Bringing Car to Ireland from UK.

versace1888

Can someone please help set the record straight for us? We are hearing so much conflicting information regarding bringing our car to Ireland from the UK and we are really worried about it and want to know where we stand.

We have moved to Ireland from the U.K and have brought our car with us. We bought the car in March 2012 and came over on the Ferry at the end of August. Our car is still registered in the UK and the car tax and insurance is paid in the U.K.

Can anyone please advise what the correct procedure is for 1) registering the vehicle in Ireland (if we even need to that is), 2) How much does it cost? 3) Can we continue paying car tax in the UK even if we live in the Republic but work in the North? 4) Are we likely to face any kind of penalty if the guards/customs stop us?

We have been told that as we bought our car in the UK then we have a year from moving to Ireland until we need to re-register it. Is that the case?

We have had so many conflicting stories and we just don't know what the right thing is to do. Can anybody offer any sort of advice? We tried calling our local VRT office but to be honest, they weren't very clued up at all.

It seems like a grey area and we just really want to know what the correct procedures are. The last thing we need is the car being impounded!

Thanks.

GoldenGreen

these leaflets, might help, especially Transfer Of Residence. You might be exempt from VRT but think you will still need to register the car here.

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

NIMAN

Basically if you are resident permanently in RoI then your car should be re-registered with a DL plate.

This is free for the 1st car you bring into the state, once you relocate, but you are meant to do it asap after you take up residence, so you should get a move on if you intend to do it.

As you probably know, RoI and especially the border areas, are full of NI and UK plate cars that are actually owned by people who live in RoI. This is actually against the law and it opened the whole debate/argument about the payment of VRT, whether it is illegal and all that (I won't get into that debate here). So if you kept the car as a UK plate and taxed and insured in the UK you would not be alone. However, be aware that if you decide not to re-register it in RoI, then you might have to explain the Customs official some time at a checkpoint. This is a risk that so many who keep foreign registered cars have to live with.

If you want to do it by the book, then you need to re-register it asap (will be free), and then tax it in the RoI and insure it too with a RoI provider.

md23040

The car is not VRT exempt. If you are a UK citizen moving to Ireland with a car owned for less than 6 months then full VRT taxes apply.

Why a car owned for 5 months 15 days can be liable for full VRT in this kind of case remains utterly ridiculous (or any other lessor timeline for that matter).

NIMAN

Sorry missed the dates in the OP, always just had it in my head that your 1st car was free, but forgot about the rules. There is probably a way around it.

theblueirish

And its not always so easy.
I went through this process a few years ago and was turned down. Long story short: I was able to prove that I was living in the UK, had tv licence, elect bills, oil bills, kids family allowance books etc.
I was turned down because I was paying my mortgage in the ROI before I moved here and was claiming interest relief. Apparantly this is illegal.

The day we were stopped by customs they lay in wait for us to drive out. The waited in a driveway that had two NI cars and still do!! The difference being that the VRT owed on mine was over 10k and less than 1k between the two in the other driveway.

muffler

We wouldn't know about these things in Donegal

This thread would be more at home in the motors forum so I'll move it there.