What they don't tell you

When we made the decision to move to Bulgaria we naturally researched all the official sites for information, from both UK and Bulgarian perspectives.

Provided the vehicle was for your own use, it seemed that it was a relatively straightforward process to complete the import and register the car (with KAT, our equivalent of DVLA, sort of).

What was completely absent from all the advice was a killer clause in the small print.

Importing a car/van is free from Import Duty and VAT  - SO LONG AS YOU HAVE OWNED THE CAR FOR 6 MONTHS prior to arriving in Bulgaria.

So, for us a double whammy. When we came in July 2022, I had bought the van as an alternative to using a removals company, having the additional utility of a van if we had any building work to do on any of the houses we might buy. 

Again, when we returned to sort out the Visa paperwork, we left the van in Sofia and looked for a LHD car to take back. 

We bought the Mustang in November. Meaning that I had owned both van and car for less than 6 months prior to bringing them to Bulgaria.

Still haven't found out the reason for this arbitrary period. When the Mustang was originally imported from the US to the UK, it would have been subject to (as of then) both VAT and Import Duty as per EU rules.

To have to pay both taxes again is rather galling.

And, to make matters worse, because the Mustang is a US car, for some reason a code on the V5C was blank - this is now needed  before a vehicle can be registered in the EU, thus adding more time and pounds of flesh.

Luckily, our customs agent determined a random very reasonable low valuation for the Mustang and it is now fully registered in Bulgaria with Bulgarian Plates.

Unfortunately, vans are very sought after in Bulgaria and the Import Duty is 16% (rather than 10% for a car).

I am not paying 16% and then 20% on top for the van - so it's in limbo at the moment! No tax, insurance or MoT. Hoping to sell it (heavily discounted) to someone driving back to the UK, who can sort out the paperwork, or cut it up into bits and say "what van".