Shipping container arriving in cyprus

[oneillbox]

Hi All

You are the people with experience. Next year we will send out container out from UK containing personal belongings and personal effects for our villa where we will be living permanently from early spring 2019.

I presume the sealed container arrives at the property and cant be unsealed until the customs man is at the house, is this correct?

Now.....my question is. What personal effects am I likely to have to pay tax on? im aware that the idea is to have everything used to lessen the chances of this happening. I will be bringing a 16 foot boat in the container (quite old, cost me 1200 quid). A mercury engine (not new) cost me 700 quid. usual second hand beds, furniture, 6 year old 50 inch tv, kitchen bits, clothes, bedding, ornaments etc etc

Please advise me. Im not wanting a huge tax bill.

Kind regards

R

[Dalartokat]

Are you having an agent to help you through with this?

[lee666]

Hi oneillbox

We arrived here in January and our container arrived 3 days later. It was a 20ft shipping container.

We used Euromed and they were fantastic on the UK & TRNC side. It took 25 days to get to Famagusta.

The container is sealed until it arrives at your property and only unsealed in your presence.

I thought I was going to have to pay around £1500 in tax, it turns out it cost me just over £300 - we had loads of brand new things in ours but they were quite lenient.

On the boat and engine, not sure but could be somewhere between 30-60% of there current value.

On arrival at our villa the driver and 3 students (from the university) unloaded ours into the rooms we wanted everything in. There were 3 x customs guys who were fantastic, we gave everyone liquid refreshments and tipped the students. Tried to tip the customs guys but no way would they take anything.

The total cost of our container was £2050 and may I say worth every penny. If you need any telephone numbers and contacts then please do not hesitate to ask.

[Yes and no]

Take anything new out of the boxes,remove labels prices etc. Just be nice and polite to the guys when they rock up to yours and you should be fine,I fed my lot when they came did spring rolls and a few nibbles I think I had to pay something like £300,I gave the customs guys a bottle of good raki.good luck with the move hope all goes well.

[oneillbox]

thanks everyone, anyother advice is most welcome.

do you pay the customs men there and then? what currency? do they give a receipt?

[lee666]

Hi oneillbox

Yes you pay them there and then, I paid in TL and yes I had a receipt.

You have to pay licence fee for TV & Stereo's - for two TV's I paid 254TL I think.

[Groucho]

You need to register the boat with the Harbour authorities too... I had to go to the local muhtar and get a letter of permission to use the local fishermen's harbour for launching my boat. You will need proof of ownership - they don't understand the concept of 'I bought this but have no kocan for it'. So you need a receipt of some kind as proof of purchase. The trailer has to be licensed too.... There are requirements you must meet - like having VHF comms, life preservers etc. They are meant to inspect the boat for seaworthiness before you are given a registration number for the name of your boat. When my boat arrived here her name was Nemo but there was already a Nemo registered in Girne - so she became Nemo II.

[Keithcaley]

They didn't want to inspect the sailing dinghy that I shared with my neighbour, they were quite happy to see a photograph of it

However, they did say that if ever we wanted to fit an engine of any sort, they probably would want to see it...

Once registered, you need to have the Registration (Koçan) number displayed on both sides of the prow, (there is a font size specified, but I've no idea what it was ) and also on the stern - I'm not sure whether it's compulsory to have the name displayed as well, but it is customary. All of the advertising (Reklam) agencies have machines to produce suitable self-adhesive lettering (they also supply number plates for cars!).

We always kept a laminated waterproof copy of the current registration document on board.

Also a TRNC flag should be flown at all times - particulary adviseable if you sail anywhere near a Military area!! - We did get shouted at a few times by sentries for venturing too close...

Customs seem to be particularly fond of taxing TV's & computer monitors - especially if if you have more than one, but the levies are fairly nominal.

As for duty on the boat and engine, etc. you really do need to ask the Customs people - I think that we discussed this on another thread - they are the only ones who can give you accurate information, and even that may change by the time your stuff arrives

[oneillbox]

thanks again to all