VRT Question

Kee1

I have a quick query on VRT.

My boyfriend has a second car up north which is registered in his name. He is giving it to me as he rarely uses it. I live down south so I will be driving it mostly down south but I am up in Belfast with him most weekends. Do I need to pay VRT on this car or can i drive it freely down south with the yellow reg on it as the car does not belong to me and I will only be a named driver on his insurance??

Hope some one can answer this! :-)

Marlow

In general I'd say it should be unproblematic. Keep a tank-receipt from the last petrol/diesel fill in the north around, should customs stop you.

I'd say they won't give you too much hassle. Worst case is, that if customs stop you and demand to import/export the car, you can make the decision then, either to import it or to find another car. Unless it's something fancy, they usually don't make a big fuss about it.

/M

JohnThomas09

You will probably get a lot of hassell from the customs down here bit they can't legally make you bring it in once its taxed and registered in the North.

Anan1

You're an ROI resident, so you'll have to pay the VRT and reregister the car here.

Alanstrainor

Will you be taking ownership of the car? Or will it still be your brothers?

smash

If you're only going to be named driver on his insurance, then it's your boyfriend's car and it's taxed and registered to him, in a northern address so you don't have to pay VRT.

JohnThomas09

Anan1 wrote: »

You're an ROI resident, so you'll have to pay the VRT and reregister the car here.

why would the OP have to pay VRT?she is only a named driver on the car and the car is going to be registered in a northern address,in a NOI residents name.

stealthyspeeder

Anan1 wrote: »

You're an ROI resident, so you'll have to pay the VRT and reregister the car here.

This is true! it is illegal for a ROI resident to drive a foriegn registered vehicle in the ROI even if they dont own it and are not responsible for its taxation. If they do own it, they are responsible for its taxation and must VRT it!

robtri

JohnThomas09 wrote: »

why would the OP have to pay VRT?she is only a named driver on the car and the car is going to be registered in a northern address,in a NOI residents name.

IIRC, as she is a resident of ROI, she is not allowed to be constantly driving a non ROI registered vehicle, she is required to have the car re-registered and all amounts of VRT that are applicle are paid in full

JohnThomas09

stealthyspeeder wrote: »

This is true! it is illegal for a ROI resident to drive a foriegn registered vehicle even if they dont own it and are not responsible for its taxation. If they do own it, they are responsible for its taxation and must VRT it!

so that means if i travel to France for a week and want to bring the car i have to register in France.Surely your alowed to drive anyhwere within the EU when you have a EU liscense and that car is taxed within an EU country.The OP's boyfriend owns the car and he is taxing it in the North and has it registered in the North.

JohnThomas09

robtri wrote: »

IIRC, as she is a resident of ROI, she is not allowed to be constantly driving a non ROI registered vehicle, she is required to have the car re-registered and all amounts of VRT that are applicle are paid in full

But its not her car.The car belongs to boyfriend who lives in the North.

Triangle

Maybe someone can verify this.....If your Boyfriend is living in the North and owns the car for more than a year. When he moves down south he won't have to pay VRT. My brother did this ages ago (around 95 i think).


But don't take my word for it, it was a long time ago

randomer

If an Irish resident wants to drive the car, then they must pay VRT. No exemptions I am afraid.

http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/vrt/leaflets/vrt2.html wrote:

2. What Conditions Apply
Any imported vehicle which is owned by or registered in the name of a non-resident person is not required to be registered in Ireland subject to the following conditions:

The vehicle must have been acquired with all the appropriate taxes paid and these must not have been exempted or refunded in any way. The standard registration plates in use in the domestic market of a country are normally accepted as evidence of this.
The vehicle may not in any circumstances be driven by a State resident.The vehicle may not be disposed of or hired out in the State or lent to a State resident.
The period of time that the vehicle is in the State does not exceed 12 months.
The 12 months time limit will not apply where a person is on a task of definite duration in the State.

smash

Lads, she doesn't own the car! It's not registered to her... she does not need to VRT it!

As far as I'm aware, the car can't be taken from her as it's perfectly legally registered, taxed and insured to it's owner who is a full time NI resident!

randomer

Triangle wrote: »

Maybe someone can verify this.....If your Boyfriend is living in the North and owns the car for more than a year. When he moves down south he won't have to pay VRT. My brother did this ages ago (around 95 i think).


