Luxury cars

The local luxury car market is all but paralyzed in Lebanon, thanks to the sky-high customs duties implemented 10 years ago have. Taxes on upper high-end cars like Maybach, SLR, Ferrari, Maserati, Aston Martin, Lamborghini, Bentley or Rolls Royce run at close to 50% of the car’s base value, and that’s not including the 10% VAT and 8% registration costs. The result? Luxury vehicle buyers in Lebanon pay between 60% and 80% of the car’s base value in tax – so, a Maybach or SLR will set you back around $700,000, and a limited edition Ferrari costs more than $1 million. Even for wealthy Lebanese, prices like that are prohibitive, especially during a recession, and even free-spending Gulf Arabs recoil at the prospect of paying so much tax for a summer hotrod. With no reduction of customs on the horizon, some distributors are considering closing up shop altogether while many