Car move? Taxes Fees??

Having just gotten my car from the docks today......

First you get your shipping documents from your freight forwarder. Then you go to the VI IRS office where you pay

1) road tax: (gross car weight)x $0.16

Then you go to the registration office where you pay a $5 fee to get a special permit allowing you to move the vehicle from the docks to the registration office (you can't drive legally w/ non-VI license plates). You'll need proof of having paid road tax to get this "special permit."

Then you go to the port where you pay

2) excise tax (car value) x 4%

3) customs/import duty (car value) x 3.5% (that's what it was for a Swedish car; I think it's the same for a Japanese car).

When you've satisfied the excise folks, the customs folks and the shipping company (you'll need to get a "release form" from them to get the vehicle off the docks), you can drive your own car again...

Return to the registration office to get your car inspected and registered. You'll pay

4) Inspection/Registration/Title: $88.

The VI Customs folks assess the escise tax, based on the blue book value of the car.

US Customs assesses the import duty -- they're pretty liberal; they start with the blue book value and then subtract for mileage, wear & tear,etc.

For my 1998 Volvo S70 T5 (paid extra duty because it's a turbo), I paid around $525 in road tax (based on 3272 pounds of gross weight), around $280 in excised tax and $225 in import duty. Not bad, considering I didn't have to pay anything for shipping (my employer paid).

Law 64 (get to love this one) is the basis on which we're charged import duty for bringing goods into the VI. I read Law 64 yesterday. It starts off: "We, Christian the Tenth, by grace of God, King of Denmark........" According to the treaty that made the VI the USVI, Law 64 continues in effect for 100 years. So I read on. Law 64 refers only to "St. Thomas and St. Jan" -- nothing in it about St. Croix. When I mentioned this to the US Customs Officer, he asked if I wanted to take the issue to court. I just wanted my car. I suspect I'm not the first person to have noticed this discrepancy, so I just paid.

The REALLY interesting part about that is to see what happens when the 100 years come to an end.