VRT on car with leather seats?

Tipsy Mac

Anyone know what kind of extra cost leather seats wood add to VRT. I'm looking at importing a car which might have leather seats fitted but would have been in the car as an optional extra and not standard spec, how much cost do you recon it would add to an average car when importing?

rizla_13

What? You have to pay extra cash for leather seats also.:eek: :eek: I'm just in the process buying a 00 BMW 528i Sport from up north and didn't know you had to pay for leather seats extra to Commissioners Office.
Tipsy Mac, do you know what other documents I need to bring to Commissioners Office to transfer the car to south plates, I know about (V5 Tax book) but do I need a receipt. I'm buying a car from a private seller. Thanks in advance for any feedback.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

eh you pay VRT as a percentage of the current market price, so its only the cost that counts not the leather. Look st one without leather the same year an milage and subtract that from yours, you will pay the vrt percentage extra on the difference.

rizla_13

Grand, that's what I thought. fitzgeme, if you know can you tell me what else i need to bring with me to get the car transfered, I know about the tax book but do you know if i need anything else, receipt or a form??? This is my first time buying a car from up north.
Tipsy Mac, I'm not trying to rob your thread I just don't want to double post on the same topic.

JHMEG

Funnily enough the last time I was in paying VRT the chap beside me was paying his VRT on a BMW of some description. Yer one behind the counter was "Ah no, I'll have to see it. Do you have the spec sheet for it that shows what extras it has?"

The car I was bringing in had no variations, and the only optional extra on it is fog lights, so they didn't want to see it... (making it quick and painless, apart from handing over a wad of cash)

netwhizkid

Tipsy Mac wrote:

Anyone know what kind of extra cost leather seats wood add to VRT. I'm looking at importing a car which might have leather seats fitted but would have been in the car as an optional extra and not standard spec, how much cost do you recon it would add to an average car when importing?

I imported a BMW 316 Auto 1998 with Leather Seats and Climate Control/Air-Con from England (London) last June. Having Leather seats or seats tied in up in baling twine makes no difference whatsoever.

As long as the car is say Model A then Model A with ordinary seats or leather seats should be no difference. The difference would be if eg. Ford made a Model Z and Model Z had only Leather Seats as standard. There is no difference, so make sure that the car you bring in is fully loaded with gadgets and features galore. A phone call (blocked number) to the VRT chappies should confirm this, it made no difference to my car anyway.

rizla_13 wrote:

Grand, that's what I thought. fitzgeme, if you know can you tell me what else i need to bring with me to get the car transfered, I know about the tax book but do you know if i need anything else, receipt or a form??? This is my first time buying a car from up north.
Tipsy Mac, I'm not trying to rob your thread I just don't want to double post on the same topic.

See my post about importing here in the "Importing from the UK - Definitive Guide".

netwhizkid wrote:

Important ↓

One thing to be careful of if you go over is make sure you bring back the log book, I made a hames of my paperwork and left the V5 Registration Certificate (aka Tax Book) after me with the dealer; who subsequently sent it to the DVLA in Swansea, with my name down and address down as the new keeper.

The DVLA will not send on the V5 to new keepers outside the UK. I had to apply for a certificate of permanent export instead and this delayed the whole thing by 10 weeks.

Make Sure you bring back the Registration Certificate and all you have to do is fill in the purple piece see the bottom far right corner "V5c Section 11 - Notification of Permanent Export" and send this to the DVLA, Make sure you bring the rest of the certificate, if your british seller is not happy explain the situation about VRT (Vehicle Registration Tax) here and how the Irish VRT office will need the V5 to register the car in Ireland for you; otherwise threaten to walk away, a person selling a car without a V5 is dodgy and my advise in this instance is walk away as the UK is a buyers market.

The mistake I made was I filled up V5c Section 6- New Keeper in the middle page and my dealer sent this back to the DVLA leaving me only with the new keeper supplement and the section 11 piece Notification of Permanent Export which I should have sent in to the DVLA.

Filling up the "V5c Section 11 - Notification of Permanent Export" won't give you a "Certificate of Permanent Export" but you won't need it if you bring the rest of the V5 C UK Vehicle Registration Certificate with you. I had to fill up a different form to get my Certificate of Permanent Export which the fellas in the VRT office needed to Register my car.

I cant stress how important it is to get the paperwork of the car right, follow my tips above and you won't go wrong. Even though I brought my car in from London the same applies for Northern Ireland as they are all part of the United Kingdom. This post outlines some of the other things I had to have to get the car through.

rizla_13

netwhizkid, thanks so much for your help. I'm been looking for advice like this and I can relax a bit now. The fella from up north is actually coming over to Dublin so my mechanic can have a look at the car before I buy it of him. Thanks again and I'll make sure to keep the V5 book.:D

Tipsy Mac

netwhizkid wrote:

I imported a BMW 316 Auto 1998 with Leather Seats and Climate Control/Air-Con from England (London) last June. Having Leather seats or seats tied in up in baling twine makes no difference whatsoever.

