Historic Vehicles in Europe

[alainmoran]

I am hoping to move to Portugal next year, and was wondering what the situation with historic vehicles is in europe (I'll be taking my minor with me)

Do I need to pay tax?

If I come back what will happen, will I need to re-register the car or do I need to SORN in the UK while I am away to avoid loosing my reg?

I have another minor which was HEAVILY modified in the 1970's, which should mean that it retains it's historic vehicle status and reg, what will be the state of play if I take it into Europe (Its a custom chassis, with Viva coil-overs in front, jag diff at back, and driven by a 2L Essex V4 with a minor pickup shell on-top)

[rayofleamington]

If the car is out of the UK more than 12 months (IIRC) you need to register it as exported, and you will need to register it in Portugal.

Some EU people bend (break) the rules and keep their home registration when living abroad and go back to their own country for MOT and re-taxing, however UK insurance will NOT cover your car if it's permanently abroad. In most other EU countries, their insurance is valid across Europe without the same hassles.

As for any registration rules and tax rules for portugal, your best bet might be a portugese classic car club.

If you brought a classic car in to the UK from abroad there is no import duty to pay (I think the cut off is 10 year old cars). DVLA 'first registration fee' is something like £75 (used to be £50 - stealth taxes..).
If/When you bring the car back to UK it 'should' be easy to regain your original registration as long as you have all the old documentation etc... for the car. DVLA should not be re-issuing registrations to other cars unless the car is classed as scrapped, however if it makes money there is no law to stop them re-issuing the reg from an exported car! You could just SORN it instead of having it officially exported but that is breaking the rules, and you should not register a car in 2 seperate countries (although some people have done so)