Car in Italy

[justlikebike]

SO, not sure if anybody is just like me, but I thought I would ask the question.
I have dual citizenship. (Canada/Italy) I reside in Canada. I am doing an extended stay in Italy. (8 months) And will be going back every year for 4-6 months if all goes according to plan for the next 5 years or so.
I have been looking at rental cars and the price has gotten much more expensive than last time I was over there. So DW and I were talking about buying a car over there, and leaving it with family between visits.
So, From the research I have found, as a dual citizen, yes, I can buy a car but need an Italian address. has anybody done this? Is a family member's address good enough or do we have to own property before we can purchase a car?
If we can purchase a car, what is insurance like? Is having a Canadian driver's license an issue? I understand that insurance the first year will be expensive as I have no history with insurance in Italy. I suspect $3,000 or so.
Does anyone have advice or experience with this?

Thanks
Justlikebike.

 

[audreyh1]

Have no idea, but surely there are many Italians that own cars but not property. Why wouldn’t your family address be good enough, especially if garaged there a big chunk of the time?

 

[Drake3287]

Interesting question and I can see where it would make more sense to simply purchase one. If you don't find the answer here try the Italy forum on Trip Advisor. Lot's of knowable people there including myself once in awhile.

 

[Sunset]

Are you planning to declare living in Italy as your residence so you could pay Italian income tax instead of Canadian ?

<edit>Just so other readers know.
Canada taxes based on residency, not citizenship like the USA. So a Canadian can move to another country and only pay taxes in the new country. Canada uses a bunch of "tests" much like many States do, one being are you there 6 months of the year.

 

[oiseux]

I don't know the implications in Italy of purchasing a car and insurance, but I would suggest you investigate the short term lease options with Auto Europe/Peugeot. The lease rates are lower than rental cars and include insurance. Many part time expats use this program. The cost is so low as it allows them to get a fleet of lightly used cars they can resell -- these are popular with consumers in countries where VAT does not apply to used cars.

 

[SecondAttempt]

I have absolutely no experience with owning cars etc. in Europe But for months long periods, shipping your Canadian car might be a cost effective option to look into.

 

[HawkeyeNFO]

I don't know the implications in Italy of purchasing a car and insurance, but I would suggest you investigate the short term lease options with Auto Europe/Peugeot. The lease rates are lower than rental cars and include insurance. Many part time expats use this program. The cost is so low as it allows them to get a fleet of lightly used cars they can resell -- these are popular with consumers in countries where VAT does not apply to used cars.

My understanding from when we lived in Europe is that this is the way to go.

I have absolutely no experience with owning cars etc. in Europe But for months long periods, shipping your Canadian car might be a cost effective option to look into.

The licensing costs, taxes, and inspection costs all add up pretty quick. Shipping in 2017 would have cost about $1200 each way, not sure what it costs now.

 

[Freedom56]

SO, not sure if anybody is just like me, but I thought I would ask the question.
I have dual citizenship. (Canada/Italy) I reside in Canada. I am doing an extended stay in Italy. (8 months) And will be going back every year for 4-6 months if all goes according to plan for the next 5 years or so.
I have been looking at rental cars and the price has gotten much more expensive than last time I was over there. So DW and I were talking about buying a car over there, and leaving it with family between visits.
So, From the research I have found, as a dual citizen, yes, I can buy a car but need an Italian address. has anybody done this? Is a family member's address good enough or do we have to own property before we can purchase a car?
If we can purchase a car, what is insurance like? Is having a Canadian driver's license an issue? I understand that insurance the first year will be expensive as I have no history with insurance in Italy. I suspect $3,000 or so.
Does anyone have advice or experience with this?

Thanks
Justlikebike.

I stayed in Italy for 3 months in the 90's. The best option at that time was to lease a car in France (Nice) and drive it to Italy. Leasing in Italy was much more expensive at the time. After that it was always short term rentals while on business travel.

 

[justlikebike]

So, I've been researching....
1) My Italian citizenship does not help me at all with vehicles. I must have residency in Italy. There is a residency permit I would have to apply for which would then affect taxes, etc. I don't want that.
2) Even if I were get access to a vehicle(Borrow a family vehicle), I can't insure it. Again I would need a residency permit.
3) I could ship a car to Italy and ship it back cheaper than I could rent. (Approx: $1,500 CDN each way) But I can only have it there insured with a Canadian Insurance for 6 months. Any longer and I would need to register the car in Italy.... Which would require residency.....)
4) The short term Lease/Tourist Lease offered by French car makers seems promising. I am not quite certain about length of lease allowable. These short term leases are designed around French taxes. A new car has high taxes, a used car has low taxes, so they designed these short term tourist leases to work around these high taxes. But at the end of the day, these companies want a very slightly used vehicle. I still need to confirm length of lease allowed and number of KM I can travel.
5) Had a very Italian offer today. DW was talking to a family member today. He stated he "knows a guy" He will try to get us a cheap lease/rental for our time there with full insurance. We'll see where that goes.
6) For some reason, renting a car out of Germany is about 1/3 the price of any other EU country that I have found so far. If none of the other options pan out, I may have to do something with this.
We'll see what happens.
I thank everyone who has responded and appreciate the help.