As long as the car is say Model A then Model A with ordinary seats or leather seats should be no difference. The difference would be if eg. Ford made a Model Z and Model Z had only Leather Seats as standard. There is no difference, so make sure that the car you bring in is fully loaded with gadgets and features galore. A phone call (blocked number) to the VRT chappies should confirm this, it made no difference to my car anyway.

Sound, just heard this a while back that it was the case, must have been one of those rumours.

galwaytt

Sorry - but you're incorrect. VRT is calculated based on the OMSP of the equivalent model here.

If that model here only had leather as an option, instead of standard, then they will add a notional value to the OMSP which you will have to pay. Don't believe me? Go to a M-B dealer, and ask about half'n'half leather. This is a (fantastic) solution to an Irish problem - leather faces and bolsters, and man-made leather to sides, seat backs, etc. It looks like all leather - but isn't, so they don't have to pay VRT on a full leather trim, either. That's be about 700 euro VRT alone on a new car.

Oh, and likewise for alloy wheels. And automatic.

It's why a lot of leather trim here is actually made in Ireland - even the Lexus dealer in Galway uses a galway firm for it.

ballooba

Yes, but I have seen lots of UK cars with part leather.

TJJP

Tipsy Mac wrote:

Anyone know what kind of extra cost leather seats wood add to VRT.

I've VRT'ed an imported BMW. The cost was based on the badged spec, an SE model. Beyond that there was no interest expressed in the extras such as leather, parktronic and so on. There was no visual inspection, cost was calculated on the basis of the registration paperwork.

VRT charged was as quoted for model, mileage and registration date on revenue site.

Biro

galwaytt wrote:

Sorry - but you're incorrect. VRT is calculated based on the OMSP of the equivalent model here.

If that model here only had leather as an option, instead of standard, then they will add a notional value to the OMSP which you will have to pay. Don't believe me? Go to a M-B dealer, and ask about half'n'half leather. This is a (fantastic) solution to an Irish problem - leather faces and bolsters, and man-made leather to sides, seat backs, etc. It looks like all leather - but isn't, so they don't have to pay VRT on a full leather trim, either. That's be about 700 euro VRT alone on a new car.

Oh, and likewise for alloy wheels. And automatic.

It's why a lot of leather trim here is actually made in Ireland - even the Lexus dealer in Galway uses a galway firm for it.

Yep, this info is correct. They calculate it on the OMSP including any extras. A lot of them don't bother checking the extras, and if they do inspect the car you could say "ah they are all standard on that model" and they'll probably leave it at that, but there's no guarantee. One guy I know got stung for a lot of extras, yer man came out and started adding money on for every extra he saw on the car. The guy I know happened to know a fella in a main dealer, so told the VRT guy to ring this dealer and ask for such a man, he'll tell ya that they're all standard!

galwaytt

Biro - I think you're right, technically, they're supposed to, but you're running into the Irish Factor - e.g. turn up on a wet day, and it's amazing what you could get away with.

A week ago yesterday, I met a guy who had imported a 10yr old, 100k mile, 325tds Touring (estate). He had a notional figure how much it was going to cost, to clear it.............when he went to clear it, they wanted extra for both the leather AND alloy wheels........well over 2500 iirc, ........a bit unlucky to meet someone like that over a 100k mile, 10yr old car, tbh...............

...either way, the car is now for sale again, sans VRT iirc.............there goes the 'old cheap car' theory out the window for him......

phill106

when you go to register the car, just stick on the nastiest seat covers you have...no way they will think someone with leather interior would put ****e seat covers over...

netwhizkid

I am using my own experience for what I stated, plus the fact that a relation of mine used to work in the VRT office up until quite recently, who advised me on this. Perhaps they certain makes and models differently.

TJJP wrote:

I've VRT'ed an imported BMW. The cost was based on the badged spec, an SE model. Beyond that there was no interest expressed in the extras such as leather, parktronic and so on. There was no visual inspection, cost was calculated on the basis of the registration paperwork.

VRT charged was as quoted for model, mileage and registration date on revenue site.

My experience was the same except they inspected mine, they went out and checked the Chassis Number (VIN) and that was all they wanted to know. I paid the exact figure that I got off the ROS Online VRT calculator. My car has BMW standard Alloys and they did not effect it one cent either.

If you were to be paranoid about it you could cover the seats with crappy covers and stick on ordinary wheels, and turn up on a pissing wet day.

VRT is illegal under European law anyway and I was told this by a Progressive Democrat Senator who I lambasted yesterday on this issue in Cork.

Tipsy Mac

netwhizkid wrote:

VRT is illegal under European law anyway and I was told this by a Progressive Democrat Senator who I lambasted yesterday on this issue in Cork.

How sound of them to be part of the same government who is collecting VRT :rolleyes: