Importing A Car, Motorcycle, Or Motorhome
A car and a motorcycle are not charged the same Customs duty as a motorhome. New Zealand Customs Service applies 0% duty to a motorcycle and to a car, and 10% duty to a motorhome or camper van, if you do not qualify for a concession.
GST of 15% still applies on top of that duty unless concession reference 80c removes both. The vehicle also has to clear biosecurity and be certified before it can be registered for New Zealand roads.
Concession 80c
Duty and GST can both be removed for a private motor vehicle, motorcycle, motor scooter, motorhome, moped scooter, camper van, or quad bike. You need a document authorising residence, more than 21 months lived outside New Zealand, at least one year of personal ownership and use overseas, and an NZCS 80c undertaking.
No concession
Customs charges the duty rate for that vehicle type, then GST of 15% on the price plus international freight and insurance plus any duty. A gift, a sale, commercial use, a company owned vehicle, and a hire or lease that has not finished do not get reference 80.
Visitor, one year
If you are visiting and you will take the car out when you leave, Customs can grant temporary entry, normally for one year. A Carnet de Passages en Douane avoids a security. Without it, Customs holds a cash deposit for the full duty and other charges.
The wider border path is on import duty and customs. Once you know the duty rate, estimate the GST on the import duty calculator. How the 15% base is built is on GST on imports NZ.
What duty applies if there is no concession?
New Zealand Customs Service publishes these rates for a motor vehicle when you do not qualify for a concession. GST is not inside the duty percentage. GST of 15% is added on the amount you paid, plus international freight, postage and insurance, plus any import duty.
| Type of vehicle | Duty if no concession | What else still applies |
|---|---|---|
| Motorcycle | 0% | GST of 15%, plus a standard import entry with your Customs Number |
| Car | 0% | Same GST base. A registered overseas car is not automatic proof it meets New Zealand standards |
| Motorhome or camper van | 10% | GST of 15% is calculated after that duty is added |
| Motor vehicle for 10 or more people | 5% | Same GST base. This is the people mover class, not a private car |
Those percentages are the published concession free rates on the Customs duty and allowances page. The legal tariff item is still the Working Tariff Document. A motor vehicle is entered on a standard import entry with your Customs Number and the tariff item, regardless of value, when you are using reference 80c.
Two clocks, not one. Customs concession 80c: if you sell or dispose of the vehicle within two years of import, you pay the duty and GST that applied at import, or a lesser sum Customs sets. NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi immigrant vehicle status is a separate declaration: you will not sell or lease the vehicle for at least a year after registration, or you will not use it for hire or reward or in a transport service. Meeting one clock does not satisfy the other.
Who can use concession 80c?
New Zealand Customs Service requires all four tests on the date the motor vehicle is imported. You hold a document authorising residence. You have resided or been domiciled outside New Zealand for more than the 21 month period before arrival. You personally owned and used the vehicle overseas for at least one year before the earlier of your departure or the date it was surrendered for shipping. You give a concession reference 80c undertaking.
A document authorising residence includes a New Zealand passport, an Australian passport, a current New Zealand residence visa, a returning resident visa, an Australian permanent residence visa, a work visa issued for a minimum of 12 months, a Work to Residence or Long Term Business work visa, or a visitor visa issued for a minimum of three years. A visitor visa that only allows multiple visits of up to six months each does not count. Student visa holders do not qualify for reference 80b, 80c, or 80d, and pay duty and GST.
You can bring more than one vehicle if every vehicle meets the tests. The concession does not apply to a gift, a vehicle you will exchange or sell, commercial use, a company owned vehicle, or a hire or lease. A lease or hire purchase can still count as personally owned only if the agreement is fully completed before the vehicle is imported, and you had it for at least one year before departure or shipping.
If the vehicle arrives more than five years after you do, a Customs officer must consent, and you can apply only after it has arrived. If it arrives before you, Customs needs proof you will be in New Zealand within six months of its arrival, such as a booking. The undertaking forms are NZCS 80c for a motor vehicle, NZCS 80b for an aircraft or small ship, and NZCS 80d for a ship, on the Customs vehicles, vessels and aircraft page.
How is the Customs value worked out?
If you pay duty or GST, Customs bases the amount on the purchase receipt or bill of sale plus international freight and insurance, or on an acceptable New Zealand valuation. For entry, the value for duty has a minimum of NZ$100.
