You have just driven your United Kingdom car off the ferry, or a transporter has left it on the drive of a French house that is now your home. After Brexit that car is no longer an EU vehicle. If France is your principal residence, first French registration is compulsory: Service-Public, verified on 26 February 2026, states that the application must be made within one month of settling. The file is no longer a simple exchange of plates. You must clear the vehicle through customs, obtain a certificat de dédouanement 846 A (customs clearance certificate 846 A) unless a genuine transfer-of-residence relief applies, prove type approval, pass a French or EU contrôle technique (roadworthiness test) if the car is more than four years old, and pay the registration taxes known as the malus. The United Kingdom MOT certificate does not replace that test. The quitus fiscal (VAT clearance used for cars coming from another EU State) is the wrong document for a British car.

Keep two situations apart. A British resident who moves the family home to France is on the full import and registration path. A second-home owner who still lives mainly in the United Kingdom is not required to put the car on French plates, and claiming a customs franchise for a secondary residence is the wrong move. Mixing the two is how people lose the relief, overstay the Schengen 90/180-day rule, or find the car immobilised. This article follows the resident who needs a French carte grise (registration certificate, officially the certificat d’immatriculation), explains the customs and ANTS file, the CO2 and weight taxes, and how to challenge an ANTS refusal or an excessive malus before the two-month deadline expires.

I. How do I import my UK car and get a French carte grise after Brexit?

A. Customs, the 846 A certificate, VAT and the transfer-of-residence relief

Since 1 January 2021 the United Kingdom has been, for customs and VAT, a territory outside the European Union. Importing a car that is still on UK plates is therefore an importation of goods. Article 291 of the French tax code (Code général des impôts), still in force until 1 January 2027, provides: “Les importations de biens sont soumises à la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée.” The same article treats as an importation “l’entrée en France d’un bien, originaire ou en provenance d’un Etat ou d’un territoire n’appartenant pas à l’Union européenne, et qui n’a pas été mis en libre pratique, ou d’un bien en provenance d’un territoire visé au 1° de l’article 256-0 d’un autre Etat membre de l’Union européenne”. A used family car driven or shipped from Dover or Portsmouth falls within that definition unless it is placed under a customs procedure and then released for free circulation. The practical document that proves release is the 846 A certificate. Service-Public fiche F10519, on a vehicle previously registered “dans un autre pays” (in another country, meaning outside the EU), lists among the documents for first French registration the 846 A customs clearance certificate, unless the application bears an exemption mention given by customs. That requirement is the Brexit hinge. The EU quitus fiscal described on fiche F179 is for a car bought in another Member State. It does not replace 846 A for a British car.

There is a genuine exemption, and it is narrower than many removal firms suggest. The French customs service explains that if you have lived outside the Union for more than a year and you settle permanently in metropolitan France, the vehicle may be admitted free of customs duty and VAT where it appears on the inventory of your personal belongings drawn up in two copies and meets three conditions: it is not a utility vehicle; it has been in your possession and used by you for more than six months; and the taxes normally due in the country of origin have been paid. That is the transfert de résidence normale (transfer of normal residence). Article 291 itself points to that franchise: among the VAT exemptions it lists “Les biens importés définitivement dans le cadre des franchises fiscales communautaires et qui sont désignés par arrêté.” Customs will ask for proof of the twelve months abroad, proof of the six months’ use (UK insurance, MOT history, V5C in your name, invoices), and proof that you are actually transferring your principal home, not stocking a holiday house. The same customs page is explicit that goods intended to furnish a secondary residence are no longer admitted in franchise. If your centre of life remains in the United Kingdom, do not present the car as a transfer of residence.

