Russians hit by insane retroactive recycling fee bills

Thousands of car owners who imported vehicles through Eurasian Economic Union countries suddenly found themselves owing the state hundreds of thousands of rubles. At the time of purchase, people paid the recycling fee, but after a while new amounts began to be charged. Our colleagues from MSK1.RU found out where they came from, why customs is making claims and what to do for those who received such a notice.

The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is an international organization whose member countries create a single economic space with free trade. In 2026, it includes five states: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia.

«Plus penalties nearly a million»

In 2026, the emotions of motorists around the recycling fee have not subsided, and now people are facing mass retrocharges. Readers of MSK1.RU and social media users tell similar stories: after buying a car abroad, they paid the reduced recycling fee, registered the vehicle and used it quietly. But months later they received demands to pay additional hundreds of thousands, and sometimes millions of rubles.

«We bought a 2010 car from Armenia, customs officers confirmed three times that everything was in order, issued documents. I sold that car, bought a UAZ and a month later a letter arrived. I owe 1 273 000 rubles ($14,100 at current rates) and penalties nearly a million. And now neither the car nor the money, only a huge debt that I cannot pay,» complains Alexandra Alexandrovna.

«A car manufactured in 2010 worth 2 million rubles ($22,200 at current rates) and the recycling fee for it is 6 300 000 rubles ($70,000 at current rates),» adds Vera.

«My father has had the «Pradik» (Toyota Land Cruiser Prado) parked for three years because of the recycling fee. First they said 1.25 million rubles ($13,900 at current rates), then more than 2 million rubles ($22,200 at current rates), but in fact he didn«t buy the car, but moved with it from Kazakhstan and changed his citizenship. So there is no reason to pay the fee,» Daria is indignant.

Car owners do not understand why they owe the state after completing all customs clearance procedures.

«I received a letter with a retrocharge of the recycling fee for a car manufactured in Kazakhstan in the amount of 1.1 million rubles ($12,200 at current rates). I am trying to sue the Federal Customs Service (FCS. — Ed.), the result is not yet clear,» says Alex.

«We bought a car in May 2024, paid as required the full amount of the commercial recycling fee. Two years later, a retrocharge came from the FCS — pay an additional million rubles ($11,100 at current rates) and an unbearable penalty. They started applying the formula in 2026 and sent a retroactive bill,» Eduard Asadullin is dissatisfied.

«I bought a car in 2024, paid 1,235,200 rubles ($13,700 at current rates) recycling fee, the customs order has the inspector«s name and personal seal, I received an electronic PTS (vehicle passport), registered it. A month ago, an additional payment of almost 4.5 million rubles ($50,000 at current rates) with penalty arrives,» Ruslan is puzzled.

«Courts side with customs»

It is possible to import foreign cars into Russia, but you need to pay a recycling fee. People who buy cars for personal use paid it at a reduced rate: 3,400 rubles ($38 at current rates) for cars up to 3 years old and 5,200 rubles ($58 at current rates) for cars older than 3 years with engine capacity up to 3 liters and power up to 160 hp. At the same time, the imported car cannot be sold or transferred by power of attorney within a year.

The final amount of the recycling fee is determined by special coefficients that depend on the car«s characteristics: engine power, age, vehicle category and purpose of import. Because of this, for some cars the payment remains small, while for others it can reach hundreds of thousands or even millions of rubles.

Experts believe that the mass retrocharges to owners of cars from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan are due to the fact that customs is applying new rules to old transactions. Before August 2023, there was no ban on resale of cars imported at the reduced recycling fee for personal use.

«Now, if the car was sold within 12 months after import, customs considers it a sign of commercial use and demands an additional payment at the new rate. And it is several times higher than the reduced rate: the base rate for passenger cars is 20 thousand rubles ($222 at current rates), and taking into account the coefficient for a car with an engine capacity from 1 to 2 liters and power of 160–190 hp, the final amount reaches 900 thousand rubles ($10,000 at current rates),» explains Ivan Trandin, an auto expert from MSK1.RU.

The difference between the recycling fee paid upon import and the amount now demanded often exceeds the cost of the car itself. That is why people complain about disproportionate retrocharges. Moreover, according to owners, «letters of happiness» from customs come even to those who sold the car long ago.

«I received a demand for an additional recycling fee of 1.1 million rubles ($12,200 at current rates) for 2 years after already paying more than 600 thousand rubles ($6,700 at current rates) at the time. The car is from Kazakhstan, worth 2.5 million rubles ($27,800 at current rates). The courts don«t even look into it, they side with customs,» fumes Airat.

If the FCS demand is not fulfilled within 20 days of receipt, penalties begin to accrue. Many people find out about the retrocharge too late, when the debt has already grown significantly.

«A less obvious category of victims is not those who imported the car themselves, but those who later bought it,» adds Ivan Trandin. «If the seller did not pay the full recycling fee at the time, the demand may come to the new owner, especially if the original importer has left Russia. A person can receive a «letter of happiness» for a transaction in which they were not originally involved as an importer, but simply bought the car on the secondary market.»

According to the law, 20 calendar days are allotted for notification of payment of the retroactive recycling fee, and 15 working days from the receipt of the document for notification of unpaid customs payments (duty, excise tax, VAT and penalties on them).

«There are real chances to cancel the retrocharge»

If customs concludes that the car was actually imported for resale or that the registration requirements were violated, the owner may be charged the recycling fee at commercial rates. It is around such cases that most disputes arise today.

«The key legal argument is the principle of good faith: if the owner did not know and should not have known about violations during the initial registration, he cannot be considered obliged to pay the retrocharged amounts,» believes economist Akhmed Yusupov. «Part of the letters in 2026 is not related to new inspections, but to the completion of previously initiated court proceedings on already identified violations.»

If the customs has already sent a demand for additional payment of the recycling fee, there is no need to panic. Experts advise first to carefully study the documents and check how justified the claims are.

Do not pay immediately and do not ignore the letter, because payment without checking the grounds effectively means agreement with the debt, and inaction within 20 days gives customs the right to go to court.

Check whether the statute of limitations has expired, since customs has exactly three years from the date of filing the declaration to check the correctness of the fee payment.

Gather documents that confirm the personal use of the car, the OSAGO policy, the history of registration in your name, and the absence of sale within 12 months.

«If the ban on resale was not in effect at the time of import, this is a strong argument that courts take into account,» emphasizes Ivan Trandin. «With such a package of documents, it is worth contacting a lawyer who specializes in customs disputes: judicial practice on these cases has already been developed, and bona fide buyers have real chances to cancel the retrocharge if customs has no other evidence of commercial import other than the mere fact of sale within a year.»

We sent a request to the Federal Customs Service and asked them to comment on the situation. We will publish the response as soon as we receive clarification from the department.

For now, for those who are just planning to import a car from the EAEU, the main takeaway from this story is simple: experts recommend keeping the car in ownership for more than 12 months and not registering several cars in a row in a short period, since this is now becoming the main trigger for customs inspection.

Earlier, we reported that Russians are massively switching to used cars from China: why this is happening and what the recycling fee has to do with it. At the same time, cars in Russia have tripled in price over 12 years — we asked experts what will happen next. We tried to find alternatives to the Lada budget car on the secondary market — the results turned out to be very interesting.