Depreciation uses the Inland Revenue straight line rate, and only if you personally owned and used the vehicle overseas for more than three months before it was handed over for shipment or you left, whichever is earlier. Part months count as whole months. For motor vehicles under reference 80c the deduction is 75%, leaving a residual 25%. If you cannot show a purchase price because the vehicle was gifted, inherited, built, or heavily modified, you pay for a New Zealand valuation, and depreciation is not applied to that valuation.
Pay GST and then discover the vehicle cannot be certified, and Customs will not approve a GST refund even if you export it. Customs duty can be refunded if the vehicle is exported. Check NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi before the ship sails. The Customs Import Prohibition (Motor Vehicles) Order 2021 also blocks a vehicle whose odometer does not correctly record the distance driven.
What does NZTA still require?
NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi says a used import still needs vehicle standards evidence, a border inspection, entry certification, and registration and licensing if it will be used on the road. Do the research before you buy. A vehicle registered overseas does not automatically meet New Zealand standards. New Zealand requires right hand drive. Left hand drive imports sit on the NZTA left hand drive page, not on this duty concession.
An immigrant’s vehicle can be registered without approved frontal impact, exhaust emissions, electronic stability control, or advanced brake system requirements, if you meet the declaration. That declaration is: at least 21 months lived outside New Zealand, the vehicle personally owned and registered for personal use outside New Zealand for at least one year, no other vehicle already identified as an immigrant’s vehicle, not imported for a third party, and the sale, lease, hire, or transport service limits on the form. You must be a New Zealand citizen or resident and personally own the vehicle. Emissions exemption applications must be made within 18 months of arrival. The entry certifier charges $184.00 including GST to process the application. NZTA cannot waive those tests.
Advanced brake system requirements do not apply to an immigrant’s vehicle of class LC, LD, or LE, which is the motorcycle classes named on that page. Electronic stability control requirements in the Light Vehicle Brakes rule do not apply to immigrants’ vehicles. The vehicle must still meet the general safety requirements of the frontal impact, exhaust emissions, and light vehicle brakes rules, and the other rules that apply. Immigrants’ vehicles are inside the Clean Car Standard. You set up a CO2 account and the vehicle can attract a charge or a credit. After the vehicle is on the road as a business asset, GST claims follow GST on motor vehicles, which is a different file from border GST.
What happens at the wharf?
All used vehicles, vessels, and aircraft are inspected by the Ministry for Primary Industries. Soil, plant material, or animal material means treatment, and you pay the inspection and treatment charges. Do not pack household effects in the vehicle. Untreated vehicles can be refused landing. NZTA also requires the vehicle to be clean and, for Japan, managed through the approved biosecurity system.
You can use a broker or clear it yourself. Customs will not prepare a clearance until every document has arrived. If duty or GST is payable, pay from the invoice before release. Customs asks you to allow up to 48 hours for payment to show. If nothing is payable, Customs emails that the shipment is cleared and tells the shipping company. The practical steps NZTA lists are research, evidence, then border inspection, entry certification, the Clean Car Standard charge or credit, and registration if the vehicle will be driven.
Dunedin return, one motorhome
Labelled example. A couple returning to Dunedin have lived outside New Zealand for more than 21 months and have owned and used a motorhome for more than a year. Action: confirm the residence document, complete NZCS 80c, and ask an entry certifier whether that motorhome can be an immigrant’s vehicle before it is shipped. Do not treat the Customs two year undertaking as the NZTA one year sale limit. If either test fails, budget the 10% duty and then 15% GST on value, freight, insurance, and that duty.
What people mix up
Reddit threads on a Japan car, a motorcycle, and a camper treat GST as a flat add on to the purchase price and treat “no sale for two years” as the only test. Customs adds freight and insurance before GST, and NZTA has its own immigrant vehicle declaration. A shipping page about taking a car from New Zealand to Australia is Australian import law, including Australian GST and luxury car tax. It does not set the New Zealand duty table.
Quora and Medium pages on UK and United States cars repeat broker steps and private freight quotes. Those dollar quotes are not a Customs assessment. Older copies of a 2015 private import fact sheet use a depreciation table and the Customs and Excise Act 1996. The live vehicles page uses Inland Revenue straight line rates, a 75% motor vehicle deduction, and the Customs and Excise Act 2018 for compassionate grounds. The NZ Motorhome forum thread did not load past a security check this run. The visitor rule that did load is the Customs page updated 9 July 2025: temporary entry is normally one year, and an extension, if granted, must be asked for at least one month ahead.