A different trap awaits the British resident who is already living in France and then buys a car in the United Kingdom, or who brings over a second car that was never the household vehicle used for six months. That is an ordinary importation. Customs duty and 20 per cent VAT can be assessed on the customs value (the price or market value plus transport and options). The United Kingdom–EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement may reduce or cancel customs duty where the car originates in the United Kingdom or the Union and you can prove origin; VAT remains due unless a separate relief applies. Do not assume a 10 per cent or a 0 per cent rate from a forum post. Ask the customs office that will clear the car, in writing, before the vehicle moves, and keep the calculation. The 846 A, or the exemption mention printed on the registration application, is what ANTS will look at. Without it the file stops.

On the British side, GOV.UK treats taking a vehicle out of the United Kingdom for twelve months or more as a step that must be notified to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. French customs still want to see a valid foreign registration document. Service-Public fiche F20992 warns that a vehicle entering France must have valid plates, failing which the police may immobilise it, and that some countries require the old plates to be surrendered. If the UK plates have already been cancelled, you need a lawful transit document, often a WW temporary French registration, before the car can move on a French road. Article R. 322-3 of the Highway Code (Code de la route) authorises circulation under a provisional certificate, a W garage certificate, or a transit document. Using an expired export plate, or a homemade plate, is not a substitute.

Prepare the customs file as if you were going to have to prove it later. Keep the V5C, the purchase invoice or gift letter, the ferry or transporter bill, the inventory in two copies, proof of your French address, and the written customs calculation. If the office refuses the franchise, ask for a written decision stating the amount of duty and VAT and the legal basis. That document, not a verbal comment at the desk, is what you challenge. Do not drive the car as if it were already French while 846 A is outstanding. Insurance, discussed below, and the registration clock both assume a vehicle that is lawfully on the road.

B. The one-month ANTS file: documents, type approval and MOT versus contrôle technique

Service-Public fiche F10519, verified on 26 February 2026, answers the question whether a foreigner who settles in France must register the vehicle there with a short yes: the step is compulsory if you settle and declare your résidence principale (principal residence), defined as a home occupied at least eight months a year except for professional obligation, health reasons or force majeure, whatever your nationality. The application must be made within one month of settling. It is made online through the Agence nationale des titres sécurisés (ANTS, the national secure-documents agency) or through an authorised garage. The address printed on the French certificate will be your French home. That one-month administrative deadline is the figure you should diary. It sits alongside the Highway Code obligation to hold a French certificate before putting the vehicle into circulation in the French system.

Article R. 322-1 of the Highway Code provides: “Tout propriétaire d’un véhicule à moteur autre qu’un cyclomobile léger, d’une remorque dont le poids total autorisé en charge est supérieur à 500 kilogrammes ou d’une semi-remorque et qui souhaite le mettre en circulation pour la première fois doit faire une demande de certificat d’immatriculation en justifiant de son identité.” The same article requires the owner to be able to prove, if the interior ministry asks, a motor insurance policy complying with article L. 211-1 of the Insurance Code (Code des assurances), a driving licence for the category, a French address, and type approval: “soit de la conformité de son véhicule à un type CE réceptionné ou à un type national réceptionné, soit que son véhicule a fait l’objet d’une réception à titre isolé ou d’une réception individuelle au sens des articles R. 321-6 et R. 321-15”. Paragraph VII then sets the penalty: “Le fait, pour tout propriétaire, de mettre en circulation un véhicule sans avoir obtenu un certificat d’immatriculation est puni de l’amende prévue pour les contraventions de la quatrième classe.” A fourth-class fine is not a parking ticket you can ignore. The car can also be immobilised under article L. 325-1 of the Highway Code.

