Basel so I drove around to the German border, got an export stamp from the Germans then the import papers from the Swiss. Job done. You're importing an old car not a new one.
If you want to put it on Swiss plates it's very simple if you have a standard left-hand-drive car with european approval.
Yes it’s a standard EU Toyota bought in Poland so I guess it should be easy, but I did cross from the German side and there was no help. If I don’t get any recommendations for an importer I will try to go to the border again this weekend, it’s just a 40 mins drive for me.
Mizzy, carefully read post 46, especially second line
Sorry, I don't know how I missed that. Thanks, I will reach out to them.
OK so I reached out to them and unfortunately they said they can't help me, they don't offer such service.
Just go through the big crossing. Basel should work fine.
It is not very good that you waited for 3 months to sort this out. But hopefully that won't be a big problem.
When you mention online form you tried to fill in, what is this form? Can you give us name or link?
Yes I know it's not good that it took so long, but I was there twice already - the first time when I came here, and the customs office was closed. The second time I didn't get anything done.
I found the link to the form on this page: https://www.bazg.admin.ch/bazg/en/ho...e-dec-web.html , and here is the link to the form itself https://e-dec-web.ezv.admin.ch/webdec/main.xhtml?rvn=3
Who asked you to fill in e-dec? Did you googled it yourself?
As I mentioned previously you do this form when you are settled in Switzerland and later want to import another vehicle (not part of your household items). I did it myself when bought motorbike in France and bring it in Switzerland.