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Most men have a soft corner for cars. If you are one of them, then you are likely to own one. You may be planning to sell your old car, and buy an imported one. Here are a few steps that you will need to consider while importing a car from US to Australia :-

Take into account import tax costs

You can check the Australian Customs and Borders Protective Services site to acquire details on the taxes levied on imported cars. Normally, you may have to pay 10% of the car’s present value for a Goods and Services Tax(GST). Customs valuation of your car will be made in two ways. The car’s value will be based on the ‘original country purchase price’’. This can take account depreciation in value. The vehicle will be valued once it is shipped to Australia. The price can be 50% below actual market value. You will have to pay import duty charged on Customs Value. Under existing laws, four wheel drive, off-road, and commercial vehicles are charged an import duty of 5% on Customs Valuation. Cars which are less than 30 years old, new and usually used pay a higher import duty, which is fixed at 10%.

Additional costs can comprise a luxury car tax and storage fees

You can calculate the cost of importing your vehicle to Australia by adding the taxes and transportation costs. In case you are planning to sell the car at a fair price and buy a new one in Australia, then you may have to spend a size able amount as luxury car tax and storage fees.

How to handle the import process?

Once you have made up your mind to import a car to Australia, one of the first steps that you should go for is to obtain a VIA(Vehicle Import Approval). As part of the official process, you will need to acquire a VIA from the Australian government before arranging the shipping of the car to Australia. Application forms are available online. The car also needs to meet Australian standards and cleaned for quarantine purposes. Once you get the VIA, you can arrange the shipment process.

Select a shipping company with care

Don’t make the mistake of hiring a transporter just because he offered an affordable package. Once you post details related to your car on a site like Ship and offer details related to starting point, destination, car model, year and manufacturer, then you will get quotes from reliable transporters for handling the shipment process. There will be three steps in the import process-transportation from the starting point to a US port, port to port and then landing in a port in Australia to the final destination.

Once the companies bid for your shipment, go through their profiles well to find out customer-rated shipments of past shipments. Only go for the service provider who has years of experience in handling car shipments between US and Australia. This will make sure that your car reaches Australia in a safe condition on time.