Importing from the UK - definitive guide (Q&A)

Nelly23

smccarrick wrote: »

A Certificate of EU Conformity is like a birth certificate for your car. Its unique for each vehicle. You have to apply to the manufacturer for it. You can import a vehicle without one, but you will be charged VRT at the higher rate (i.e. you will not get charged the appropriate CO2 rate, you will be charged the max).

Cheers smccarrick. Its awful confusing all these forms but it will be worth hopefully!!

Esel

Nelly, call in to your local VRO. Afaik they will accept the car's CO2 figure from a number of sources, not just the COC.

Nelly23

esel wrote: »

Nelly, call in to your local VRO. Afaik they will accept the car's CO2 figure from a number of sources, not just the COC.

I have checked a number of sources online for the CO2 count on the golf and they all say 132g so I should be fine to fit into Bracket B! I'l give them a call and see where they need the measure from to certifiy it or whatever they do.

Esel

From http://www.revenue.ie/leaflets/vrt-new-tax-regime.htm today:

Imported Second-Hand Vehicles

When an imported second-hand vehicle is presented for registration, the levels of CO2 emissions at the time of manufacture must be declared to Revenue on form VRT4 (the form used by an individual to register a second hand car).

If the vehicle originated within the EU, the declaration must be supported by documentary evidence confirming the level of CO2 emissions of the vehicle to the satisfaction of Revenue.

Revenue will accept a range of documentation for this purpose. Among the documents deemed satisfactory at present are:

• the Certificate of Conformity (if it is available),
  
• a printout from the Revenue ROS Enquiry System where the level of CO2 emissions is shown www.ros.ie
  
• evidence included on a previous registration document e.g. the UK V5,
  
• the level of CO2 emissions stated on a previous National Car Test performed elsewhere within the EU provided the CO2 stated is that given at the time of manufacture,
  
• A print out for the vehicle from the DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency) web site, www.vehiclelicence.gov.uk
  
• A printout from the VCA (Vehicle Certification Agency) web site
  
• A printout from the SEI (Sustainable Energy Ireland) website
  
• A certificate from the manufacturer or main distributor stating the level of CO2 emissions.

If the vehicle originated in Japan, documentary evidence of the level of CO2 emissions will also be required.


The following documentation must be presented with the VRT4:

• Japanese Export Certificates or Japanese Certificates of Cancellation of Motor Vehicle Registration,
  
• a printout from the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport showing the level of CO2 emissions for the model on the certificate

Revenue are currently reviewing the additional documentation that may be required for vehicles imported from other non EU States e.g. Singapore and the United States.

lukester

Just wondering if anyone knows do customs inspect UK plate cars/bikes coming off the ferry? Was looking at a car in the UK which is over a year old but is about 500km under the 6000km threshold for VAT. I plan to drive down west over the weekend so by the time I register on the Monday I'll be over the 6000km. I'm just worried that customs could stop me at the ferry port, see the mileage is under the 6000 and force me to pay VAT. I have no problem paying VRT, but if there was a risk of getting hit for the VAT I'd just look at another vehicle.

I've searched this and other threads and haven't found a specific discussion on this- gratefully appreciate feedback as I'm on the verge of buying tomorrow to collect on Saturday.

wibblebee

Hi, Hope everyone can help me. I have a UK car a ford focus 1.6L. Brought it over from Scotland and living here now. How do i go about registering my car here. My car is 1998 registered. www.revenue.ie website is unavailable so dont know what to do. Need insurance too being over here as my last insurance company is back in the UK. Just want to be legit in this country. Need irish number plates. Road tax due to run out in August.
Please help cause i havent a clue here.
Many thanks,
Catriona

Esel

wibblebee wrote: »

Hi, Hope everyone can help me. I have a UK car a ford focus 1.6L. Brought it over from Scotland and living here now. How do i go about registering my car here. My car is 1998 registered. www.revenue.ie website is unavailable so dont know what to do. Need insurance too being over here as my last insurance company is back in the UK. Just want to be legit in this country. Need irish number plates. Road tax due to run out in August.
Please help cause i havent a clue here.
Many thanks,
Catriona

The revenue site is up now. See this page http://www.revenue.ie/leaflets/vrt_3.htm

GG66

I'm importing a second hand car from UK. I've had data check, vehicle inspection and everything checks out. I'm getting a transporter to bring it over as I dont have time.

I know the current owner needs to send part of V5 off top transfer ownership to me.
Is there any documentation I need to sign? Could the transporter driver sign for it or do I need to do some back and forth snail mail?

thanks,

Kotek Besar

GG66 wrote: »

I know the current owner needs to send part of V5 off top transfer ownership to me.
Is there any documentation I need to sign? Could the transporter driver sign for it or do I need to do some back and forth snail mail?

