Vehicle tax liability if a car is confiscated abroad

If a car is confiscated abroad and later scrapped, the obligation to pay vehicle tax can end at the time of confiscation.

If a vehicle registered in Germany that was confiscated abroad is scrapped several months later, the motor vehicle tax liability in Germany ends at the time of confiscation. This was decided by the Münster Fiscal Court following an appeal by a car owner with dual residence in Germany and Italy. After the plaintiff's car was confiscated following an accident on the grounds that it should have been registered in Italy due to his other place of residence, the plaintiff decided to scrap it in order to avoid the high costs of re-registration. However, the fact that the entire procedure took around six months was not attributable to the plaintiff as culpable hesitation, because it would not have been possible to deregister the car in Germany without releasing the license plates of the confiscated car.