car tax uk

sheehan12

if i buy car with no car tax in the uk can i drive it to port to bring to back to ireland ??

Timfy

I don't think so. You will have to tax it and then claim the unused tax back by sending the tax disk and associated form to Swansea. Not a massive problem and usually processed pretty quickly. They will only refund to the nearest month though if I remember rightly.

Timfy

Sorry, should have mentioned that this is on the UK side. A lot of ANPR cameras around as well that check no plate against tax records and automatically issue fines.

Not sure on this side but I would assume that it would be something similar.

Timfy wrote: »

I don't think so. You will have to tax it and then claim the unused tax back by sending the tax disk and associated form to Swansea. Not a massive problem and usually processed pretty quickly. They will only refund to the nearest month though if I remember rightly.

sheehan12

thank for that but would it take long to tax car just bought ?

ABajaninCork

OP. You should tax the car for six months, then claim it back from the DVLA once you've changed over to Irish plates. You need to provide proof the car's been exported.

Take the V5 (log book), MoT and proof of insurance to a Main Post Office and they will tax the car there and then. Or else, get the dealer/seller to tax the car for you.

knifey_spoonie

Technically you have to tax it,

There is one problem with that, last week i tried to tax a car i had just bought in the uk. I couldn't tax the vehicle as i had an Irish insurance cert. I tried 2 post office's and both refused, one even rang the DVLA in swansea to check. Try get the garage/seller to tax it.

I just chanced it, and drove on. I got the seller to do a receipt with the date and time on it just to cover him if he got a fine in the post. One thing I did notice was a huge reduction in police on the road, im guessing this has something to do with the Olympics.

sheehan12

thank for all the reply

ARGINITE

To tax a car in the UK you will also need to provide proof that the car is Mot'd.

Limbo123

If the police stop you, they WILL seize the car.

It's a chance you take.

You can't tax a UK car without valid uk insurance certificate and current MOT.

corktina

i dont think you can claim the tax back unless you have a UK address.

You will PROBABLY talk your way out of no tax if you can show you just bought it (not so with Insurance* or MoT though) but TECHNICALLY you do need to have that disc there.

*I don't think an Insurance Cert with "other cars" extention would do for the UK police either....would need to have the car details shown imho

ABajaninCork

corktina wrote: »

i dont think you can claim the tax back unless you have a UK address.

Yes, you can. You need to provide proof the car's been exported. i.e proof of VRT paid and new Irish reg no. There's a form you can get from the DVLA or you can download online I think.

ARGINITE

ABajaninCork wrote: »

Yes, you can. You need to provide proof the car's been exported. i.e proof of VRT paid and new Irish reg no. There's a form you can get from the DVLA or you can download online I think.

Don't the NCT crowd need to inspect the car before you can VRT it?

Also Irish reg or not you would still need to have the car taxed in some EU country to legally drive it in the UK.

ABajaninCork

Nope. My car wasn't inspected before it was VRT'd. In any case you can't NCT a car until it has Irish plates. The Revenue people MIGHT inspect the car, but I believe this is discretionary. This was my experience, but the rules may well have changed.

Of course the car will need to be taxed as I already explained. OP. Get the seller to tax the car, and get a cover note from your insurance to enable you to drive it to port.

Valetta

FWIW I bought a car in the UK two years ago.

It had no tax. I drove from Swindon to Pembroke and stopped in a services at the Severn bridge.

When I came back out to the car, the traffic police were there to ask me about the lack of tax.

I showed them the receipt and V5? Form to show that i had just bought the car. Also showed them the ferry ticket for that afternoon.

They were happy with that and let me on my way without any problem. In fact I spent a good 10 minutes answering questions about the car; how much I paid and what did I think I was saving by buying in the Uk.

I had to cut them short as I was running late for the boat

ABajaninCork

You got lucky with the Old Bill!!

Sometimes they're all right, but I wouldn't take the risk. Some of them can be right bar stewards when they've got the hump...

Matt Simis

Nearly all my cars I bought in the UK had no tax. Some were SORNed. It made no difference to me or the previous owner as they posted off the Export Cert to the DVLA.

