Importing from the UK - definitive guide (Q and A)

billgibney

Just got this from revenue

The rules are chaining again end of April.

Basically any car bought up north will NOT be liable for VAT once it was used for " a reasonable amount of time up there"

I think I'll wait for a few weeks

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121896528#Comment_121896528

I queried this through ROS and they gave me a very wishy washy answer on what is considered ‘a reasonable amount of time’. Its very much a case by case basis.

bazz26

lol, a reasonable time is about as precise as the length of a piece of string.

witnessmenow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121896344#Comment_121896344

That website reported my car first being registered in Reading or somewhere despite it being a NI car and being successfully VRT without VAT.

The last logbook being issued 3 months ago is a bit of a red flag is it not?

billgibney

Not necessarily, if it was traded on on the anniversary of its original sale then they might wait to MOT it till it's sold.

Also place of first registration could be the dealer they bought it new from.

It might have been a lot cheaper to buy there than in the north.

billgibney

I'm looking for a 2 or 3 year old car so I'd imagine that's a reasonable length of time.

witnessmenow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121897694#Comment_121897694

I'm not talking about the MOT or tax.

Unless I'm misunderstanding the info, this car changed owner in December 23, 3 months ago, and is now being sold again. It's a pretty short time to own a car.

I bought my car from a dealer in NI and they said they sold the car when it was new, the car only had one owner according to the v5c (logbook) and if was a NI address, I'm not sure what that registration location that website shows is, but it doesn't seem to be accurate.

poker--addict

new rules seem more clear

witnessmenow

When I bought my car a few weeks ago I transferred over my existing insurance to the car, which was a NI reg at the time. I got an updated disc in the post after a few days.

I did the vrt about a week after I got the car.

My insurance expires at the end of the month and I ended up moving to a new company. It was only after I got my disc from them that I realised my current disc still has the NI reg

Didn't even think about it when I got the vrt

Is this a problem? I'll ring to get it sorted tomorrow if I should.

Not able to do it online for some reason. At this stage it seems like a pain to have to ring them for 12 days, but don't want to not have valid insurance either!

Luna84

I'm in two worlds, one minute I'm buying an expensive car then an expensive electric but now I'm thinking of getting a cheaper NI car. It's a petrol.(just pointing that out incase it is cheaper to import an electric or hybrid)

What do I pay just VRT? or others payments like VAT. The car is a 2022 Northern Irish car with low mileage. What do I need off the seller V5 I think it's called, anything else I need?

billgibney

I just rang customs about the new rules and what is a reasonable amount of time and the said it varies.

I gave an example of a 18mt old car with full service history up north and they said that wouldn't be a problem.

It's only to stop "sliding" cars into the system.

mickdw

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121916119#Comment_121916119

Excellent but itnwould appear you are still at the mercy of whoever you meet at the vrt centre as to what they look for.

I'd imagine any genuine case should be fine at the end of the day.

damemcd

Im sure our friends up on the Greenhills Road will still do their very best to muddy the waters and make things difficult.....

Celtaidd

Hi All,

I am looking to purchase a car in NI and import into ROI. But want clarity on what is needed to get an exemption from paying VAT.

The wording on the NCT website is "If the vehicle was registered in Northern Ireland or acquired in Northern Ireland on or before 31 December 2020 the vehicle may be brought into the State and registered without Customs formalities"

The address on the V5 logbook is still England, however I have service records dating from 2020 that shows the car was in use and being serviced in Belfast. Is that sufficient?

The dealer in NI is saying he's done this multiple times without issues and this is sufficient evidence, but I'm not sure, since I spoke to a rep in NCT and they said it had to be registered in NI prior to 31 December 2020. It's 6,000 I'm not willing to risk!

Has anyone got experience of this situation?

Many thanks in advance!

spuddy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121924201#Comment_121924201

Service records are far less reliable evidence than the V5 itself, which you have to hand over when registering the car here. How would you explain the English address on it? Put yourself in the shoes of the person who's job it is to determine if VAT/Customs are due, does it look credible?

User1998

Can the NI dealer VRT the car on your behalf if they are so confident that it will be sufficient? I’m sure theres VRT centres close to the border. You could offer to pay a little extra for the time/convenience factor.

material

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121924201#Comment_121924201

Your query is similar to mine (post #4705 above) and I presented the car at VRT inspector with no issues. My car had NI reg. number with GB registered address from 2021. I'm not sure if yours has NI Reg.

Only questions asked were, did car have spare wheel (No, it had spray can) and where was VIN. Showed them the stamped one in drivers foot-well.

A few points to remember.

From my research, NI reg. cars don't need an MOT until year 4 (GB is 3 years), so the chances of having an MOT history is difficult to show with NI reg. cars under 4 years old.

Bring a copy of your online VRT calculation 2 page print out. The calculation they initially present me with was around 20% more that my online version. (Still a good bit less than the +VAT and duty, circa.+9k risk in my situation). After giving them my print out they checked it out and re-ran the calculation and came up with a figure which was 10% less than my print out. They asked was I happy with that new figure and I had 30 days to pay. Paid it immediately!!

