Returning Resident Vehicle Concession 80c
Concession reference 80c is the Working Tariff Part II test for a private motor vehicle you already owned overseas. New Zealand Customs Service removes the duty and GST only when every condition is met, and only after the owner signs NZCS 80c.
The form covers motor vehicles, motorcycles, motor scooters, motorhomes, moped scooters, camper vans, and quad bikes. A gift, a vehicle you will exchange or sell, commercial use, a company owned vehicle, and a hire or lease that has not finished do not get this concession.
Do you pass all four tests?
New Zealand Customs Service applies four tests on the date the motor vehicle is imported. Miss one and the concession does not apply.
Border context sits on import duty and customs. If a test fails, duty and GST are worked on the import duty calculator. The GST base itself is on GST on imports NZ.
A sale inside two years is not banned. NZCS 80c says you notify Customs and immediately pay the charges that would have applied if duty were levied at import under Part 1 of the Tariff, or any lesser sum that may be required. Contact Customs at service.customs.govt.nz with the supporting documents. Do not treat “lesser sum” as a promise that the bill will be small.
What does NZCS 80c ask you to write?
The June 2025 NZCS 80c form is completed by the owner. On a computer you can save as you go and sign with an electronic signature or by typing your name. On paper, use a blue or black ink pen and write in capital letters.
Before you start, have the import entry number, make and model, vehicle identification number, chassis number, and year of manufacture. Question 1 is your surname and given names. Question 2 is the import entry number. Question 3 repeats make, model, VIN, chassis number, and year for each motor vehicle on that entry. Question 4 is the two year undertaking, then the signature and the date as day, month, year.
Return the signed form to the agency doing the clearance: a customs broker, shipping agent, freight forwarder, or New Zealand Customs Service. To send it to Customs, attach the form and supporting documents to the service request at service.customs.govt.nz. Customs may use the information for border management under the Customs and Excise Act 2018. Under the Privacy Act 2020 you can ask for access or correction. Part 4 of that Act lists reasons a request can be refused.
A Customs notice dated for the change from Friday 15 December 2023 says these undertaking forms replaced the old deed of undertaking calculator and the old statutory declaration. That notice says old forms were not required from Monday 15 January 2024, and it tells a broker to select Deed of Undertaking and to enter the Customs number, client code, or surname. The notice is an archive and says it may no longer be current. The form opened for this guide is the June 2025 NZCS 80c file on the Customs vehicles, vessels and aircraft page.
Which residence document counts?
New Zealand Customs Service lists a New Zealand passport, an Australian passport, a current New Zealand residence visa or 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, and a visitor visa issued for a minimum of three years. A visitor visa that only allows multiple visits of up to six months each is excluded. Student visa holders do not qualify for reference 80b, 80c, or 80d.
You can bring more than one vehicle if each one meets every test. A lease or hire purchase counts as personally owned only when the agreement is fully finished before the vehicle is imported, and you had possession for at least one year before the earlier of departure or shipping. Regardless of value, the motor vehicle goes on a standard import entry with your Customs Number and the tariff item.
If the vehicle arrives more than five years after you do, a Customs officer must consent, and you apply only after it has arrived. Prior consent is not given. If it arrives before you, Customs needs proof you will be in New Zealand within six months of its arrival, such as a booking confirmation.
Concession 80c is not the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi immigrant vehicle file. Customs is a two year payment undertaking if you sell or dispose of the vehicle. NZTA’s immigrant vehicle declaration is a separate road test, including at least 21 months away, one year of ownership and registration overseas, and a limit on sale or lease after registration. Ask NZTA before you ship. If you pay duty or GST and the vehicle later cannot be certified, Customs will not approve a GST refund even if you export it. Duty can be refunded if it is exported.
What if you do not qualify?
Duty and GST may be payable. Customs bases that amount on the purchase receipt or bill of sale plus international freight and insurance, or on an acceptable New Zealand valuation. The value for duty has a minimum of NZ$100. Depreciation uses the Inland Revenue straight line rate only after more than three months of personal ownership and use, and for motor vehicles under reference 80c the published deduction is 75%, leaving a residual 25%. That depreciation is a valuation step when charges are payable. It is not a substitute for the one year ownership test.
If there is no purchase evidence because the vehicle was gifted, inherited, built, or heavily modified, you pay for a New Zealand valuation and depreciation is not applied. Compassionate grounds, under Schedule 4 of the Customs and Excise Act 2018, can include illness, injury, or death of you or a family member. Customs says they do not include a relationship breakdown or job loss. Used vehicles are still inspected by the Ministry for Primary Industries. Do not pack household effects in the vehicle. The Customs Import Prohibition (Motor Vehicles) Order 2021 blocks an odometer that does not record the distance driven.
Hamilton return, one car, 19 months away
Labelled example. A Hamilton household has been outside New Zealand for 19 months and has owned the car for three years. Action: do not sign NZCS 80c as if the ownership year cures the residence test. Customs requires more than 21 months outside New Zealand as well as the year of use. If they ship anyway, expect duty and GST, keep the purchase receipt, and still put the car on a standard import entry.
What people mix up
A freight guide from March 2023 lists a purchase invoice, registration papers, insurance, a signed passport, an e ticket, and an odometer reading as the pack brokers ask for. Those papers can support the one year test and the Customs value. The same guide says short trips home are often accepted and that visas longer than 12 months usually qualify. The live Customs list does not say that. A visitor visa needs three years. A student visa does not qualify. A work visa needs a minimum of 12 months, not “any visa over 12 months”.
A car import page updated 25 September 2026 says you are forbidden to sell for 24 months and must repay the GST in full, and that electronic stability control is always required. NZCS 80c requires payment of the charges that would have applied, or a lesser sum, if you sell or dispose of the vehicle within two years. It does not describe a ban, and it does not fix the sum at the GST alone. Road standards sit with NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi, including the immigrant vehicle path on the immigrants’ vehicles page. Reddit threads about household boxes after two years overseas are the personal effects conversation, not this vehicle form. Quora and Medium did not return an NZCS 80c thread this run. A 2022 mover questionnaire and a Beehive release that did not load were not used. The Customs and Excise Regulations 1996 page is a different instrument from the live concession wording.