The non-EU document list on F10519 is the checklist you should assemble before you open the ANTS form (Cerfa no. 13750). You need a digital copy of the original registration certificate or an official proof of ownership; if the British authorities have kept the V5C, an official document saying so or a valid international certificate; a proof of French address less than six months old; the Cerfa; a contrôle technique less than six months old if the car is more than four years old, carried out in France or in an EU State, not a UK MOT; the 846 A unless customs have marked a dispensation; and a technical conformity document. That last item is where British cars stall. The accepted proofs are a European certificate of conformity (COC) issued by the manufacturer, or an identification certificate matching a Community type issued by the manufacturer, its French representative or a DREAL, or a procès-verbal de réception à titre isolé (individual type-approval report, RTI) issued by a DREAL (direction régionale de l’environnement, de l’aménagement et du logement, the regional environment and transport directorate). Article R. 321-15 of the Highway Code is unambiguous: “Avant sa mise en circulation et en l’absence de réception CE, tout véhicule à moteur, toute remorque ou tout élément de véhicule, toute semi-remorque doit faire l’objet d’une réception nationale effectuée soit par type à la demande du constructeur, soit à titre isolé à la demande du propriétaire ou de son représentant.” A right-hand-drive car without a usable COC is not automatically illegal, but it will not pass ANTS until DREAL has examined it. Headlamp aim, rear fog lamp, speedometer in kilometres and emissions data are typical RTI points. Budget time for an appointment; DREAL diaries are not built around ferry timetables.

The Court of Appeal of Lyon, in a judgment of 17 December 2021, no. 19LY03495, had to decide what an ANTS message actually is. A buyer of a Porsche previously imported into Belgium had uploaded a Belgian registration and an individual Belgian approval. The interior ministry’s processing service wrote, via the ANTS platform, that the file could not be accepted on the documents supplied. The minister argued that this was a mere request for documents, not a decision. The court disagreed. It held that, given its effects, the message was a refusal to issue a registration certificate and a decision causing grievance. That holding matters for a British applicant. A “please complete your file” message that in substance stops the registration is a challengeable refusal. Save screenshots, download the ANTS correspondence, and diary the date. The same judgment quotes article 1 of the order of 9 February 2009 on registration files: for vehicles previously registered outside metropolitan France, if the COC or Community identification certificate does not allow the vehicle to be registered, an RTI report must be supplied, and for other vehicles an RTI report is required. That is the rule ANTS applies to a UK car that cannot be matched to a Community type.

Do not rely on the more favourable case law that protects cars already registered in another EU State. The Conseil d’État, in a decision of 30 September 2019, no. 423907, recalled, in the light of Directive 1999/37/EC, that “les États membres ne sauraient exiger de celui qui demande l’immatriculation d’un véhicule précédemment immatriculé dans un autre Etat membre de l’Union européenne qu’il produise, en plus du certificat d’immatriculation délivré par cet Etat, des documents complémentaires, tels que le certificat de conformité du véhicule délivré par le constructeur, permettant d’établir les caractéristiques techniques du véhicule, en dehors de certains cas particuliers”. A UK V5C is not a registration certificate issued by a Member State of the Union. The Fuel Motors line of case law does not exempt you from COC or RTI. After Brexit the British document identifies the car; it does not, of itself, prove Community type approval.

Insurance is a separate condition of circulation, not a detail to be added after the plates arrive. Article L. 211-1 of the Insurance Code provides: “Toute personne physique ou toute personne morale autre que l’Etat, dont la responsabilité civile peut être engagée en raison de dommages subis par des tiers résultant d’atteintes aux personnes ou aux biens dans la réalisation desquels un véhicule est impliqué, doit, pour faire circuler celui-ci, être couverte par une assurance garantissant cette responsabilité, dans les conditions fixées par décret en Conseil d’Etat.” The Cour de cassation, Second Civil Chamber, in its judgment of 30 March 2023, appeal no. 21-17.466, restated the same first paragraph: “toute personne dont la responsabilité civile peut être engagée en raison de dommages subis par des tiers dans la réalisation desquels un véhicule est impliqué, doit, pour faire circuler celui-ci, être couverte par une assurance garantissant cette responsabilité.” A UK motor policy that no longer covers a vehicle kept in France as the main car, or a green card that has expired, leaves you uninsured. ANTS will ask you to certify that you hold a policy and a licence matching the category; it may later call for the documents. French insurers often want to see a French registration in progress or a WW certificate. Sequence the steps: customs, insurance that actually covers France, contrôle technique, DREAL if needed, then ANTS.

