Shipping a car from the Czech Republic to the UK

The Czech Republic is landlocked, and people sometimes picture a car going the long way round to a port. It does not. It comes over by road through Germany to the Channel. The Czech paperwork is one visit to a local registration office, and the rest happens with us in Castle Donington.

Usual method

Road transport, ferry or container

Price

Priced per job

Transit time

Usually 1 to 4 weeks door to door

Import tax

20% VAT, no duty if EU or UK-built

How the car gets here

We can collect from your address anywhere in the Czech Republic and bring the car over by road. Or, if you would rather drive it over yourself, we clear it through UK customs once you land. Door to door, European moves usually take 1 to 4 weeks once collection and customs are allowed for.

Export plates and the Czech register

Czech vehicle registration is handled by the municipal offices with extended powers, the obecní úřad obce s rozšířenou působností. There are 206 of them, and you can use any one that deals with vehicle registration, not just the one nearest the address on your papers.

For a car leaving the country, the office takes back the Czech plates and issues a limited-validity export plate (vývozní značka) for the journey out. The Czech government portal gives it a maximum validity of 3 months. It is usually issued on the spot, though complicated cases can take up to 30 days.

The Ministry of Transport lists what to bring:

• Your ID
• The vehicle registration certificate, and the technical certificate if one was issued
• An inspection report no older than one year
• Every licence plate issued for the car

The owner applies, in person or by post. Someone acting for you needs a written power of attorney with an officially verified signature.

Between EU countries there is a second step, where the new country reports the registration back within 2 months. The Ministry says that step does not apply when the car is registered outside the EU, which includes the UK. So the export plate visit is the step that counts. Keep copies of everything the office gives you.

Import tax from the Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is in the EU, so a car from there usually pays 20% import VAT on the price plus transport. There is no duty if it was built in the EU or UK. Škodas, built in the Czech Republic, fall squarely in that group.

A car built outside the EU and UK pays 10% duty on top, wherever it was registered. A car over 30 years old pays 5% VAT and no duty. If the invoice is more than 3 months old, a recent valuation is used. The import tax calculator gives a rough figure.

If you have lived outside the UK for over 12 months and owned the car for over 6, you may import it tax and duty free under Transfer of Residence, through an HMRC application. A car that was UK-registered before may come back tax free with its UK purchase invoice and old V5C, as bringing a UK car back home explains.

The whole job, in order

1. 1

   Before it leaves

   Export plate

   Hand back the Czech plates at a registration office and take the export plate, with an inspection report under a year old.

2. 2

   Transit

   By road

   We collect and bring it over, or you drive it to the UK yourself.

3. 3

   Arrival

   Customs and NOVA

   As HMRC CDS authorised agents we make the customs entry and tell HMRC the car has arrived through NOVA.

4. 4

   Preparation

   Changes and testing

   Headlights, mph speedometer and rear fog light, then the approval route that fits the car’s age.

5. 5

   Within 10 working days

   DVLA registration

   Our dealer-level DVLA account lets us register imported cars within 10 working days.

Changes for UK roads

Czech cars are left-hand drive and set up for driving on the right. Before registration, the headlight beam pattern needs correcting, the speedometer has to read in mph, and a rear fog light may need adding. On cars over 10 years old the work usually comes down to the fog light.

We do this on our own site. Our guide to speedometer and headlight conversions covers the detail, and left-hand drive cars in the UK covers living with one.

Testing and registration

For an EU-built car under 10 years old, the usual route is a Certificate of Conformity, which we can source if it is missing. Without one, the car takes an IVA test. Cars over 10 years old take an MOT, and cars over 40 need no MOT and can be delivered to your UK address before registration.

We run one of only seven privately operated IVA centres in Great Britain and test every week. Most EU cars can be registered remotely, so if you have driven yours over and it needs no testing, it may never need to visit us.

What it costs

The Czech Republic is priced per job, because where the car is, how it travels and what it needs here all vary. The estimator gives you the tax, and the shipping costs page explains what goes into a price.

For what every EU route shares, see importing a car from Europe, or the Czech Republic country page.

Questions people ask

Bringing a car over from the Czech Republic? Send us the details on the quote form.