Taking your car to Australia: an import approval first, then 5% duty and 10% GST

Taking your car to Australia is possible, but it is an import with a permit beforehand, three taxes and an inspection in your state, and no mover's exemption as in Spain or Portugal. The Australian Border Force says it without ceremony: don't start the transport before you have an import approval, because importing without approval is an offence, and a car that arrives without approval stays in the port at your expense until it is released, re-exported or destroyed. What it costs: 5% customs duty, 10% GST, possibly luxury car tax, plus freight, inspections and the modifications your state demands.

Why you need an approval before anything else

Every road vehicle, even a disassembled or partly completed one, needs one of the approvals of the Department of Infrastructure before it goes on board: a vehicle type approval, a concessional RAV entry approval, a non-RAV entry import approval or an approval for re-importation. The value of the car is irrelevant. The application runs through the department, and a complete application is generally assessed within 30 working days. Once transport has started, you also lodge an import declaration with the ABF, and the car is only released once the approval and the taxes are in.

For whoever emigrates with their own car, a personal import option exists within the concessional route, with requirements on ownership and use; the precise conditions and the application portal are with the step in the journey to Australia. What definitely doesn't work: putting the car in the container with the household goods. Motor vehicles and parts are expressly excluded from the household goods concession.

What you pay at the border

Item	Rule	Source
Customs duty	5% of the customs value for passenger cars (heading 8703)	ABF, Customs Tariff chapter 87
GST	10% of the value of the taxable importation: customs value plus duty, freight and insurance	ABF
Luxury car tax	33% on the part above the LCT threshold, for cars carrying less than 2 tonnes and fewer than 9 passengers	ABF
Assessment of the import approval	generally within 30 working days of a complete application	ABF
Temporary import	up to 12 months without tax, only for tourists and temporary residents	ABF

You needn't calculate the amounts yourself: after the import declaration the ABF sends an outstanding payment advice with everything you have to pay. The threshold for the luxury car tax is set annually by the tax office (ATO). And the taxes are only part of the bill. The ABF itself lists what to add: removing asbestos and steam cleaning before shipping, freight and insurance, storage and delivery, the charges of the logistics provider and the customs broker, import processing charges, wharf and transport charges, and what it costs to make the car meet the registration and insurance requirements of your state.

The rule that finishes off old cars: asbestos

Importing asbestos into Australia is prohibited, and you must ensure your car contains no asbestos before it is shipped. If the ABF judges there is a risk, it requires assurances that parts are asbestos-free. If you can't give them, the car is held at the border for sampling and testing, with delays and costs for you.

Prove before shipping that brakes and gaskets are asbestos-free. You arrange that evidence in the Netherlands, with test reports or receipts for replaced parts. Whoever only tries in the port of Sydney or Melbourne is weeks and hundreds of dollars further on. For cars from before the European asbestos bans this is often the point at which the sum tips towards selling.

Then there's biosecurity: the car has to be clean inside and out, and an inspector from the Department of Agriculture checks it for cleanliness on arrival, at your expense. You contact the regional office at the port yourself to arrange that inspection. An air-conditioner can also require a licence, for the ozone-depleting or greenhouse gases in it.

After the port: registration in your state

An import approval is no guarantee that your state will register the car. Every state and territory has its own registration and insurance requirements, and without a valid import approval no state registers a car for the public road. New South Wales shows what that looks like: first the approval from the federal department, then checking whether the car meets the NSW requirements (registration is refused if it doesn't), then a compliance certificate from a certifier licensed under the VSCCS scheme, and only then the ordinary registration of a used vehicle at a service centre, with all the car's documents.

The sum that usually points to selling

Add it up: 5% duty, 10% GST on value plus freight plus insurance, the freight itself, the asbestos evidence, the inspections, the modifications for your state and the time. Set against that what your car still fetches in the Netherlands and what a comparable car costs in Australia. For an ordinary family car, selling almost always wins. Only a car of special value deserves the crossing, and then only with the approval in hand before you call the mover. Your driving licence you exchange in any case, with or without a car.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the journey, step 5.4: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Australia or go straight to step 5.4 in the open plan.