Exchanging your UK driving licence is a different procedure, with its own deadlines and medical rules, described in our article on exchanging a UK driving licence in France after Brexit. You can start the car file while the licence exchange is pending, but you must still be entitled to drive the category. If you are only a visitor in a second home, do not force a French registration you do not need; the 90/180-day count and a refusal of entry are the issues that then arise, not 846 A.

II. What tax will I pay and how do I challenge an ANTS refusal or a malus bill?

A. Malus CO2, weight tax and the age reduction

First French registration of a passenger car triggers the taxes on registration. They are no longer the old “malus écologique” article of the tax code; they live in the Code of taxes on goods and services (Code des impositions sur les biens et services, CIBS). Article L. 421-5 of that code defines the event: “La première immatriculation d’un véhicule s’entend de la première autorisation pour la mise en circulation routière de ce véhicule. Elle est réputée intervenir en France lorsqu’elle est délivrée par les autorités françaises de l’Etat, à titre permanent ou dans le cadre d’un transit temporaire, pour la mise en circulation routière en métropole ou dans les collectivités régies par l’ article 73 de la Constitution .” Putting a UK car on French plates for the first time is a first French registration even if the car has been on the road in Britain for fifteen years. That is why a used import can still generate a bill.

The CO2 tax is liquidated under article L. 421-59 of the CIBS: “Le montant de la taxe est égal à un tarif par véhicule déterminé en fonction de ses émissions de dioxyde de carbone au moyen du barème de l’année de première immatriculation du véhicule au sens de l’article L. 421-5 parmi les barèmes suivants :” There are three grids. Vehicles registered using the WLTP laboratory method use the WLTP scale. Other vehicles that had a European type approval use the older NEDC scale. Vehicles that never had European type approval use a scale based on puissance administrative (tax horsepower, CV). Many British cars, especially older ones and those that never received a European COC, fall into that third grid. The bill can then follow horsepower rather than grammes of CO2, which for a large petrol estate is often worse, not better. Service-Public fiche F35947, verified on 21 February 2026, publishes the 2026 WLTP scale (no tax below 108 g/km) and the 2026 horsepower scale (no tax below 3 CV, then a steep climb to €80,000 at 15 CV and above). Read the grid that actually applies to your car, not the grid a neighbour paid on a French-registered Renault.

Age is the main reduction for a used import. Article L. 421-60 of the CIBS provides: “Le montant de la taxe est réduit à hauteur du coefficient forfaitaire de décote régi par le paragraphe 2 bis de la sous-section unique de la section 1 du présent chapitre . Cette réduction est appliquée, le cas échéant, après les règles particulières prévues au présent paragraphe. Toutefois, le montant de la taxe est nul pour les véhicules dont la première immatriculation, au sens de l’ article L. 421-5 , est antérieure au 1er janvier 2015.” F35947 sets out the monthly coefficients: 3 per cent in the first three months, then 6, 9, 12 per cent in the rest of year one, and so on, reaching 100 per cent from the 181st month. The coefficient runs from the first registration of the vehicle abroad, not from the day you land in France. A car first registered in the United Kingdom in 2014 pays no CO2 malus on that ground. A 2022 UK car still pays a large fraction of the 2022 or 2026 grid, depending on the year of first registration used by the scale. Check the date on the V5C and the WLTP or NEDC figure on the COC. A wrong CO2 figure, or a car treated as never type-approved when a COC exists, is a frequent overcharge.

