Do I really Need to register a Uk car.

BMurr

Having seen many non-Irish EU registered cars being driven on the roads over here by people who I know are not on holidays I am thinking of bringing a UK registered car over here and driving it with Uk tax and Insurance. Is there any law to prevent me from doing so? If there is such a law then why isn't it bring enforced?

keefg

BMurr wrote: »

Is there any law to prevent me from doing so?

If you are an Irish resident the yes, but if you happen to have an English accent & licence then well....;)

ardmacha

djk1000

Yeah you can do that, until you get stopped at a Garda or Customs checkpoint, you'll probably have the car taken away and have a hefty fine to pay as well as the duty and taxes due.

It is being enforced, but like everything, resources only go so far. If you can't credibly argue at a checkpoint that you don't live in Ireland and that you're only visiting, it's going to cost you a fortune.

Marlow

If you get caught by customs, I can get costly.

You might be lucky and get told import or export.

You might not get lucky and basically be fined with a hefty fine.

In general, it's not worth even trying it. And they are showing up at places like schools etc. Mate of mine got caught dropping the kids of at school, no excuse anymore. Another guy I know got caught, when customs showed up for some irregularity about the diesel in his irish car, which wasn't his fault and found an english reg in his garage.

I see a customs checkpoint at least 2-3 times a year on the N18 south of Claringbridge and they pull anybody who clearly is a irish resident.

/M

alias no.9

BMurr wrote: »

Is there any law to prevent me from doing so? If there is such a law then why isn't it bring enforced?

Yes, and it is, it's just not possible to catch everyone. A friend was driving around for months on a UK reg. He eventually got stopped, when he gave his details to the customs, they were able to pull up his income details based on his PPS number and tax payments, not only proving his residence but also that he really had no excuse to not have paid up considering he was, as they put it, "doing quite well". He was lucky, they gave him 3 days to register the car.

BMurr

So it sounds like I shouldn't be doing it. I could get away with a Uk licence and Uk address but might fall down when pushed about work details etc as they are obviously Irish. It's a bit maddening that I can't legitimately do this while many others are living their lives here but not paying the VRT road tax insurance etc. All the authorities have to do is park outside the schools here and they will see the non-irish reg cars picking kids up, something which you obviosuly wont be doing unless you are living here.

BMurr

Looks like this should be a no-brainer money maker for the government given the amount of canny non irish EU cars on the road here, should pay for the salaries of a few more customs officers in no time.

Marlow

BMurr wrote: »

Looks like this should be a no-brainer money maker for the government given the amount of canny non irish EU cars on the road here, should pay for the salaries of a few more customs officers in no time.

They are doing this. There have been several clamp downs on specificly high performance and luxury cars over the last 2 years.

They usually go lighter on people with standard cars, but they are in all the right places and often catching people.

The only ones, that get around it, are people that can prove that they are leaving the country every day or two (like NI), have a permanent residence up there etc. and people that don't earn money here in the country (housewife, english accent, english driver license, might work).

/M

ballsymchugh

i moved home and brought my car home in september, and when i went to make an appointment with the revenue for changing residency. i didn't have an irish bank statement showing recent activity so i had to cancel the appointment while waiting for this. after i got it, i called revenue who said they'd call me back with an appointment. two weeks later and they still haven't gotten in touch, and i've called them every feckin day only for the phone to ring out. i eventually got time to call into the office today and make the appointment, but if i didn't i'd love to know how a conversation would go if i was stopped. i wonder if there's a few about that are saying that they have the appointment in the next few days.
i wonder why they'll be on strike next week...

Mr Benevolent

BMurr wrote: »

Looks like this should be a no-brainer money maker for the government given the amount of canny non irish EU cars on the road here, should pay for the salaries of a few more customs officers in no time.

They will eventually be caught, as will you if you don't register the car. Let's not go down the 'dem bleedin' forrners' route.

-Chris-

BMurr wrote: »

So it sounds like I shouldn't be doing it.

Cool. Lesson learned, thread locked.