The seller needs to complete and send to the DVLA Section 11 of the V5C (Notification of Permanent Export), and give the rest of the V5C in it's entirety to you, the buyer, and you in turn give it the VRO when you're registering the car in Ireland.

Kotek Besar

benifa wrote: »

The seller needs to complete and send to the DVLA Section 11 of the V5C (Notification of Permanent Export), and give the rest of the V5C in it's entirety to you, the buyer, and you in turn give it the VRO when you're registering the car in Ireland.

To clarify, you will not "own" the vehicle (as far as the DVLA are concerned) while it's on UK plates. The seller exports it out of the UK while it's still in his name.

Niamhobr@gmail.

THanks for that - it was really helpful. Have you ever bought new? What's the story with this? Is it worth it?

Robertr wrote: »

For those looking to save a few quid here is my difinitive guide to importing cars from the UK based on my own experiences.

Firstly here is the best information you can get: Revenue.ie - VRT

When you want to get a car from the UK there are a few rules to follow:

(1) You will have to pay VRT on any car coming into Ireland from any country unless over 30 years old.
(2) You will have to pay VAT on all cars coming from outside the EU, so always buy in the EU as an additional 21% will never bring it under the Irish price.
(3) You will have to pay VAT on all cars under 6 mths old or less than 6,000kms even if they are from within the EU.

VRT

When you are looking at the price of different cars in the UK (Autotrader.co.uk is the best site) it might seem like the prices are great. This can be true for some cars but others this is not the case.

Obviously, you will firstly have to convert the price into EURO using the most up to date rate that your bank will Sell GBP (This can be quite different from the daily exchange rates that you might see in the papers).

Then you will have to calculate the VRT. This can vary in a number of ways:
(1) The % of VRT is based on the engine size of the car. You can see the table using the above link.
(2) It is not based on the price you bought the car for but the Open Market Selling Price or OMSP. This is a value decided by the Revenue. In my experience these can be way off. Sometimes they are way above the retail value and sometimes they are less than the Trade value. Depends on the car. I've noticed that they will value an Audi at about trade or less but BMW's are above what you would expect to pay on a forecourt.


Procedure for Buying:

(1) Get a shortlist of cars that you are interested in knock off about 5% of the listed price for a cash discount. Should get more off but leave that as a nice surprise.

(2) Call your local VRO office (listed in the contact page on Revenue.ie) and ask for a VRT quote. They should be able to give you the amount straight away unless it is a high-end luxury car (over say €60,000). They will then need the chassis number and they will get their VRO Department in Rosslare to do up a valuation - usually 1 day.

(3) You will now have the cost of the car.

(4) Factor in expenses, usually about €1,000.
- Flights
- Ferry
- RAC/AA inspection (has to be done!!!)
- HPI Check

(5) Contact the Dealer (never buy privately) you want to buy from and give them as many questions as you can think of. Tell them that you will be getting an inspection done so they may as well tell you everything now. If you are not 100% happy with all answers, walk away!!!!! Every Tom, Dick and Harry has a 'car dealership' in the UK, loads of guys operating out of their back gardens, so be wary. Don't bother getting a warranty from the dealer if the car is still covered by the manufacturer's warranty, in fact you should be able to get money off if you tell them you don't want it.
**EU law states that a manufacturer must stand over their warranty in every EU country regardless of which country the car was originally purchased so if something goes wrong you can go to your local dealership and you will be covered by the warranty. This does not cover Dealership warranties, only Manufacturer!!

(6) Once happy, you will have to pay a deposit, (by Credit Card) don't worry, once it’s by credit card you are covered from fraud. Make sure it is subject to the inspection not showing up anything that will change the overall value of the car from his decryption.

(7) Get inspection done. Make sure you get the expensive one. An engineer will call you to discuss the car and these guys do a great job. One time he even told me that there was a tiny dent the size of a 10P coin in one of the speakers in the back door. When I got the car it took me ages to find it. They do a really good job.

(8) Agree a date to travel over and get the Dealer to collect you from the closest Airport.

(9) Get a bank draft for the remaining GBP balance to pay the dealer.

(10) Call you insurance company and ask them to transfer your policy to the new car. They will only issue a temporary cover for a non-Irish reg that lasts for 1 month.

(11) You should have no trouble of making the journey in one day if you leave early in the morning you will be back in Dublin that night.

(12) Get a bank draft for the amount you were quoted when you got the VRT quote. Knock off about 10% from the draft and bring cash as some time will have passed and the amount they want will have gone down.