Celtaidd

Thank you - appreciate the advice!

pjtuts

Hi all,

I was skimming through the thread but considering its 158 pages I didn't read all of it. Anyway, from what I am aware, if a car has NI registration plates, not mainland UK, it is exempt from VAT and Customs Duty when being imported to Ireland. What would happen if a mainland UK reg car was transferred to NI reg and then imported? I was reading about it online on various forums, and apparently if you send DVLA the logbook with a request to change the car to NI reg, they issue you a new logbook with new NI reg. I couldn't find anything about importing the car after doing this. Anyone have any thoughts?

bazz26

Switching the registration from mainland UK to NI will not avoid VAT or customs duty. The car needs to be either registered in NI since birth or have been registered in NI before Brexit to avoid VAT and customs duty.

RCSATELLITES

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121961186#Comment_121961186

Have you not heard of the changes happening at end of month?

Someone wrote recently:

"Just got this from revenue

The rules are chaining again end of April.

Basically any car bought up north will NOT be liable for VAT once it was used for " a reasonable amount of time up there"

But still doesn't mean you can just change the reg and avoid all the taxes and customs. But not as stringent as now.

RCSATELLITES

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121961164#Comment_121961164

Unfortunately it's not as easy as that. The whole system was made to avoid people doing that, and trying to avoid paying vat and custom charges by importing a car from a non EU country to the EU.

Only Ireland (if I am right) has this "Northern Ireland option" other countries it's a direct import from a non EU country. So UK is same as importing from China or USA.

But it was recently announced that at the end of the month the rules are changing.

"Just got this from revenue

The rules are chaining again end of April.

Basically any car bought up north will NOT be liable for VAT once it was used for " a reasonable amount of time up there"

So someone could buy a car from mainland UK and register in the north and hold for a reasonable amount of time.

(This is an example) To not pay VRT when moving residence to Ireland you have to have the car at least 6 month and prove with insurance and receipts and so on.

So I would think a car registered in the North for 6 months would be sufficient as Revenue have not given an amount of time.

Brewster

Hi all, I am thinking of going to the UK to buy a one year old car. I am familiar with all the rules, VAT, Customs etc. I need to buy the car VAT free in the UK, and even though this is my entitlement under UK vat rules, I am finding it difficult to get the Uk main dealers to engage with me. They are very dismissive of the idea, clearly they don’t understand their own legal rules. Apologies if covered already, has anybody got any advice? As I understand it, the car wouldn’t need to be Vat qualifying in order to buy the car in the UK vat free, but yet this is first thing dealers raise in their defence.

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121966863#Comment_121966863

I think there are companies that will buy the car on your behalf and refund you the VAT when you’ve proven its been exported

Brewster

Yeah I am aware of some of these companies, but they have pretty high fees from what I can see! I’ll speak to one of them. Just wondering did anyone have any success buying a car vat free directly from a UK dealer?

RCSATELLITES

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121967559#Comment_121967559

You are right in saying that they are expensive. I contacted two of them. One said the HMRC rules where that they had to organise the freight to Ireland i.e. instead of say, me collecting the car. This added another £1,200 to their fee.

I know if you were buying a brand new car then it could be easier to get it with no UK vat added. The other option is the vat qualifying car which you mentioned already, this is another one the dealers in the UK would be aware of. But I wouldn't be surprised they look for a vat number from you.

Now just to make you aware both of the companies I talked with that buy it and then sell it to me for a fee. They both were under the assumption that the car I was going to buy was a vat qualifying car.

Does it state anywhere that an individual (not a business) can buy a secondhand car (1 year old) vat free as you want.

There is a scheme were a dealership in the Republic can buy a secondhand car and get something like 1/5 of the price of the car back . But I am not sure an individual like yourself can use this scheme.

That's all I could find information on when I did research, all UK sourced information. No information this side of the water as usual.

Would be great if someone on here had knowledge in the exact procedure and if it's actually even possible.

Brewster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121968412#Comment_121968412

There are two vat codes in the UK, 703 and 707. Both give impression that you can buy a new or used car in uk Vat free. I reached out to HMRC to ask the question.

fm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121968412#Comment_121968412

I bought a vat qualifying car from a UK dealer last year and they returned the 20% vat to me once I proved I exported it,there was no extra fee for this.I drove the car back myself,also didn't have to pay the 10% customs as it was less than 3 years old done with the help of a customs agent here.I bought the car as an individual not a business even though I have a vat number which was not used.

Brewster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121972039#Comment_121972039

thanks, was there much hassle on the customs and proving to customs that car was originally a EU vehicle? The guidance document says you can use the VIN number as basis for showing where car was originally manufacturer. I know it needs to be less than three years since it came into the UK.

RCSATELLITES

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121972039#Comment_121972039

Thanks for the information, so definitely a vat qualifying vehicle can have the vat returned upon export. And this has been discussed on the forum.

I had questioned the guy that I got a quote from and he was adamant that HMRC require the seller to export the vehicle. But then Beck Evans which is the other company I got a quote from never said that and was happy if I just show them that I registered it here.