Sep 20, 2026
Importing a Crane Truck into French Polynesia: The Registration-Tax Waiver Written for a Tipper, and the 13% Nobody Expects
French Polynesia's registration tax has an exemption clause that reads as though it were drafted by someone looking at a tipper truck.
French Polynesia's registration tax has an exemption clause that reads as though it were drafted by someone looking at a tipper truck.
It applies to new vehicles sent to islands other than Tahiti and Moorea — and one of its conditions is that the vehicle be "fitted with a fixed or removable cargo box intended to receive goods."
That is the body of a tipper or a crane truck with a cargo deck. If your machine qualifies, the registration tax — taxe de mise en circulation, TMC — is waived entirely.
There is a catch, and it is a number: the fiscal horsepower must not exceed 12 CV, and the tax-inclusive value must not exceed 6,000,000 FCFP. Two figures decide whether you pay nothing or pay the full TMC. Get them wrong and the waiver is gone.
First, the number nobody expects: your duty is 13%, not 2%
French Polynesia's customs authority publishes two customs duty rates for vehicles: 13% and 2%.
The 2% rate requires proof of European Union origin. A vehicle manufactured in China does not qualify for it and takes the 13% rate. If a quotation shows you 2%, someone has read the rate column and stopped.
The tax base is CAF Papeete — CIF to Papeete, meaning the vehicle value plus freight and insurance to the island. Not FOB.
Charge | Rate | Base |
|---|---|---|
Droit de douane (customs duty) | 13% (2% requires EU origin) | CAF Papeete (CIF) |
Taxe statistique | 50 XPF / 100 kg | by weight |
TSGTR (major works & roads levy) | 18% — or 8% depending on vehicle type; used vehicles always 18%; two-wheelers exempt | CAF |
Taxe environnement et agriculture | 2% | CAF |
Taxe de péage portuaire (port toll) | 1.25% | CAF |
TVA (VAT) | 16% | CAF + duty + the above taxes + fees + deferred-payment interest |
Participation informatique douanière | 85 XPF per declared item | per item |
Note the VAT line. Unlike most markets, the French Polynesian VAT base includes customs duty. Adding the percentages together will understate your landed cost.
These rates are set locally — French Polynesia, a collectivité d'outre-mer, sits outside the EU customs territory, so its duty and tax structure is its own legislature's decision, not Paris's. The customs authority notes the rates can be changed by the Assembly of French Polynesia at any time.
One definition that matters for a new build: the customs authority treats a vehicle as new when it is under four months old or has no more than 3,000 km on it — in which case it is assessed on the actual purchase price. Miss that window and the valuation method changes. If you are ordering new, keep the timeline in view.
The registration-tax waiver, in full
The conditions come from the French Polynesian tax authority. For a new vehicle bound for islands other than Tahiti and Moorea, all of the following must be true:
- 4×4 or 4×2 drive
- Single, double or extended cab
- Fitted with a fixed or removable cargo box intended to receive goods
- Petrol or diesel engine, fiscal horsepower not exceeding 12 CV
- Tax-inclusive value not exceeding 6,000,000 FCFP
And two obligations on the buyer:
- The buyer must not have used this scheme in the previous five years
- The vehicle must remain on islands other than Tahiti and Moorea for three years after registration
Registration requires proof that TMC and the vehicle recycling environment tax have been paid — so this is a real cost, not a formality.
Which means the first question we ask is: which island will this truck be registered on? A crane truck working in the Marquesas, Tuamotus, Austral, Gambier or Leeward Islands may pay no TMC at all. The same truck registered in Papeete pays it. Same machine, different number — decided by geography.
The paperwork gap that only imports from outside France face
This is the detail that catches Chinese exporters, and it is in the official registration checklist.
To register an imported vehicle in French Polynesia you need:
- Customs declaration I400
- A customs certificate for registration
- The registration certificate or proof of ownership — if it is not in French, it must be translated by an expert
- A descriptive sheet (notice descriptive) issued by a motor vehicle expert — waived only for vehicles imported from mainland France
- The completed registration application, from the Directorate of Land Transport
Item 4 is the one to read twice. A vehicle coming from mainland France is exempt from the expert's descriptive sheet. A vehicle coming from China is not. It has to be produced locally by a registered expert en automobile, and your buyer pays for it and arranges it.
