Northern registered cars

huntmark

Going to be moving to England in the next year so trying to kill two birds with one stone. Can I buy a northern or British registered car and drive and insure it here ready to bring with me? How do I go about taxing it and how long can I drive it here before I have to register it in the Republic

vibe666

Technically (legally) you can't, not if you are an Irish resident.

I think there's a refund on VRT if you re-export a car out of Ireland though?

Not that it stops people from doing it, but it's up to you to decide if you want to take a chance.

wonski

As far as I know you can't really. I suggest buying a car when you get there. You will save on tax if you buy something nice;)

If you bring a car here you would have to pay VRT, register it and tax on Irish rules, and rates. Not a good idea.

challengemaster

huntmark wrote: »

Going to be moving to England in the next year so trying to kill two birds with one stone. Can I buy a northern or British registered car and drive and insure it here ready to bring with me? How do I go about taxing it and how long can I drive it here before I have to register it in the Republic

You've 30 days from the date the car enters the republic to VRT it. Insurers here will transfer insurance for the purposes of importation, but if the car isn't registered after that time, your insurers will inform the gardaí/revenue.

huntmark

Ok thanks for the info will buy a run around here then something decent over there

biko

If you buy a car over there and own it there more than 6 months you won't have to pay VRT when you bring it here.
http://www.vrt.ie/vrtQuestions.html

challengemaster

biko wrote: »

If you buy a car over there and own it there more than 6 months you won't have to pay VRT when you bring it here.
http://www.vrt.ie/vrtQuestions.html

kinda the opposite to what he's asking though :P

sean1141

challengemaster wrote: »

You've 30 days from the date the car enters the republic to VRT it. Insurers here will transfer insurance for the purposes of importation, but if the car isn't registered after that time, your insurers will inform the gardaí/revenue.

Needs to be booked in for vrt no longer than 7 days after bringing it into the country though

biko

challengemaster wrote: »

kinda the opposite to what he's asking though :P

Yeah I'm thinking he'll be back at some point.

fasttalkerchat

Why not set yourself up with UK insurance that will cover a long trip within the EU?

vibe666

Because he needs to be resident in the UK to do that and most policies won't cover you for more than 90 days outside of the UK anyway.

It's also an offence for any Irish resident to drive a car in Ireland that isn't Irish registered.

If course you then have eu law that grants you free and unrestricted passage anywhere within its borders as an eu citizen and as long as your car is properly taxed insured, nct'd and you have a valid eu licence, you would be complying with all eu laws which *should* supersede any Irish ones, but you'd have a tough time getting the whole vrt thing quashed on a national level, which is what you would need to do to get away with it.

keithclancy

vibe666 wrote: »

If course you then have eu law that grants you free and unrestricted passage anywhere within its borders as an eu citizen and as long as your car is properly taxed insured, nct'd and you have a valid eu licence, you would be complying with all eu laws which *should* supersede any Irish ones, but you'd have a tough time getting the whole vrt thing quashed on a national level, which is what you would need to do to get away with it.

EU has no mandate on matters of taxation within EU Member states.
The only requirement is that once it is legal to be on the road within country of registration you can drive it in other countries also.

You still have to comply with road regulations in that country (e.g. Breathalyzer in France, Winter Tyres in Germany, Spare bulbs in the Netherlands)

vibe666

keithclancy wrote: »

EU has no mandate on matters of taxation within EU Member states.
The only requirement is that once it is legal to be on the road within country of registration you can drive it in other countries also.

You still have to comply with road regulations in that country (e.g. Breathalyzer in France, Winter Tyres in Germany, Spare bulbs in the Netherlands)

but can those rules be applied to stop a group of EU citizens (i.e. irish residents) from driving a car in an EU member state?

we all know that this particular rule is there to force people into paying the VRT ransom, and like you say the EU has no say over taxation, but is that legal under EU law for the Irish government to prevent any EU citizen (even it's own) from driving an otherwise fully legal car within the EU?

i.e. someone who is not an irish resident can drive a car here on holiday, but the minute an irish resident steps behind the wheel of that same car, even if they are fully insured, it is illegal, even though it is fully legal for them to drive the same car outside of the republic.

Del2005

huntmark wrote: »

Going to be moving to England in the next year so trying to kill two birds with one stone. Can I buy a northern or British registered car and drive and insure it here ready to bring with me? How do I go about taxing it and how long can I drive it here before I have to register it in the Republic

Buy a car which has already been imported and VRT cleared. Then when you move to the UK you can get a refund of part of the VRT and it's fairly easy to reregister it to UK plates. Plenty of cheap imports floating around due to Irish people only wanting devils juice burners.

keithclancy

vibe666 wrote: »

but can those rules be applied to stop a group of EU citizens (i.e. irish residents) from driving a car in an EU member state?

we all know that this particular rule is there to force people into paying the VRT ransom, and like you say the EU has no say over taxation, but is that legal under EU law for the Irish government to prevent any EU citizen (even it's own) from driving an otherwise fully legal car within the EU?

i.e. someone who is not an irish resident can drive a car here on holiday, but the minute an irish resident steps behind the wheel of that same car, even if they are fully insured, it is illegal, even though it is fully legal for them to drive the same car outside of the republic.

Yes the country can apply its own rules on Taxation:

http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/taxation/other_taxes/passenger_car/index_en.htm

At present there is little EU legislation, or harmonisation of national fiscal provisions, applied by the Member States in the area of passenger car taxation. Therefore, it is for each Member State to lay down national provisions for the taxation of these cars.

Irish Resident can drive a Foreign plated car anywhere in the EU except Ireland unless an exemption is in place.

Dutch resident can drive a Foreign plated car anywhere in the EU except the Netherlands unless an exemption is in place.

Finnish resident can drive a Foreign plated car anywhere in the EU except Finland unless an exemption is in place.

The Dutch System now has an exemption in place for 2 weeks that you can register in advance. Perhaps the Revenue commissioners has a similar mechanism, so it would be best to check with them.

In short, you are at the mercy of local rules for the purposes of taxation.

vibe666

i was hoping that by ignoring the taxation part for a minute, surely the act of preventing any (drivers licence holding) EU citizen from driving any (fully legal) EU registered vehicle anywhere in the EU would be against EU laws on freedom of movement and ownership of property type stuff, but it doesn't look like it (yet, but seems like they're working on it).

there's actually a lot of useful info here on the subject that i found off your link: http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/common/faq/taxation/faq_cartax_en.htm

tl;dr - you're pretty much screwed either way if they catch you.