Lot of worrying about nothing here.

fasttalkerchat

Technically yes although you also need to insure it to get it taxed.
Don't worry about ANPR because you will be out of the country by the time they find you. Tax checks on roadsides or at the port would be the biggest problem. If you're really worried you could get someone to drive ahead of you (assuming there will be someone driving you over to pick up the car) and call you if there's any checkpoints etc.

tossy

Limbo123 wrote: »

If the police stop you, they WILL seize the car.

It's a chance you take.

You can't tax a UK car without valid uk insurance certificate and current MOT.

I know of laods of cases WHERE THEY DIDN'T mainly because of the reasons you have highlighted above - cops have common sense too.

fasttalkerchat

Matt Simis wrote: »

Nearly all my cars I bought in the UK had no tax. Some were SORNed. It made no difference to me or the previous owner as they posted off the Export Cert to the DVLA.

Lot of worrying about nothing here.

SORN is more serious because that's a £2000 fine or something crazy like that.
If its a SORN car you would be safer to bring over ROI plates from another car and stick them on. I'm not condoning this btw, just saying that its in the same league as driving a SORN car.

fasttalkerchat

tossy wrote: »

I know of laods of cases WHERE THEY DIDN'T mainly because of the reasons you have highlighted above - cops have common sense too.

In that case the cops could do you for no TAX and no insurance! For every cop with common sense there is 100 who go out of their way to do you.

corktina

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

Don't worry about ANPR because you will be out of the country by the time they find you. .

the guys story about the cops in the service station shows thats not the case. I'd bet there was a ANPR camera at the service area entrance and the cops were shooting fish in a barrell!

sheehan12

so what shuold i do tax it or not .and even if police are ok with it what about ANPR camera will i get a lot of in fine post in ireland and i guess the ANPR camera will do it by the book no tax = a fine.

ABajaninCork

No tax in the UK means by default no MoT and no insurance, since you need both to tax the car.

The police can and will seize the car if they feel like it. AND there'll be a fine. Save yourself the agg, and get the seller to tax the car.

fasttalkerchat

corktina wrote: »

the guys story about the cops in the service station shows thats not the case. I'd bet there was a ANPR camera at the service area entrance and the cops were shooting fish in a barrell!

I was talking about fixed ANPR cameras. If the cops are there with a mobile one you're getting done.

fasttalkerchat

sheehan12 wrote: »

so what shuold i do tax it or not .and even if police are ok with it what about ANPR camera will i get a lot of in fine post in ireland and i guess the ANPR camera will do it by the book no tax = a fine.

If you're exporting it (from England) the car won't be in your name until you arrive in Ireland so no need to worry about fixed ANPR.

Marcusm

corktina wrote: »

i dont think you can claim the tax back unless you have a UK address.

You will PROBABLY talk your way out of no tax if you can show you just bought it (not so with Insurance* or MoT though) but TECHNICALLY you do need to have that disc there.

*I don't think an Insurance Cert with "other cars" extention would do for the UK police either....would need to have the car details shown imho

The only basis now to get a refund is to export the car so I guess foreign addresses will be the majority!!

corktina

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

I was talking about fixed ANPR cameras. If the cops are there with a mobile one you're getting done.

and you dont think the Police in the UK have fixed ANPR cameras at strategic locations?

@ Matt Simis...I'd suggest you were lucky, but it would have made a hellova difference to you if you'd had the car seized...

Henry Ford III

Tax it. It's unwise at best not to.

Marcusm

ABajaninCork wrote: »

No tax in the UK means by default no MoT and no insurance, since you need both to tax the car.

That's a logical fallacy; absence of mot or insurance woud preclude tax but the car could quite easily be MOT'd (especially if main dealer sae) and insurance is in the OP's hands to sort out. Tax is the difficult one for a foreign buyer.

The police can and will seize the car if they feel like it. AND there'll be a fine. Save yourself the agg, and get the seller to tax the car.

