Norwegian used cars are cheap now for foreigners with euros to shop for. It becomes even cheaper when part of the previously paid one-off fee is paid back.
Historically, Norway has been among the countries at the very top of the world for taxes on the purchase of new cars with a petrol or diesel engine.
So far this year, the state has refunded the one-off tax for 7,012 fossil-fuel cars that have been exported out of the country for a total of NOK 650 million. For comparison, 5,346 fossil fuel cars were exported in the whole of 2022. This is shown by figures NRK has obtained from the Swedish Tax Agency.
If the car in the video is bought by a foreigner, that person can be refunded NOK 250,000 in previously paid one-off tax from the state.
The Audi RS6 with V8 and double turbo that Magnus Guldvog in Auksjonen.no starts for NRK has almost 600 horsepower. The buyer gets a refund of around NOK 250,000 for it, when the person concerned applies for a tax refund in connection with the export.
Exports 13 percent
But far more cars are probably exported than what the Tax Agency registers. All fossil cars older than 2014 will not be included in this overview, nor will electric cars.
At Auksjonen.no outside Tønsberg, they now sell 90 cars a month out of the country, equivalent to 13 percent of all the cars they sell each month.
Electric cars are sold as much as fossil cars, says Guldvog, who is product and sales manager.
– As it is now, a lot of cars disappear out of the country, and probably much more than is reported. The buyers are from Eastern Europe, Germany, the Netherlands, and also our neighboring countries, he says.
General manager Espen Regevik in Mandal car with a 2017 model Chevrolet Corvette. The car costs over one million kroner, but if it is exported out of the country, a foreign buyer gets back 314,000 kroner from the state treasury.
Photo: Mandal Bill
Calculations made by NRK with The tax authority’s calculation model for reimbursement of one-off tax, shows that several used cars that are for sale in Norway today can provide a one-off tax refund of over NOK 600,000.
– That’s right, says investment director Robert Næss, who owns the electric car dealer Ecocar and is well acquainted with the tax refund regulations.
– There are some limitations. The car must be newer than June 2014, and then you will not be reimbursed more in taxes than was once paid for the car, he says.
The foreign car buyers or the person responsible for the export of the car received an average refund of NOK 93,000 from the state, the figures show.
The car in the picture is a Mercedes AMG G63. Newer editions of this can achieve many hundreds of thousands of NOK in tax refunds. This is a 2012 model and thus too old to get a tax refund. In principle, it can be exported from Norway without ever being registered.
Photo: Johan B. Sættem
This is how the refund works
Also in Mandal, at car dealer Espen Regevik, there are many foreigners who buy used cars.
– Used cars are cheap in Norway now because of the weak currency, and we export a lot of cars out of the country. We sell to Ukraine, to Germany and to several European countries, says Regevik.
The Chevrolet Corvette he is standing with in the picture will be over NOK 300,000 cheaper for the buyer due to the refund of the one-off tax, he tells NRK.
The reason why it is possible to get a tax refund is symmetry in the tax system; the tax that can be refunded corresponds to up to as much as the corresponding car would have received in one-off tax upon importation to Norway on the same day.
It is likely that far from all the cars that leave Norway are registered as exported somewhere or at any time, not even with Autosys or the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, according to OFV.
The reason is, among other things, that Norway does not have an agreement with all countries regarding feedback in connection with the car being registered in another country.
At the time of writing, there are approximately 64,000 used cars for sale on finn.no, of which around 44,000 are fully or partially fossil-fueled (also including hybrids).
2023-07-17 05:39:16
#Europe #emptying #Norway #cars