Thanks
JustLikeBike.

 

[justlikebike]

Have no idea, but surely there are many Italians that own cars but not property. Why wouldn’t your family address be good enough, especially if garaged there a big chunk of the time?

Not sure why the Italian government is so strict, but it seems very strict. If you don't have residence you may not own a vehicle in Italy.
I found one law firm web site that mentions "domiciled in Italy with Italian citizenship" vs "a Resident of Italy without Italian citizenship" I emailed them and asked for clarification. They responded with: "Must be resident, citizenship doesn't matter"

 

[SecondAttempt]

Not sure why the Italian government is so strict, but it seems very strict. If you don't have residence you may not own a vehicle in Italy.
I found one law firm web site that mentions "domiciled in Italy with Italian citizenship" vs "a Resident of Italy without Italian citizenship" I emailed them and asked for clarification. They responded with: "Must be resident, citizenship doesn't matter"

Another idea is to reach out to the US State Department or Department of Defense websites. We have a fair number of troops stationed in Italy and I'm sure many have cars or their families have cars and I doubt all live on base. There may be some kind of workaround and those source may know about it. You would not have to mention you are Canadian.

 

[braumeister]

Another idea is to reach out to the US State Department or Department of Defense websites. We have a fair number of troops stationed in Italy and I'm sure many have cars or their families have cars and I doubt all live on base. There may be some kind of workaround and those source may know about it. You would not have to mention you are Canadian.

Not likely. Military personnel in Europe are covered in what are known as "status of forces agreements" (bilateral treaties). They get special license plates.

 

[HawkeyeNFO]

Another idea is to reach out to the US State Department or Department of Defense websites. We have a fair number of troops stationed in Italy and I'm sure many have cars or their families have cars and I doubt all live on base. There may be some kind of workaround and those source may know about it. You would not have to mention you are Canadian.

No. This is a non-starter. Braumeister is correct.

 

[SecondAttempt]

Not likely. Military personnel in Europe are covered in what are known as "status of forces agreements" (bilateral treaties). They get special license plates.

Yes, I was thinking the status of forces agreement might cover this.

I tried to look into this and it appears the rules in Italy apply to all NATO countries (including Canada). And everything looked doable except for one item - you have to show your orders! Guessing OP is not going to have orders. In this case "orders" can apply to not just military but also dependents, civilian employees, and even contractors. But unless OP will be working in some capacity for the Canadian government, probably doesn't apply.

Still, I have stretched this kind of thing several times in my career where a project I worked on was ultimately federally funded, often after several layers of passdown. If I could trace back to a federal contract number it opened up all kinds of doors. Never dealt with anything like the OP's issue though.

 

[justlikebike]

Guessing OP is not going to have orders. In this case "orders" can apply to not just military but also dependents, civilian employees, and even contractors.

I get orders from DW all the time. Does that count?

 

[justlikebike]

So far I have found a few different web sites dealing with Short Term leases:

https://www.renaultcanada.com/
https://www.autoeurope.ca/short-term-car-lease-europe/
https://eurocartt.com/about-the-short-term-leasing
https://www.motorvana.com/car-lease/europe/short-term/citroen-renault-peugeot-tax-free

I have found for some reason that just renting a car in Germany is about 1/4 the price. Not sure why....

Supposedly each different French auto maker does the short term lease thing, so, Citroen, Renault, Peugeot
But for some reason, only Renault seems to dedicate a website to it. The rest seem to be 3rd party and more expensive. Has anybody used any of these or know of a better site? It's hard to figure out how valid any of these sites are. I'll need to spend some time on Trip Advisor I suppose.

 

[rodi]

The residency thing has to do with your Visa status and registry at your local address. If you are a tourist, the landlord or hotel get your passport and register for you. But you are entering as a citizen. You need to register at the local comune and give you our address there. Just as in the states or Canada, you need to register your address with the Italian consulate for your AIRE forms. There is a website called expats in Italy that could be helpful.


My husband and sons are dual citizens so I've done some research on this.

 

[oiseux]

Peugeot/Citreon/Renault are all part of the former PSA group, now part of Stellantis. This is why all programs lead to the same place for the three brands: (Car2Europe).

The offer includes comprehensive insurance, which is pretty important thing. Make sure you are covered by any alternative. It is unlimited mileage but is restricted to 175 days. They have Italian pickup locations or in Nice, as mentioned previously.

BTW, if you stay over 6 months in a country you generally trigger tax residency. This is why many part time expats limit their stays to 90 days in 183.