Car Shipping - Customs Charges

When No Customs Charges Apply

Eligibility Concessionary entry for motor vehicles is available to immigrants and New Zealand residents returning after an absence overseas of 21 months or more, with the intention to take up or resume permanent residence (residence lasting indefinitely). Conditions In order to qualify for concessionary entry, the following conditions must be met in full:
1. You have arrived in New Zealand with the legal authority to take up or resume permanent residence.
2. For the whole of the period of 21 months preceding your arrival, you have resided outside or have been domiciled outside New Zealand. Brief holidays or exploratory visits do not exclude a person from qualifying for this concession.
3. You have personally owned and used the vehicle for at least one year before the date of your departure for New Zealand, or the date on which the vehicle is surrendered for shipping, whichever is earlier.
4. The vehicle is being imported for your own personal use and not for sale, gift or disposal in any other way.
5. You give an undertaking that the vehicle granted duty/GST free entry will not be sold or otherwise disposed of within two years of importation.

These conditions are strictly applied and the New Zealand Customs Service has no discretionary license to adapt them to suit particular circumstances. If the above criteria cannot be met, the vehicle will be considered a non-concessionary import and Customs charges are payable.

Period of Ownership and Actual Use Vehicles will not qualify for concessionary entry if the owner surrenders them for shipping to New Zealand before the anniversary of the day on which original delivery was taken. For example, if you purchase and take delivery of a vehicle on 10 June, you must not hand it over to be shipped before 10 June of the following year, and you must not leave for New Zealand before that date.

Lifestyle and work requirements may dictate that the owner is not in a position to use the vehicle on a daily basis. This will not necessarily disqualify a vehicle from concessionary entry providing you are able to satisfy the New Zealand Customs Service that the vehicle in question was available for use at all times if required. The key element is that the periods of actual use, if not continuous, should span a full 12 months.

All new or used motor vehicles, including motorcycles, imported into New Zealand must be certified by Land Transport Safety Authority (LTNZ)-approved certifiers as complying with New Zealand legal requirements, before they can be registered for use on public roads in New Zealand.

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