We cannot do that step for you. What we can do is hand your expert the technical documentation they will need — dimensions, weights, chassis and engine identification — so the process moves instead of stalling.
Emission: we will not claim a stage
We looked for a mandatory Euro emission level for imported vehicles in French Polynesia and did not find one. What we found is a policy target rather than an admission rule: the territory's Climate Plan 2024–2030 states an objective that Tahiti's regular public transport network use EURO 5 or higher vehicles. That is a fleet-renewal target for public transport — not a threshold your crane truck has to clear at the port.
French Polynesia is outside the EU customs territory, so EU whole-vehicle type approval is not automatically a local admission condition — although at the equipment level, local approval forms still reference French and European standards.
So: we will not tell you "you must meet Euro 5," and we will not tell you "there is no emission requirement." Neither would be honest. The position we take is that no public mandatory stage was found, and the final word belongs to the Directorate of Land Transport at the réception stage.
What we also cannot tell you is what that réception requires. The Road Code says the procedure is set by an order of the President of French Polynesia, and there are reception arrangements on Tahiti — but we could not obtain the specific materials and test items for goods vehicles. Confirm it before you ship, not after.
Fuel
Indirect evidence points to 10 ppm diesel: a French Polynesian legal text references diesel with a sulfur content of 10 ppm as the local reference fuel. We could not retrieve the primary text, so treat that as indicative rather than confirmed.
If the road diesel really is ≤10 ppm, there is no high-sulfur obstacle to modern SCR aftertreatment — a Euro V or Euro VI engine would breathe fine. But that is an inference, and we would rather your buyer confirmed the actual fuel than have us lock a configuration on a guess.
What we will not tell you
- No landed total. TMC, the expert's descriptive sheet, and any inspection fees happen locally, on your side. We quote the vehicle and the freight, not your tax bill.
- No claim about the 2026 tax changes. There are reports of a VAT reduction for islands outside the Society group and of the removal of duty on hybrids and electric vehicles. We could not verify either in official text. Do not price against them.
- No TMC rate bands. The bands live in the Tax Code and vary by fiscal horsepower; your accountant or the tax office can give you the bracket.
- No emission document promise. We will not tell you that supplying a particular certificate guarantees clearance or registration.
What to send us
Four answers and we can build you a real quotation:
- Which island will it be registered on? This is the single biggest variable — it decides whether TMC applies at all.
- The work the crane has to do — lifting capacity and working radius, so we spec the right load chart section.
- Whether you need a cargo body, and what it will carry. The TMC waiver turns on the vehicle being fitted with a cargo box, so the body is not decoration — it is tax-relevant.
- Your expert en automobile and customs broker, if you have them. We would rather send the technical file to the people who will actually use it.
Send those and we will come back with the model, the load chart section, and the technical documentation package your importer's expert will need.
Official references
- Direction régionale des Douanes de Polynésie française — Importation de véhicules (`service-public.pf/douane`), updated 18 June 2025: duty rates incl. the EU-origin condition, taxe statistique, TSGTR, environment and agriculture tax, port toll, VAT base, customs IT fee, and the four-month / 3,000 km definition of a new vehicle
- DICP (French Polynesian tax authority) — Taxe de mise en circulation, including the exemption conditions and the five-year / three-year obligations
- DICP — Immatriculer un véhicule importé: the registration document list, including the expert's descriptive sheet and the French-language requirement
- French customs (`douane.gouv.fr`) — treatment of vehicles imported into an collectivité d'outre-mer
- Lexpol, French Polynesian legal database — Road Code, current version; and the text referencing 10 ppm diesel (summary-level evidence only)
Rates and conditions are stated as published at the date of writing. French Polynesian tax rates are set locally and can change; confirm the current position with your customs broker before committing.
Shipping a crane truck to the Pacific? Message us on WhatsApp at +86 158 0912 4321 and tell us which island it is going to.