Two further taxes travel with the same registration. The tax on mass in running order (taxe sur la masse en ordre de marche) is organised by article L. 421-71 of the CIBS. Article L. 421-73 applies the same style of age reduction and, again, a nil amount where first registration is before 1 January 2015. Heavy British 4x4s feel this tax as much as the CO2 malus. The regional tax on the certificate itself (the old “carte grise” cost) is a separate Y1 line; it is reduced by half for vehicles first registered ten years or more earlier under article L. 421-45 of the CIBS. Add the three figures before you commit to importing. A ten-year-old diesel that looked cheap on a UK forecourt can still be an expensive French registration.

Exemptions exist and they are tightly drawn. Article L. 421-67 of the CIBS states: “Est exonéré tout véhicule dont la source d’énergie est exclusivement l’électricité, l’hydrogène ou une combinaison des deux.” A plug-in hybrid is not in that sentence. Wheelchair-accessible vehicles are exempt under article L. 421-65. Article L. 421-69 exempts, limited to one vehicle per beneficiary, a vehicle held by a person with a carte mobilité inclusion marked “invalidité” or a military invalidity card, or by a person with a dependent child who holds that card. Households with at least three children can claim an abatement under article L. 421-70. Superethanol E85 has its own reductions under article L. 421-68 (40 per cent of CO2 unless emissions exceed 250 g/km). If you qualify, claim on the ANTS file with the supporting card or household evidence. If ANTS or the tax service ignores the exemption, the dispute is a tax dispute, not a conversation with the garage that submitted the file.

Article L. 421-91 of the CIBS channels control, recovery and litigation of registration taxes towards the rules of the tax code and the Book of tax procedures (livre des procédures fiscales) that apply to direct taxes, including the claim against the assessment. In practice you pay to obtain the certificate, then claim. Keep the ANTS tax receipt, the CO2 and mass figures used, the V5C date, the COC, and any disability or family documents. A written claim stating the legal basis (wrong grid, ignored décote, ignored exemption, first registration before 2015) is more effective than a one-line ANTS message. If the claim is rejected, the next step is the administrative court, within the time limit running from notification of the rejection.

B. If ANTS refuses, if you are stopped, and how to appeal

Most British files do not fail because the car is British. They fail because a document is missing, the MOT has been uploaded instead of a French contrôle technique, the 846 A is absent, the COC does not match the VIN, or DREAL has not yet issued an RTI. Read the ANTS wording twice. If the service is asking for a named document, supply it. If the service says the car cannot be registered, that is the refusal the Lyon court treated as a decision causing grievance. Ask, in writing, for the legal basis: which indent of R. 322-1, which line of the 2009 order, which customs rule. Silence after a complete file is not a result you should live with. Article R. 421-1 of the Code of administrative justice (Code de justice administrative) provides: “La juridiction ne peut être saisie que par voie de recours formé contre une décision, et ce, dans les deux mois à partir de la notification ou de la publication de la décision attaquée.” Diary two months from the ANTS notification or from the implicit rejection of a recours gracieux (informal appeal to the same administration). A gracious appeal is useful: it asks ANTS or the interior ministry to reverse, it can produce a clearer written refusal, and it is the document the court will want to see. It is not a reason to miss the two-month court deadline if the administration does not answer in time.

Technical disagreement belongs at DREAL before it belongs in court. If ANTS refuses because there is no Community type, apply for RTI. If DREAL refuses RTI, that refusal too is a decision. The grounds will be technical (lamps, emissions, structure). A second-hand British car can usually be brought into line; a substantially modified one may not. Do not pay a private “homologation” intermediary for a promise that DREAL has not put in writing. The report that ANTS will accept is the DREAL procès-verbal, not a garage invoice.