Completely agree with this, op'll need to scan the insurance cert and get the dealer to tax it - they'll find it easier at Post Office than a random Irish guy coming in with an Irish cert. driving other cars extension will not, IMO, be sufficient.

fasttalkerchat

corktina wrote: »

and you dont think the Police in the UK have fixed ANPR cameras at strategic locations?

A fixed ANPR is one on a pole looking down at the road. There is no Police car waiting to pull any cars flagged up.
If that flags up the car it won't be in the OP's name so no fine in the post and no police car will pull him in to seize the car.

sheehan12

ok but if i got the seller to tax it would he be one only one who could get a refund on the tax

fasttalkerchat

sheehan12 wrote: »

ok but if i got the seller to tax it would one only one could get a refund on the tax

Any one can get a tax refund. The seller will only be able to tax the car if he is insured to drive it though. If he's already got a new car he may no longer be insured.

sheehan12

i can t tax it because if i go to post office a will have the mot and v5 and insurance but not uk insurance policey and will not tax it because it not a uk policey

ABajaninCork

Marcusm wrote: »

That's a logical fallacy; absence of mot or insurance woud preclude tax but the car could quite easily be MOT'd (especially if main dealer sae) and insurance is in the OP's hands to sort out. Tax is the difficult one for a foreign buyer.

Incorrect. You need to produce BOTH at the Post Office in order to tax it. If you do it online, then the DVLA will check insurance databases as well as the DTp (For the MoT) to see if you hold current certs for both. If you don't then you cannot tax the car.

Marcusm

ABajaninCork wrote: »

Incorrect. You need to produce BOTH at the Post Office in order to tax it. If you do it online, then the DVLA will check insurance databases as well as the DTp (For the MoT) to see if you hold current certs for both. If you don't then you cannot tax the car.

But that's exactly what I mean. You said that no tax meant the car wasn't MOT'd or insured. Absolutely you have to produce those to get the tax disc but not the tax disc to get those two, ie absence of tax means no tax. Nothing else can be conclusively inferred.

Our man in Havana

Simple solution. Book a hotel in the UK. Use that address and obtain a temp insurance policy online. Print out the cert, go tax the car down the post office. Simples.

corktina

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

A fixed ANPR is one on a pole looking down at the road. There is no Police car waiting to pull any cars flagged up.
If that flags up the car it won't be in the OP's name so no fine in the post and no police car will pull him in to seize the car.

you don't know that.... they arent like our lot you know...all they need is an ANPR camera at the entrance to the services and wait inside to pull anyone dodgy, or an ANPR unmarked car doing the same job...or one of the Vans you see with the cameras set up...theres loads of ways you could get caught like this guy did.(or nearly so)

sheehan12

probably buy of a car dealer should be ok then on tax side of things

Henry Ford III

This is getting silly in a hurry.

The seller can tax the car. The buyer can pay them for it. If you are Irish OP you need an Irish insurer to cover the risk.

p.s. Do you have your own insurance policy, or are you a named driver? What kind of driving license do you have?

sheehan12

named driver full license

Henry Ford III

sheehan12 wrote: »

named driver full license

See if you can do a temp. transfer onto the UK reg. car. The car at home will not be covered.

sheehan12

i was thinking the same way on insurance side of think

Marcusm

Our man in Havana wrote: »

Simple solution. Book a hotel in the UK. Use that address and obtain a temp insurance policy online. Print out the cert, go tax the car down the post office. Simples.

Would most likely involve an offence under s174(5) RTA 1988 unless the OP included the relevant details about his actual address etc.

fasttalkerchat

Marcusm wrote: »

Would most likely involve an offence under s174(5) RTA 1988 unless the OP included the relevant details about his actual address etc.

Agreed. And insurers would be wise to addresses that are a business or hotel.

wildefalcon

How about covering it using the UK number from Ireland - that way you ARE insured.

Next, book an MOT at the Fishguard MOT centre (or whatever).

As far as I know the only time you can drive without tax is when on the way to a prebooked MOT test.

That and the ferry tickets and you should be grand.

Trying to get UK insurance if non-resident is a tricky and expensive thing.

An alternative is to get the car shipped for you - that's not expensive, compared to the road tax and insurance issue.

fasttalkerchat

wildefalcon wrote: »

As far as I know the only time you can drive without tax is when on the way to a prebooked MOT test.