(13)With in 24hrs of arriving in Ireland you are required to present the car at the VRO. You will have to fill out a few forms and then they will have a look to see if you have honestly described the car. Don't worry about telling them about every extra, they don't seem to care as long as the Make, Model and Year as are you said. (So make sure that it’s fully loaded).

(14) They will then give you a document that will have your new Irish Reg on it. Go and get some plates done up and put them on the car.

(15) Get your insurance changed to the new reg.

(16) A few days later you will receive the Vehicle Registration Cert. This is not the same as the one that you usually have as it in only the initial cert. and is used to Tax a car for the first time only.

(17) Go to the Tax office and tax that puppy!

(18) In a few days you will have you proper Vehicle Registration Document.



In general, even with VRT, most cars are cheaper from the UK. Obviously, there more expensive the car the more you will save. Anything under €15,000 - €20,000 may not be worth your while but there are some exceptions out there!!

Anyways, hope this helps everyone. I've been doing it for a while and its had its ups and downs, so always use your commen sense and don't let the really cheap ones get the better of you.

Any questions, let me know

Good Luck!!!

cooper38

Hey GG66,

Transporter
What transporter did you use in the end? Id be interested.

Currency
On discount, ive tried and flatly been refused a discount.
used currency.ie and not the bank and saved approx 250 euro on the sterling.

Plates
How much did your plates cost you could i ask

Energizeer

Quick question, Does anyone know the Open Market Selling Price Rate for a 2003 Audi A4 2.0 FSI???
Cheers

Esel

Energizeer wrote: »

Quick question, Does anyone know the Open Market Selling Price Rate for a 2003 Audi A4 2.0 FSI???
Cheers

This https://www.ros.ie/VRTEnquiryServlet/showVRT will tell you.

G-Money

Anyone ever get asked any awkward questions by the VRO when they show up to re-register their car? I may be moving to Dublin soon from the north and if I do, I will probably re-register my car and pay VRT. However I guess I'm worried that because I've owned the car for almost 4 years they might start to ask questions about why I'm not trying to claim the VRT exemption.

The reason I'm not claiming the exemption is that when I bought the car originally I was living and working in Dublin and I don't really want to draw attention to that. I've been living outside the Republic for the last two years however with the way things have worked out, I don't really have the documention to prove I could get the exemption anyway.

If I was going to do this, I'd rather just show up at the VRO with my V5 book, the form filled out and payment and have them process it, no questions asked. So I'm just curious about what they ask and check etc when you show up at the office on the day.

I probably should have paid the VRT the first time but didn't, so that's why I'd rather do things right this time.

The_Conductor

Date car was imported into the country.
They may ask to prove this with a ferry ticket/bill of sale etc.
If claiming the exemption- proof of ordinary residency outside the jurisdiction (bills etc). As previously noted here- studying abroad does not qualify. They may also ask to inspect the car (to compare specs and mileage with what you are claiming). I pointed at the car outside the door and offered them the keys, they declined......

G-Money

The date the car was imported into the country? I assume this is the day you are at the VRO office or a day or two before that?

On the log book it shows when the car was transferred into my possession so I don't know if they'd start asking questions about that. I also still have the receipt from the dealer.

Just to be clear, I'm not trying to claim a VRT exemption. I just want to import it, pay the VRT (1000 euro) and not get stung for not paying VRT a few years ago when I did live in Dublin.

westbourne

Have been told by the Irish VRT office that if you import a new car you will have to pay the relevant VRT as well as VAT of the invoice price at 21%. Now upon buying the car in England I will have already payed English VAT - does anyone know how to claim back this English VAT once the Irish VAT is paid?

Fuzzman

Folks have any of you fellow Northerners managed to successfully get exemption from VRT having had your car for more than 6 months and having all the paperwork to show that you lived in the North etc.

It was mentioned in earlier pages what was required but I just wanted to see how many of ye have actually done this and how strict are they recently?

Have any of ye been denied exemption?

I've started a new job in Dublin but am still commuting from Belfast but I'll probably move permanently this year if I can sell the house in Belfast.

I only got the new car though back in March so I suppose I'll have to hold in UK plates a while yet.

Nephew

I've been looking at a few cars online being sold by dealers in the UK, a few of them have no road tax. Would it be safe to drive an untaxed car about 100miles to Holyhead or will I get pulled over by the police after I pass a speed camera that also checks tax? What's the fine for expired tax in the UK or likely outcome in a situation like this?

I'm not intending to break the law but if I hit a fixed speed camera in the UK and I am 5mph over will they post the fine to my address in Ireland, if they do will there be any consequences if I ignore it?

