Importing of vehicles into the Ukraine.

[alvpackman]

Hello. My name is Alan. I presently live in the USA, in Wisconsin. I am engaged to a beautiful lady in Nikolaev and her son and I have been talking about a possible business venture here in the Ukraine. We are thinking about purchasing used commercial cargo van trucks to import into the Ukraine to resell for a profit. We do have some potential customers in mind as we originally got this idea from them. I am an experienced automotive dealer and technician here in Wisconsin. But we need information to see what we are up against when it comes to restrictions, laws, import duties or taxes. We need advice and real facts to know what our costs are going to be. What limitations that there may be for us in this business. If you are someone who has experience along these lines please feel free to contact me and we can continue this conversation over our personal emails or telephones. Thank you very much.

[AkMike]

From what I've heard there is a 50% tax added at the border upon import. BUT there are many autos that are dis-assembled then shipped in and re-assembled and titled as rebuilt. The parts are taxed at a lesser rate to make this worthwhile. If I were to do this the major components would be in different shipments.
I do know that my step sons German Ford Fusion was brought in sans wheels/tires and exaust system to skirt a tax rate.

[zodoz]

You can not comprehend the whirlwind of hurt you would encounter if you tried this...

I looked in to this when considering buying a car from a guy here in Ukraine. The car was registered in UK, and I thought I might be able to drive around with UK plates and avoid problems with a legal Title from UK, the price was very good ($7000 USD for a Mercedes 320).

#1: Ukraine Border Service: They live for this kind of thing....they will scrutinize vehicles with a microscope...anything out of place with vehicle or paperwork or YOUR paperwork, they seize the vehicle or at least impose a hefty "fine" (bribe)

#2: Local Police (Militsa): they will pull the vehicles every chance they get, for no reason other than Foreign plates, also scrutinizing cdocuments...
same as #1

If you seriously want to do something like this, buy the vehicles in Ukraine....

In your mind the profit potential may be there, and the limited info online shows low cost/high reward right? but like all schemes of this nature, there are many who have tried to walk this path, and many have failed....you "might" be the 1% who could pull this off, but you would be doing business under the radar and "illegally". A wise man on another forum told me: "Why, when you are trying to make a life in Ukraine, and are going to be judged on your actions over next 2 years, would you want to risk losing everything?" {I paraphrase}

If you still want to try something like this: Come to Ukraine and meet your Lady, see how that goes...If it goes well, marry her. Then, you begin 2 year waiting period to start trying to be admitted as a Permanent Resident (a monumental feat in itself).
After that, you can do business freely or in your lady's name as sometimes it is easier to do business as a Ukrainian Citizen, as you would be a Registered Foreign National here...

Or you can invest $100,000 in Urkaine by some method (Lawyers needed) and you can speed up the Right to Work in Ukraine...Maybe buying $100,000 worth of Trucks and a shop to repair would work, this i do not know, indeed many so called Lawyers are fuzzy on this issue...

ALSO, corruption is a fact here, if you open a business, expect to be "shaken down" by some local Mafia/Police type...I don't have info on how much that would cost you, but other businesses do not survive in face of this...This is not America, and business is not as usual...

good Luck, I am in Kiev and can chat if you like...S.

[Pitter Pen]

Very often on this forum and other forums foreigners post scary warnings about corruption in Ukraine and how the state does everything to kill business in Ukraine. Any my try to dig deeper was taken like I try to convince that there is no corruption here, that was not true.

This situation is rather similar, e.i. a guy has a business idea and is persuaded not to do this. I think this is wrong. I believe the business idea worth of analysisat least. We all know about corruption and lets stop discussing this. This is of the same type for discussion like politics and religion - endless.

Returning to the questions of alvpackman I woud advice to go to a finacial adviser. From legal side such business is absolutly legitimate. But first you need to understand numbers, e.g. purchase price, sale price, taxes, transportation costs etc. If after this you still think that this business could be profitable, then you should go to a lawyer to culculate import expenses (customs duties, bribes if any, maybe some registration peculiarities etc).

[zodoz]

Good advice from Pitter and I should have made a note that I am not a businessman or anything of that nature.

If you want first hand experiences of people who understand this type of thing, the best you will get in other words, while sitting in Wisconsin, then start there.

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If I had known about this forum 6 years ago my life would be very different today...hindsight is 20/20 though.

There are guys from US & UK there who have done things similar to what you are considering. It is the MOST valuable resource on the Web today for an English speaking Foreigner heading to Ukraine. It is active and has an archive of messages in the Forum area that will tell you everything you need to know, short of detailed Business planning information like an Accountant or Law firm would provide.

Carl, P-N, Mac, Ace123...send them my regards.

[zodoz]

@ Pitter: "a guy has a business idea and is persuaded not to do this"

That is not my intention in my post...and as I have no intention of doing anything of this nature I can only write about what I have found out so far...

Actually I wish Alv all the luck in the world, hope it works out for him...

[fred2265]

Great commonsense from Pitter.