Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris
Is this car in the country .. free and clear? Does it drive on the roads, or are we still at the 'promises' stage? Or, is it coming in as part of a tourist business with special permissions? Or is it coming in as part of a Zona Franca business? Or is it specified a truck? Anyway .. I would also wait a year or so before I say no problems, none, zero, nada  Or it can be that this time there are no problems. I would cross my fingers for next time though! |
It's here. It's a 2001 E350 V-8 15 passenger van, Plain Jane, attached to a new 14' x 7' enclosed ramp trailer. It is not part of a FZ biz, it is not part of an ~official~ tourist biz, no special consideration, it's in a business name. Is it considered a truck? I dunno. I never asked. All I know is aduanas will be telling us Monday how much duty and taxes has to be paid, and Tuesday we bring them the $$$ and they give us our items.
We checked with several folks in aduanas well prior to even buying it. We even asked an aduanas official today about the year thing-and we spent a FULL 4 hours with them*. He just shrugged his shoulders. Never ONCE during the entire process has ANYONE-any gubmint official-ever even blinked when we asked the questions about only vehicles less than 5 years old can be imported.
Additionally, we are using a very, very old Customs Brokers firm, been around like 70 years. Before purchasing the van (or ANY vehicle) we asked them to ask aduanas. They got the same answers.
Perhaps the 5-year old thing pertains to new residents bringing in a car duty free. We are paying the proper 20%...and it's based on the legal, notorized purchase invoice from the deaaler in the US we bought it from. There is even a similar van in their database, and it was pointed out to us @ their office in SDQ (not the port) by workers in the "valuation" department.
We certainly weren't going to do something without proper due diligence, especially on such an important part of our business.
They were actually more concerned about the motorcycle specific items we had-engine guards, frame sliders, "fenda extendas", rear wheel lifts, frame lowering kits-than anything else. Seems those items had never been in the system before. But when we showed they were made in the US, he said "no duty, CAFTA", and moved on.
*Hey, who knows, it's the DR and things could blow up. But so far, nada, zero, no problemas bringing in stuff, and a 7 year old van, into the country. Not even a whiff of a problem, and my job today was getting "whiffs", while Alida worked with 7 port, aduanas, customs brokers, and drug enforcement guys going through our stuff and all the paperwork...in Spanish. Not one spoke hardly any English.
(10)
found a honda CRV at the weekly car show in santo domingo