Eh? You can't even have the car on the street outside your house without tax. It must be declared SORN and then when you want to put it back on the road, re-taxed before you take it to an MOT.

Matt Simis

Our man in Havana wrote: »

Simple solution. Book a hotel in the UK. Use that address and obtain a temp insurance policy online. Print out the cert, go tax the car down the post office. Simples.

That in no way sounds simple or practical.

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

SORN is more serious because that's a £2000 fine or something crazy like that.
If its a SORN car you would be safer to bring over ROI plates from another car and stick them on. I'm not condoning this btw, just saying that its in the same league as driving a SORN car.

Thats not how I interpret it. The previous owner SORN'd a UK car. The PO has now exported the car, its no longer SORN'd at all, its terminated. Its now an exported car with no UK Tax etc as its no longer a UK registered car. It cannot be SORNed or unSORNed anymore than a Dublin reg car, its literally not possible.

Besides I couldnt be eligible for that fine even if the Cop didnt agree to my understanding of the law; If they deem I own the car then they deem it not a UK vehicle anymore (voiding SORN, tax etc) or If they deem it a UK car driven on a SORN then they view it as not my car. It cannot be both.

Driving around on fake Irish plates sounds like an actual illegal activity far in excess of these SORN and Tax interpretations. For all they know you are over stealing cars or planning some sort of terrorist activity. You'd look well driving around London with the Olympics on and being caught on fake plates as a foreign (even worse, Irish) national.

fasttalkerchat

Matt Simis wrote: »

That in no way sounds simple or practical.


Thats not how I interpret it. The previous owner SORN'd a UK car. The PO has now exported the car, its no longer SORN'd at all, its terminated. Its now an exported car with no UK Tax etc as its no longer a UK registered car. It cannot be SORNed or unSORNed anymore than a Dublin reg car, its literally not possible.

Besides I couldnt be eligible for that fine even if the Cop didnt agree to my understanding of the law; If they deem I own the car then they deem it not a UK vehicle anymore (voiding SORN, tax etc) or If they deem it a UK car driven on a SORN then they view it as not my car. It cannot be both.

Driving around on fake Irish plates sounds like an actual illegal activity far in excess of these SORN and Tax interpretations. For all they know you are over stealing cars or planning some sort of terrorist activity. You'd look well driving around London with the Olympics on and being caught on fake plates as a foreign (even worse, Irish) national.

The car is not exported until it actually leaves the country. At the point of you driving your new car across England it is not registered in your name and is declared off the road so will be crushed unless the huge fine is paid.

wildefalcon

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

Eh? You can't even have the car on the street outside your house without tax. It must be declared SORN and then when you want to put it back on the road, re-taxed before you take it to an MOT.

You can't tax without an MOT. You can drive to a prebooked MOT without tax. It has to be the closest station to the registered address, but as you aren't the registered keeper, having just bought it, you could argue that your address is the correct one, and fishguard/holyhead IS the nearest address.

Assuming the car is of an age to require an MOT, that is.

Henry Ford III

Matt Simis wrote: »

....Thats not how I interpret it. The previous owner SORN'd a UK car. The PO has now exported the car, its no longer SORN'd at all, its terminated. Its now an exported car with no UK Tax etc as its no longer a UK registered car. It cannot be SORNed or unSORNed anymore than a Dublin reg car, its literally not possible.

Besides I couldnt be eligible for that fine even if the Cop didnt agree to my understanding of the law; If they deem I own the car then they deem it not a UK vehicle anymore (voiding SORN, tax etc) or If they deem it a UK car driven on a SORN then they view it as not my car. It cannot be both....

It's a UK reg'd vehicle, being driven without tax in the UK, until such time as it physically leaves the jurisdiction.

Whether you can get your head around the regs or not will be of no consequence to the UK police.

You've some hope of sympathy if you've a car recently run out of tax, but if you get caught driving a SORN car they'll throw the book at you.

Our man in Havana

It has to be the closest station to the registered address

Wrong! It can be any MOT station you want.