The ubiquitous "they" have decided that despite our Ranger not being street legal, it falls under the category of passenger car. This means that it is not eligible to be imported duty-free as humanitarian aid and will be assessed a massive tariff. When I say massive I mean really extreme. We must pay both a 20% import tax and an additional 20% sales tax... a full 40% of the vehicle's value in order to take possession!
Between this tax, the storage costs (accumulating at 10 Euros/day for better part of forever), processing fees and whatever else they might decide to assess, it's going to run us every bit of $4500 USD to actually take possession of a vehicle that we should already own. I'm very frustrated with the bureaucracy and utter lack of logic in the categorization process but the reality is this....
In the next 4-6 months we have just as much work (if not more) to do at the Hope Center and we have FAR less manpower and free time with which to accomplish it. To prepare the camp for summer, clean up from the winter and maintain the facilities, we NEED this vehicle.
Also, even with the costs associated with this customs fiasco, our overall cost is still around half the going rate for this type of vehicle in Ukraine.
If any of you are interested in helping us clear the final hurdle to getting the Ranger to the Hope Center, contact me at: mgaw@global-act.org and I can direct you.
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I've been there since the beginning, and I'll be there in the end. Amanda and I commit to 5% of that cost. I was just going to blow that money on upgraded electronics anyway - but I can roll my ipod mini another year...
ReplyDeleteHang in there Matt, you'll get this done in time for the real work to begin.
Mark, your commitment to us is humbling. Thanks for all your help support and for bolstering my blog numbers.
ReplyDeletewe'll help you out too. I am glad that after this step, you will be done dealing with all of this!
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