Any info on donating cars to charity?

[Punto on tour]

Dear Caravanistaners,

Does anyone have any info on donating cars to charity in Central Asia? A few things I've read imply that if the car is donated, it may be exempt from import tax?

Specifically, we have a 2001 Fiat Punto in good condition, which we would love to donate to a good cause in Kyrgystan or Kazakhstan, but are a bit afraid of potential import taxes and bureaucracy involved.

Suggestion very welcome!

Thanks all.

[steven]

Great idea, i never thought of that. There was a charity rally ending in Tajikistan called The Roof of the World Rally some years back and they donated ambulances and fire trucks, but I think they still had to pay import taxes/

[bwv812]

I doubt that there is some huge loophole to avoid tax, otherwise there would be a booming business in exploiting that loophole, I think. I'm pretty sure most cars participating in the Mongol Rally used to be "donated" in Mongolia, but the punitive taxes/duties on even these donations has resulted in the change to Ulan Ude as the final stop.

There's some current information on Mongolia, but it sounds fairly strict and would still involve proper importation procedures.
http://www.adventuresfordevelopment.org/mongolia.php

[Natascha]

we just tried in Iran and here it is not possible to import cars older than 3 years and the import taxes are incredibly high so that this unfortunately does not make any sense. We were told the customs take about 3 times of the car value as tax.

[steven]

I have heard of someone dumping their car in Tajikistan this year, they don't have computers there yet. In Kazakhstan it is still possible. Someone left their car in Mongolia, left by plane, said they were going to pick it up later and the border guard said, ok just go. So also did not have to pay the big import tax there.

So there are possibilities, nothing is certain in advance though.

[tleonardi]

Hi Punto on tour!
Do you (or anyone else) have any updates on donating a car to a charity? It sounds like a great idea!
I'm planning a trip on the Pamir highway for next summer, if anyone had the contacts of a few charities that operate in Tajikistan or Kyrgizstan I'd be happy to get in touch a see whether they would be happy to receive a vehicle and handle the import burocracy.

cheers!
tom

[robert]

In Tajikistan, it's possible to give your car to charity and thereby importing it without paying tax:

We went to the customs office (Гумрук / Tаможня) in Шероз Кучаи in Dushanbe (GPS: 38.56919 68.78514). Initially, we just wanted to know how much import duty we would have to pay for our car. They told us they could waive that if we gave it to charity. They told us they just did that a few weeks ago for a group of cars from Europe.