Registering UK Car in Ireland (Plates)

holtender

Hello,
I currently live in Birmingham and am looking to move to Ireland sometime next year when I'm 19.
I will be bringing my car with me which, by then, I will have owned for more than 6 months so I won't have to pay VRT.
However I was wondering because I do not have to pay VRT do I still need to re-register on Irish plates?
Also, is there a place in each county where it is all sorted out?
What I mean is, say I moved to Waterford (as I probably will) if the above question answered are yes - will I be allocated at Waterford registration plate for the year of manufacture or are all imports Dublin registered for example?

Thanks for reading and I hope I have made my self clear as I don't think I have worded it very well!

Thomas

Esel

Details here http://www.revenue.ie/index.htm?/leaflets/vrt3.htm

You will have to register your car if you're transferring your residence to here. There are indeed a number of VROs (Vehicle Registration Offices), not sure if there's one per county though. You will be allocated a registration number based on the permanent address you give when registering the car.

holtender

Great.
Thanks for the quick reply.
Just what I wanted to know.

holtender

I carried on looking around the net re: VROs
I found out that there is one in every country bar the following;
Cavan, Longford, Leitrim, Laois, Roscommon, Westmeath.

Might be of interest to someone in the future.

Wishbone Ash

holtender wrote: »

say I moved to Waterford (as I probably will)

You probably know this already but Waterford has two plates: W for the city area and WD for the rest of the county.

macplaxton

Small point. It may not be enough just to own it. You need to have used it too. "and have actually used the vehicle outside the State for at least 6 months"

I was asked to provide insurance/mot/tax paperwork to prove it had been on the road. In fact I had to submit reams of the stuff. Copies of bank statements, pay slips, tax slips, etc. That's a lot of paperwork. May I draw your attention to the following:

"Remember the onus is on you to prove that you were resident abroad for the stated period. If the necessary documentary evidence is not furnished, tax relief cannot be granted.

Start putting that documentary evidence aside now.

Type 17

macplaxton wrote: »

Small point. It may not be enough just to own it. You need to have used it too. "and have actually used the vehicle outside the State for at least 6 months"

I was asked to provide insurance/mot/tax paperwork to prove it had been on the road. In fact I had to submit reams of the stuff. Copies of bank statements, pay slips, tax slips, etc. That's a lot of paperwork. May I draw your attention to the following:

"Remember the onus is on you to prove that you were resident abroad for the stated period. If the necessary documentary evidence is not furnished, tax relief cannot be granted.

Start putting that documentary evidence aside now.

If you have a nice car (avoiding a lot of VRT), or if you have an ancient, almost worthless car, but the person at the VRO is simply a P.I.T.A. (It sometimes happens* ), you'll get asked for this stuff.

Gas/Electricity/Phone bills with your name on them are good, or, if you are living somewhere where someone else pays these (Uni, Parent's house) then Payslips or proof of attendance at a Uni course etc will be good. Bank statements with petrol station transactions are also useful.

Most importantly though, to prove that you haven't just bought a nice car and parked it in a shed somewhere for six months, ensure that you keep the Certificate of Insurance.

*I returned from six years of living in the UK some years ago with a 17-year old (at the time) Mk1 VW Golf GTI with 175k miles on it, which would only have incurred the minimum IR£250 charge at that time, but still had to produce 6 months of Gas bills and Bank statements to the frustrated old biddy at the VRO who seemed personally offended by the fact that I wanted to prove an exemption :rolleyes:

Esel

Type 17 wrote: »

...if you are living somewhere where someone else pays these (Uni, Parent's house) then Payslips or proof of attendance at a Uni course etc will be good.

Oops, not correct. A course of study does not qualify as residence abroad.

kikel

holtender wrote: »

I carried on looking around the net re: VROs
I found out that there is one in every country bar the following;
Cavan, Longford, Leitrim, Laois, Roscommon, Westmeath.

Might be of interest to someone in the future.

Just to let people know there is one in Laois. It's not open everyday of the week.

Type 17

esel wrote: »

Oops, not correct. A course of study does not qualify as residence abroad.

For the purposes of bringing a car to Irl, having proof of living expenses and car use will be enough, even though a course of study may not be proof of residence for other purposes, eg: voting in elections, etc.

I was in the UK for a Uni course and brought home a car without any issue (although because I was a student, it wasn't an expensive car, see above)

Esel

I would say you were very lucky then. However, anyone else planning to import a car free of VRT after studying abroad probably won't be. From the link I posted above:

You do not qualify for relief from VRT

* if you went to live abroad primarily for the purpose of pursuing a course of studies
* if you were working abroad on a task of duration of less than one year and your personal ties remained in the State
* if you were working abroad on a task of duration of more than one year and you have been granted tax relief in respect of another vehicle in the previous 5 years.

Type 17

esel wrote: »

I would say you were very lucky then. However, anyone else planning to import a car free of VRT after studying abroad probably won't be. From the link I posted above:

They've obviously tightened things up - there was no text like that in the literature that I saw, but it was a while ago.