BERN A bizarre case has Swiss and foreigners alike scratching their heads. A hapless German pensioner recently visiting his daughter in Switzerland drove his son-in-law’s Swiss-registered car across the border to go to his daughter’s holiday home in Austria. Stopped at customs, and unable to provide appropriate documentation, Dieter Johann von der Heide was hit with a whopping fine of CHF 17,900 – 10% of the value of the car in customs costs and 19% import tax.
Apparently, there is an EU regulation stating that anyone domiciled in the EU must apply for a customs clearance and registration document before entering the EU with a car that does not have an EU registration. It is a cautionary tale for anyone residing in Switzerland who might wish to allow a friend or relative visiting from the EU to drive their Swiss-registered car across the border – even for a day trip.
There is an exception that allows residents living in Switzerland to enter the country twelve times a year with a foreign-registered car. That may not be much comfort for frontaliers who must rely on the fact that the law is honoured more in the breach than in the observance. A similar Swiss law states that “Persons resident in Switzerland are generally not entitled to use a foreign matriculated vehicle in Switzerland,” although there are exceptions for rental and professional use. Walter Pavel, the communications officer for the Federal Customs Office (AFD) in Bern, said the rationale behind the law is to control automobile smugglers and those trying to avoid paying import duty on a new car.
Since ignorance of the law is no defence, the question remains, who has the obligation to inform car owners residing in Switzerland about the problem of allowing friends or relatives to drive their Swiss-registered car across the border? Representatives of the Swiss Touring Club (TCS) and the Cantonal Service of Automobiles would only say that, if asked, they advise customers to check with the country in question.
Lukas Reimann, a Swiss People’s Party (UDC) MP in St Gallen, said, “What happened to the German pensioner could happen to other innocent parties who have never heard of this law – which is probably the majority of people in Switzerland. People here cross the borders all the time, to shop, to work, to holiday and normally there is no problem. Customs officials on our borders know what to look out for and it isn’t a 73-year-old man on holiday.”
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John M says
email to Pamela Taylor:
Dear Pamela,
I read your very interesting piece on driving across borders with foreign-registered cars in the current Le News. These kinds of problems are not new: I worked in the EU’s Press and Information Office in Paris 30 years ago and one day I got a call from a man who had just driven the expensive BMW which he had just bought in Belgium over the border into France – without declaring it at the border – and now wanted to register it. But he had not owned it for 6 months and could not bring it in as a used personal import and had not declared it at the frontier so it was an illegal import which also could not be returned to Belgium. I had to tell the unhappy man that he was now the owner of one of the most expensive pieces of scrap iron in Europe. I just remember him starting to shout, and shout and shout and shout …. in the end I gently put the phone down.
In fact, this whole area (driving licences and car registrations) is a complete legal minefield, with the potential for large numbers of people to be caught breaking laws they are unaware of. Decades of freedom of movement legislation and jurisprudence in Europe have not resolved issues like those outlined in your article. In some respects, matters are getting legally worse – the EU Driving Licence Directive, although not fully in force in most countries, may have standardised the licenses quite prettily but has made explicitly clear that stupidities like being unable to drive a foreign-registered car even temporarily (athough there are exemptions for hire cars) in your country of residence (for fear of tax evaders exploiting the possibility) is indeed the law.
Vast numbers of frontaliers are probably breaking this rule all over Europe but instead of legalising this sensible use of cars, we get the Austrian Customs (and others) applying the strict rule of law on the very occasional unfortunates they choose to make examples of. A friend who lives in Ferney continues to use his UK licence as the Directive allows, but is regularly stopped by the French police who are entirely unaware of it and its provisions (in this case, good ones). He did once go to the Mairie and try to change his UK licence to avoid all the hassle but was told that because it was no longer a ‘must do’ legally-required activity, the relevant office in Bourg en Bresse would only process the transfer request if he had committed a traffic offence and so HAD to exchange his licence. So the advice was that unless he didn’t want to see his licence again for several years, he should just forget it and carry on as now.
When I worked in Paris, I could not drive our UK-registered car in France so my wife, who works in the UK and hates driving, had to drive from Calais. Now that I am in Geneva, I can’t drive at all because I am not going to exchange an EU driving licence for a Swiss one while uncertainties about Switzerland’s relationship with the EU exist after the recent referendum. So now I can drive from Calais to Ferney but my wife has to drive the last couple of kilometres into Geneva! But most people don’t know about any of these things, as the ignorance on the blogs shows, and seem to equate not getting caught – sometimes for decades – with being legal, which they are not. If ever there was a case for greater European integration – including with Switzerland – then surely driving laws should be an area for far greater harmonisation so that common-sense activities, like that of poor Herr von der Heide, are not criminalised.
I hope your article stimulates transparency and discussion about problems which most people probably don’t realise could cause them some serious financial and personal disasters!! A really good read 🙂
Best wishes,
JOHN, Versoix
felix says
Switzerland is such a trial these days. I have the distinct impression that they are trying to make up lost illicit banking revenue by bleeding dry everybody they possibly can.
The new law about hefty fines for getting on a train without a ticket also came as quite a shock, given that you could always buy a ticket from a conductor when you had a short connection, at least since, oh, forever.
Combined with the ridiculous exchange rates these days, I can’t see why anybody bothers to go there at all–just meet your Swiss friends in France or Italy.
francesca says
“There is an exception that allows residents living in Switzerland to enter the country twelve times a year with a foreign-registered car.”
Where did you read this? I’m trying to look for the actual piece of legislation to show the border guard next time they stop me!
Wendy Strahm says
Concerning your rather sensational front page story…I wonder how many people would let their 73 year old father-in-law drive their CHF 179,000 car, anywhere? Maybe they got off lightly with the 10% fine!
TC says
Where is your math Wendy? It’s 10% of the value plus 19%mwst. Besides, it’s Switzerland…. Expensive cars aren’t that unusual here…
sophie Sion Byde says
That, if I may say so, is completely besides the point!
carol collins says
So, where exactly would one apply for such a document???
Edward Girardet says
This is precisely the problem. The best suggestion we can offer is to contact customs, either at a border post, or phone their offices (see website: http://www.ezv.admin.ch/index.html?lang=fr) For the EU side, I would do the same with any French, German, Italian or Austrian customs offices.
Sincerely yours, Edward Girardet, Editor.
Derrick Deane says
When I was going on an overseas holiday last year, my Douvaine-resident brother asked if he could borrow my car while his was being extensively serviced. Having vaguely heard that there might be a legal impediment, I decided to check with the French authorities.
The customs office referred me to the police station. The police station referred me to my car insurance company. My car insurance company referred me to the customs office. No one had any idea what the “appropriate documentation” was or how to procure it.
My brother walked.
Derrick Deane
1291 Commugny