Duty on Classic cars

Vintage1

I brought my 1978 Corvette into Dublin in September 2008 and was surprised to that I had to pay the duty before they would release the car. I was told I could pay it as a post entry and appeal the payment with the Revenue. So I am in the process of doing that now. The car was classed as a classic under the 9705 code but still had to pay the duty. I spoke with the classification office in Neangh and the said I shouldn't have to pay and duty under the 9705 code. The appeal is to basically convince them that it is infact a classic car.
Has anyone else had to pay duty on there car?
Any help would be much appreciated on this, thanks lads

PaulK_CCI

Vintage1 wrote: »

I brought my 1978 Corvette into Dublin in September 2008 and was surprised to that I had to pay the duty before they would release the car. I was told I could pay it as a post entry and appeal the payment with the Revenue. So I am in the process of doing that now. The car was classed as a classic under the 9705 code but still had to pay the duty. I spoke with the classification office in Neangh and the said I shouldn't have to pay and duty under the 9705 code. The appeal is to basically convince them that it is infact a classic car.
Has anyone else had to pay duty on there car?
Any help would be much appreciated on this, thanks lads

Is this VAT Duties, that you are referring to? If so, I am afraid you have to pay this, unless you can prove that the vehicle was once sold in the European union and thus duty has been paid.
This is a very common misconception with people browsing the cars on offer in the States, and not realising that there is VAT to be paid on all goods entering the European Union, on top of the normal Customs and Exise duties.

I know there is a special exclusion in place, which is probably the one you are referring to, where you can mark the 'goods' to be imported as being "Works of Art" and of a very significant 'heritage' and are therefore to be considered exempt from VAT/VRT etc. but as far as I know, the Custom Guys are very much up to speed on this and generally do not aggree with this and would charge VAT nevertheless, considering that Cars (wether they are 'classics' or not) are always a mass produced consumption article and not a 'work of art', although most owners would disagree with this completely. ...

Vintage1

Thanks for the reply, I have friends of my that have imported classic cars before and didn't have to pay the duty, I paid the 21% because it came from the US but since it over 30 years of it should be classed as a classic (9705 classification) which is exempt from the 10% duty. It has been registered as a classic so I only had to pay the 50 to VRT it. Surly if this is the case the duty shouldn't have had to be paid.
I could understand if everyone had to pay it but just to pick and choose who pays doesn't make any sense

PaulK_CCI

Vintage1 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply, I have friends of my that have imported classic cars before and didn't have to pay the duty, I paid the 21% because it came from the US but since it over 30 years of it should be classed as a classic (9705 classification) which is exempt from the 10% duty. It has been registered as a classic so I only had to pay the 50 to VRT it. Surly if this is the case the duty shouldn't have had to be paid.
I could understand if everyone had to pay it but just to pick and choose who pays doesn't make any sense

Generally everyone who has imported a vehicle from the US has paid VAT (21%) and Import duties (10% on purchase price & Transport/storage costs) + Port handling fees when a car would arrive in the state. You can do a search on the forum and you will find many a thread where the owner have told us so.

There is a distinct difference between VRT (Vehicle Registration Tax) and Import duties/VAT. The latter two duties are imposed on any goods coming in from outside the EU and have to be paid when the car lands in the country. Car/Goods are not released until this is paid. Then as soon as it is in the country, you have 'theoretically' 24 hours to notify the registration authority that you want to register the vehicle, and that is where you pay the VRT.

But note that VAT/Import duties coming in from outside the EU are payable on ANY GOODS!! The custom official does not care wether the car is a classic or not, since the 30 year rule applies to VRT and Motor Tax and NCT regulations, but has nothing to do with Import duties.

The only 'loophole' is if you were able to class the goods as "Works of Art", which is the classifaction 9705 that you mentioned, however, Custom officials are not always fooled by this, and I have heard people still having to pay the duties, regardless, but I have also heard of some people being lucky in that the custom official on duty that day, didn't have a clue what he was on about and just stamped the document... If you were to fight thsi through an appeal, I would be very, very surprised if you were able to succeed. You will have to prove that the car you imported is unique, of a unique significance of some kind, and if it's a standard 78 Corvette, that will not be an easy task.

Forgot to mention that, if a car comes from anywhere within the European Community, there are NO VAT and Import duties, so I would guess your friends wisely imported cars from Europe!!! That is exactly the reason why the cars that I am offering for sale in Ireland are all sourced on the continent or have at least all their VAT and import duties paid!!

Dades

Paid VAT on a 33 yr old car brought in from Canada. And that was at 21% on the (declared) value of the car PLUS shipping costs.

Them's the rules! As Paul says, VAT on goods has nothing to do with the 30 year classic exemptions.

Vintage1

Dades wrote: »

Paid VAT on a 33 yr old car brought in from Canada. And that was at 21% on the (declared) value of the car PLUS shipping costs.

Them's the rules! As Paul says, VAT on goods has nothing to do with the 30 year classic exemptions.

But did you have to pay the additional 10 VAT% on top of the 21DUTY%. I'm not to sure if its called VAT or Duty

Dades

Vintage1 wrote: »

But did you have to pay the additional 10 VAT% on top of the 21DUTY%. I'm not to sure if its called VAT or Duty

Having just dug out some documentation I can confirm I did pay 10% customs duties.

I'm trying to figure out what amount exactly they were charged on, and it looks like the shipping was included. Frankly the whole process was delayed due to the ship, and I just wanted to write them a cheque and drive (on the back of a flatbed ) the darned car home.

Vintage1

Dades wrote: »

Having just dug out some documentation I can confirm I did pay 10% customs duties.

I'm trying to figure out what amount exactly they were charged on, and it looks like the shipping was included. Frankly the whole process was delayed due to the ship, and I just wanted to write them a cheque and drive (on the back of a flatbed ) the darned car home.

What kind of car did you bring in, any pictures

Dades

Vintage1 wrote: »

What kind of car did you bring in, any pictures

'72 Fiat 124 Spider.

Couple of pics here and here.

Was rough around the edges!
Sold it in 2007, but loved it madly for two years. If I won the lotto I'd buy it back in an instant.

macplaxton

My understanding was that 10% customs' duty is applied to the whole lot (incl. shipping, etc), then the VAT stuck on top...

There's a commons custom tariff (and associated TARIC) codes for everything in the EU, I'm assuming it's better to source something that's landed through a cheap VAT country first, such as Luxembourg or the UK.

Vintage1

Dades wrote: »

'72 Fiat 124 Spider.

Couple of pics here and here.

Was rough around the edges!
Sold it in 2007, but loved it madly for two years. If I won the lotto I'd buy it back in an instant.

That's a nice car shame you sold it, I'm more of a American Muscle car man myself but its great to see the classics