Best way to avoid / lower import tax

Hello,
Car import tax in Taiwan are crazy high, making buying a car much more expensive than EU and US. What’s the best way to get new or certified cars at a more reasonable price?

If there were an easy way around it everone would be doing it. If anything its got harder over the years as loopholes are closed.

Made in Taiwan cars are going to be cheaper.

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Just buy a Toyota - the cheapest one (Vios if you don’t fancy a Town Ace) starts at NT$ 589,000 which would be a bit over €17,000 - I don’t think you’ll find many new cars in Europe for sale which are much cheaper than that.

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You can get a car with a driver on demand for just a few hundred NT per trip.

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If you live in Taipei, take taxis. There’s very few circumstances where you absolutely must have a car in Taipei that can’t be served by taxi or Uber. The cost for a day of parking anywhere in Taipei alone is going to be over 300.

Really, unless you’re trying to show off or you just love cars and want your own fart mobile, it makes no financial sense to have cars in Taipei. Those restrictions are in place because Taiwan doesn’t have room for all those cars.

Many rich folk I know in Taipei don’t have cars, probably why they’re rich.

Do you know if they live in Taipei?

And why would anyone take taxis when the public transit in Taipei is so good?

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Privacy, quiet, NO PEOPLE!

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Because you want to get there quickly and the public transportation would take an hour, whereas it’s 20 minutes by car. Some locations have crap bus service.

Or you want privacy.

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Oh yeah, i’m sure the taxi driver is giving you absolute privacy while he’s trying to talk to you with his mouth full of beetel nut.

And everyone’s neck deep into their phones anyways.

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That’s not what you wrote though. You wrote:

Which insinuates that one should take taxis all the time in Taipei, which is not only the most expensive way to get around, but it’s not always the fastest either when traffic starts to get bad. I wouldn’t take this advice. That could cause the person to waste unnecessary amounts of money for no gain.

Do you follow this advice for your own life?

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My point is, if you want to buy a car it’s because you either don’t want to, or can’t take public transport.

I’m saying it’s expensive to own a car especially in Taipei and you’d get all the benefit of a car taking taxis, without the expense associated with owning a car.

Otherwise you’re just stinking rich and cost shouldn’t be a consideration.

Taxis are public transit.

All the benefits? It takes time to get a taxi to your house. There’s no storage in a taxi.

I’ve never met a ‘stinking rich’ person that believed cost isn’t a consideration.

I don’t think they got rich by throwing money around.

Or you have these mini organisms that require constant maintenance such as regular feeding, frequent bathroom breaks, their own dedicated safety seats, and loads of accessories you don’t want schlep around on the MRT or Bus. Or if you want to go hiking up to the mountains and don’t want to change three buses and spend 2 hours to get there.

So much more of this island to see when you have a car.

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What restrictions?

Those absurd costs for importing cars.

I mean… I still see families every day making it work.

and even more by motorcycle :grin:

(Unless u have kids in which case yes car better than bike)

Ahah that’s why I ask… Just curious to know if anyone has any method… For example: what if you already own a car in another state and then move to Taiwan? Would the tax still apply? Or… Any other method anyone can think of?

True, but I love cars… I would like to have a choise

Import tax on cars in Taiwan has absolutely nothing to do with having “room” or not.