I know the VRT calculator only gives an estimate of the price. For example if I buy the car for €10,000 in the UK and the VRT website says VRT will be €2000. Is €2000 all I have to pay, or will I need to pay vat or other fees on top of this?

lukester

I faced the same issue recently, I wouldn't worry about it. If you have your ferry ticket and invoice from the dealer and explain you're exporting it I imagine they won't be too worried. From memory if your vehicle isn't taxed there's a potential fine of 60 sterling, but I drove back about 250 miles without tax and didn't see any police.

All taxed up over here now though

Nephew

Thanks Luke.

Is it like here when the tax has expired by two or three months the Gardai will take the car away, or will the British police do it much sooner?

lukester

In theory I think they can impound it if it's not taxed, but if you're buying from a dealer, then in effect it's been off the road. I imagine you would have a grace period- for example, if your car is untaxed you can drive it to a pre-booked MOT appointment and not get grief for it if stopped.

If you have your Irish driving license, Irish insurance cert for the car, ferry ticket, dealer invoice, I think you'd be very unlucky to even get a fine. That's if you were even stopped.

Nephew

Is a bank draft the least troublesome form of payment? I take it I won't have to sit around for hours waiting for it to clear?

Say the car is advertised at £10,000, do you think I would be best to bring a draft for £9,000 and £1,000 in cash so I'd be in a better position for negotiating the price down and not tied to whatever figure the draft is made out to. I get the feeling if the dealer knows I am travelling from Ireland to look at the car, its pretty much guaranteed I'll buy the car so they won't budge on the price.

Do you think it would be stupid to give up the dealers warranty for the sake of a few hundred pounds of the price? After all, if the anything goes wrong with the car it'd probably cost me a fortune to get the car back to England anyway.

G-Money

Regarding no tax on your car in the UK, I think you get a few weeks grace and maybe even as much as one month after your tax disc has expired in order to renew it. I guess you could just say you haven't got around to doing it yet or something, although I've never tried it myself. I'm too paranoid to let these things go and I pay them as soon as I can after the reminder arrives.

You realise you can get your road tax refunded for the months you aren't driving the car. I'm not sure of the details but I think if you declare the car off the road or something, you can claim back all the full months of road tax you have paid until that point. Plus you could only tax it for 6 months rather than the year and claim back the 5 months that don't apply. Check into that though, I don't know if you can claim back the road tax if you are exporting.

PCwiggum

grandmaster wrote: »

Regarding no tax on your car in the UK, I think you get a few weeks grace and maybe even as much as one month after your tax disc has expired in order to renew it. I guess you could just say you haven't got around to doing it yet or something, although I've never tried it myself. I'm too paranoid to let these things go and I pay them as soon as I can after the reminder arrives.

You realise you can get your road tax refunded for the months you aren't driving the car. I'm not sure of the details but I think if you declare the car off the road or something, you can claim back all the full months of road tax you have paid until that point. Plus you could only tax it for 6 months rather than the year and claim back the 5 months that don't apply. Check into that though, I don't know if you can claim back the road tax if you are exporting.

Surely you wouldnt be able tax a uk car without a uk address?

G-Money

I think you are right PCWiggum. They sent out a renewal notice to your address and you bring this in with payment along with your MOT and insurance certificates. Except if the car is less than 4 years old, in which case it is not due for MOT yet so you only need your insurance certificate.

I guess you could chance not taxing it, but I don't know what would happen if you got caught. I'm assuming they'd try to send you some sort of letter and get you to pay the road tax. If you don't have an address though, I guess they can't do that. Although I'm assuming the car is registered to you at some address?

zzzzzzzz

Nephew wrote: »

I've been looking at a few cars online being sold by dealers in the UK, a few of them have no road tax. Would it be safe to drive an untaxed car about 100miles to Holyhead or will I get pulled over by the police after I pass a speed camera that also checks tax? What's the fine for expired tax in the UK or likely outcome in a situation like this?

If you have all your documentation there you should be ok. Besides, it's not possible for you to tax the car. You'd need a UK insurance policy which you would need a UK address to get. I've emailed the DVLA and they confirmed that. Do the same yourself and print out the email if you're really worried about it.

fortyplus

aidan.offbeat wrote: »

If you have all your documentation there you should be ok. Besides, it's not possible for you to tax the car. You'd need a UK insurance policy which you would need a UK address to get. I've emailed the DVLA and they confirmed that. Do the same yourself and print out the email if you're really worried about it.

I was about to post the same query! I am collecting a 6 month / 9k miles A4 convertible demonstrator in the Uk and driving 200 miles to Hollyhead: trouble is no Tax Disc, so I was curious as to the "risk".

Did any previous poster actually get stoped by UK police?

The_Conductor

Never got stopped- but was told that there was a "garage disk" which covered the car immediately following purchase (not sure whether this is an official disk, or something the garage pops into the disk holder just to indicate the car has just been sold?)