But don't take my word for it, it was a long time ago

True, but an Irish resident will not be allowed to drive the car for the first twelve months.

stealthyspeeder

JohnThomas09 wrote: »

so that means if i travel to France for a week and want to bring the car i have to register in France.Surely your alowed to drive anyhwere within the EU when you have a EU liscense and that car is taxed within an EU country.The OP's boyfriend owns the car and he is taxing it in the North and has it registered in the North.

No, because your not resident in France according to the terms defining national residence!

JohnThomas09 wrote: »

But its not her car.The car belongs to boyfriend who lives in the North.

Its illegal for her to drive it as it is foreign registered.

Triangle wrote: »

Maybe someone can verify this.....If your Boyfriend is living in the North and owns the car for more than a year. When he moves down south he won't have to pay VRT. My brother did this ages ago (around 95 i think).



But don't take my word for it, it was a long time ago

6 months owned outside the state and you can bring it in free, i think? Also 12 months before the gf can leaglly drive it.

randomer

JohnThomas09 wrote: »

why would the OP have to pay VRT?she is only a named driver on the car and the car is going to be registered in a northern address,in a NOI residents name.

Because if Irish residents were allowed to borrow the car of a non resident then anyone could import without paying VRT. For example, I could "borrow" my friends car from the UK and never pay VRT, because I am borrowing it.

It is to prevent people exploiting the VRT regulations, and unfortunately in this case the OP gets a raw deal.

ardmacha

There is a great deal of misinformation in this thread. The OP may not drive the car in the South and the car can be seized if she does, whoever owns it.

As randomer says, if it were otherwise then every Tom, Dick and Harry would be driving a UK car registered to someone else.

There may be some possibility of driving it on a cross border journey, so you could be OK on the day of the trip, but I am not sure where this would be documented. In any case it is difficult to prove this.

robtri

It doesn't matter who owns the car, she is a resident of the ROI, therefore for her to drive it, it has to be VRT'd....

Kee1

Thanks for all your replys.

I have been onto the people in the VRT office there. The story is, first of all if my boyfriend wants to insure me on the car i need to get a european driving licence, a ROI one cant be insured up there.
Also if I want to drive the car at all in the ROI i need to pay VRT. I even stated I would be only borrowing it from time to time, no exemptions. I need to pay VRT on the car if i drive it down south.
Hmm seems a little hard for them to control if you ask me. But I don't think i'd feel comfortable driving it down here if Im always looking over my shoulder for the next cop or customs to spot me.

I dont think there is any way around this. What happens sales men that travel down south the whole time with work, do they get plagued by customs the whole time.
Maybe I should apply for a UK driving licence...

GTE

Kee1 wrote: »

Thanks for all your replys.

I have been onto the people in the VRT office there. The story is, first of all if my boyfriend wants to insure me on the car i need to get a european driving licence, a ROI one cant be insured up there.
Also if I want to drive the car at all in the ROI i need to pay VRT. I even stated I would be only borrowing it from time to time, no exemptions. I need to pay VRT on the car if i drive it down south.
Hmm seems a little hard for them to control if you ask me. But I don't think i'd feel comfortable driving it down here if Im always looking over my shoulder for the next cop or customs to spot me.

I dont think there is any way around this. What happens sales men that travel down south the whole time with work, do they get plagued by customs the whole time.
Maybe I should apply for a UK driving licence...

I think the issue, if I read it properly is that you are an ROI citizen, not NI.
Sales men most likely live in the same state that their car is registered in, so an NI sales man drives an NI car so there is no problem but if you are in fact a ROI driving a NI car then thats where the VRT comes in.

JohnThomas09

Kee1 wrote: »

Thanks for all your replys.

I have been onto the people in the VRT office there. The story is, first of all if my boyfriend wants to insure me on the car i need to get a european driving licence, a ROI one cant be insured up there.
Also if I want to drive the car at all in the ROI i need to pay VRT. I even stated I would be only borrowing it from time to time, no exemptions. I need to pay VRT on the car if i drive it down south.

Whats happens when your back up the North at weekends,will the NI customs ask you to pay VRT?Its all very confusing,i think its time we lifted that border..