If you keep driving on UK plates after you have settled, the risk is not only the fourth-class fine in article R. 322-1. Police and gendarmes may immobilise the vehicle under article L. 325-1 of the Highway Code where circulation or parking in breach of the Code, of police regulations or of compulsory insurance endangers road users or their right to compensation. Combined with a lapsed UK policy, that is how a family car ends up in the pound. The Cour de cassation, Criminal Chamber, in its judgment of 8 November 2016, appeal no. 15-85.532, recalled, on articles R. 322-5 and R. 322-3, that circulation of an already registered used vehicle is a regulated act, not a courtesy extended until the paperwork catches up. That case concerned a dealer and a W garage certificate, but the underlying idea is the same: the Code tells you under which document you may circulate, and for how long. A WW certificate or a completed ANTS file with a provisional certificate is the lawful stop-gap. An expired UK disc in the windscreen is not.

Second-home owners should not copy the resident file. F10519 ties the one-month obligation to a principal residence occupied at least eight months a year. If you remain tax-resident in the United Kingdom and visit the French house within the Schengen 90 days in any 180, keep the car on UK plates, stay insured for travel, and do not invent a transfer of residence. Registering the car in France while you are not a resident can also create evidence that the tax office or the prefecture will later use against you on residence. The reverse error is as serious: once France is your real home, waiting “until next spring” on UK plates is the contravention in R. 322-1. In the Paris region the same national ANTS platform applies; the local specificities are practical. DREAL Île-de-France handles RTI for cars kept in Paris and the inner suburbs. Customs clearance is often done at the port of entry or at Roissy or another Île-de-France customs office with an appointment. Book both before the one-month mark. A British resident in Paris who files ANTS on day 28 without 846 A or RTI has not met the deadline; they have opened an incomplete file.

When you challenge, stay on the decision in front of you. For a customs bill, use the customs litigation path and the figures on the 846 A or the assessment. For malus, use the tax claim under the CIBS and the Book of tax procedures, with the V5C date and the correct grid. For an ANTS refusal, use the gracious appeal and then the administrative court under article R. 421-1, with the Lyon case in mind: the platform message can already be the decision. Attach the V5C, the COC or the DREAL report, the 846 A, the contrôle technique, the insurance certificate and the ANTS printouts. Courts do not reconstruct a file from memory. If a garage submitted the application, obtain their mandate and their correspondence; you remain the owner. If the refusal is well founded (no RTI, no 846 A), the remedy is to complete the file, not to sue. If the refusal misapplies the 2009 order or ignores a COC that does identify the type, the remedy is the court.

Conclusion

Importing a UK car into France after Brexit is a customs operation, a type-approval operation and a tax operation, compressed into a one-month administrative window if France is now your principal home. The 846 A certificate, or a written customs exemption for a genuine transfer of residence, is the document the EU quitus no longer supplies. The French or EU contrôle technique, not the MOT, is the roadworthiness paper ANTS will accept. Without a European COC that actually matches the vehicle, DREAL must receive the car for individual approval. First French registration then opens the CIBS taxes: CO2 malus, weight tax and the regional certificate fee, reduced by age and, for cars first registered before 1 January 2015, reduced to nothing on the malus. Electric cars, wheelchair-accessible cars and some disability and large-family cases are exempt or abated, but only if the file says so. An ANTS message that stops the registration is a decision. You have two months from notification to bring it before the administrative court, after or alongside a gracious appeal. Driving on UK plates after you have settled, or driving uninsured, is a fourth-class contravention and a ground for immobilisation. Second-home owners should not force a French registration they do not need. Residents should not delay one they do. Gather the V5C, the customs papers, the COC or RTI appointment, a French insurance certificate and the contrôle technique, then file. If customs, ANTS or the malus calculation goes wrong, challenge the written decision on its legal ground, with the documents attached, before the deadline on the letter or the screen expires.

Need a quick opinion on your case.

Talk it through with an avocat before customs issues the 846 A, before ANTS closes the file or before the two-month appeal deadline expires. Our firm offers a telephone consultation within 48 hours with an avocat of the firm. Call +33 6 46 60 58 22 (Maître Reda Kohen), or reach us through our contact page. We assist British residents and owners in Paris and across the Paris region as well as throughout France.