Translation of "Voiture d'occasion " (French → English) :

Since these taxes can therefore create obstacles to the free movement of citizens as well as lead to a fragmentation of the market for used cars, it is proposed to phase them out.

The Commission has received complaints about the conditions imposed by Czech legislation on the registration of imported second hand cars which appear to be stricter than the conditions imposed on the re-registration of second hand cars already circulating in the Czech Republic and seem even to prohibit the registration of a certain category of imported used cars.

It considered that the amount of tax charged on imported used cars must be compared with the residual tax incorporated in the value of a similar used car already registered in the national territory, that is, with the tax paid when the "national" used car was registered when new, taking account of its depreciation.

The car tax-related problem most frequently faced by private individuals is that registration tax must normally be paid a second time when a car is moved from one Member State to another without a permanent change of residence (for example, when someone buys a second-hand car in another EU Member State to take advantage of lower prices there and brings it back to his own country or moves his car to another Member State where he has a second home and leaves it there.) This is despite the fact that registration tax has already been paid in the first Member State and is not refunded by that Member State. Furthermore, the residual car values ...[+++] applied for the purposes of calculating that second registration tax are often excessive which results in disproportionately high registration tax.

4. Definition of second-hand vehicles In order to harmonize the scope of these new rules between Member States, second-hand vehicles are now defined as those more than six months old and which have travelled more than 6 000 kilometres (instead of three months and 3 000 kilometres, as previously).

4. Definition of second-hand cars In order to determine in common the scope of this Directive, the Twelve have also agreed on a new definition of new vehicles covering vehicles which are less than six months old or have travelled less than 6 000 kilometres (instead of the previous limits of three months and 3 000 kilometres).