Anan1

JohnThomas09 wrote: »

Whats happens when your back up the North at weekends,will the NI customs ask you to pay VRT?Its all very confusing,i think its time we lifted that border..

No, because: a.) the OP's an ROI resident, and b.) they don't have a VRT there.;)

stealthyspeeder

Kee1 wrote: »

T
I dont think there is any way around this. What happens sales men that travel down south the whole time with work, do they get plagued by customs the whole time.

There is seperate provisions in the VRT exemptions list for foriegn nationals who are technially Irish residents according to the criteria, who work in the state but return home regularly. Any salesman who was working for an extended period in the ROI would fall into this provision! (as I myself do!)

-Chris-

Wow, are all you guys feeling OK?

You'd swear the Customs guys had hacked a whole load of boards accounts...

:P:D

ardmacha

The story is, first of all if my boyfriend wants to insure me on the car i need to get a european driving licence, a ROI one cant be insured up there.

this bit is mumbo jumbo.

Also if I want to drive the car at all in the ROI i need to pay VRT. I even stated I would be only borrowing it from time to time, no exemptions.

That's it.

What happens sales men that travel down south the whole time with work, do they get plagued by customs the whole time.

Well they may get plagued, but it all depends on where your normal residence is, not where you travel for work.

Maybe I should apply for a UK driving licence...

This wouldn't really solve the problem, although it might confuse things a bit. You could just pay the VRT, of course.

galwaytt

you know this already...........

...no need - on 'Customs' on RTE lately they took a NI reg 7-Series off a ROI driver under the Section 139 of the Finance Act 1992, .

You cannot drive or be in possession of a foreign registered car if you're an Irish resident. Period.

Marlow

Kee1 wrote: »

Thanks for all your replys.
The story is, first of all if my boyfriend wants to insure me on the car i need to get a european driving licence, a ROI one cant be insured up there.

If you have a full license, that would be valid everywhere and considered a EU license. What you say only applies to provisional licenses.

Of course you can get insured in NI/UK with a ROI license, as long as it's a full license.

/M

Marlow

galwaytt wrote: »

you know this already...........

...no need - on 'Customs' on RTE lately they took a NI reg 7-Series off a ROI driver under the Section 139 of the Finance Act 1992, .

You cannot drive or be in possession of a foreign registered car if you're an Irish resident. Period.

The difference is, that if it's a high end car (like BMW 7-series, supercar etc.) they'll hit down hard and impound the car. If it's a regular car like a Ford, Opel, Toyota, whatever and over a certain age, they usually just tell you to import or export within 2 weeks. It's down to the customs person you deal with anyway and always a risk.

/M

ardmacha

You cannot drive or be in possession of a foreign registered car if you're an Irish resident. Period.

This is generally true, but not quite, as you could have a person resident in the South with a NI company car from their employer as noted in a thread here a couple of weeks back.

ukgalwaymcguire

you can legally drive a car with NI plates or UK ones for 3 months,
as long as you have proof you have come too ROI in that time.
so if your back and forth, then as someone said fill it up in the North and keep the reciepts
it is not registered to you, so NO you do NOT have to pay vrt
you are not importing the car and registering it as a ROI car,
you are borrowing it, and it is returning regularly to NI.

i have had a address in roi, and one in london for over 5 years now, and return to the uk regular,its only recently i have a Roi car, so gone through customs on the ferry many many times

Anan1

ukgalwaymcguire wrote: »

you can legally drive a car with NI plates or UK ones for 3 months,
as long as you have proof you have come too ROI in that time.
so if your back and forth, then as someone said fill it up in the North and keep the reciepts
it is not registered to you, so NO you do NOT have to pay vrt
you are not importing the car and registering it as a ROI car,
you are borrowing it, and it is returning regularly to NI.

i have had a address in roi, and one in london for over 5 years now, and return to the uk regular,its only recently i have a Roi car, so gone through customs on the ferry many many times

Why can't people read the thread before typing? The above is completely untrue - randomer has already posted a quote from the revenue website which answers the OP's question.

-Chris-

Anan1 wrote: »

Why can't people read the thread before typing? The above is completely untrue - randomer has already posted a quote from the revenue website which answers the OP's question.

+1

OP, I'm sure you have all the information (and misinformation) you need at this stage. I'm locking this thread - PM me if you feel you need it reopened.