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

mickdw

It was a mistake sending the book to dvla.

I presume she put your name and an eire address. They won't issue a new logbook to a foreign address so it's kinda awkward.

I guess you can try form v62 and use your your name at her address in UK and see if they will issue you a v5c.

If they do, you just need to take that to vrt appointment.

ginger22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120492343#Comment_120492343

They wont register it here without the V5. Your only hope is to get your other half with an address in UK or NI to apply to the DVLA for a replacement.

Sirius88

Thanks ginger22!

Do you know if the logbook should follow the car per se... I assumed she'd get the logbook back when the the DVLA knew it was being exported.

(also in order for me to register it here)

The DVLA are saying they won't issue a new log book to her address as the car is technically 'exported'. She'd have to re register it in the north order to get a new one.

rowanh

Hey folks,

I bought a 1991 car in Belfast last Saturday. I know the car was imported in 2017 but I have no documentation other than the log book and the person I bought it from bought the car mid 2021 so the date on the log book is after Brexit changes for import. I can see from the MOT history on the UK.GOV site that the MOT's done in 2017-2023 were done in Northern Ireland at it has a link to click on previous ones for the specific test centre in England but the ones from 2017 on have a message that test centres are not available from Northern Ireland. I am hoping this will be take as proof the car was in Northern Ireland before 2021 so I don't have to pay VAT and Duty. Anyone have any idea? If not I can try and get something else as I have an idea of who the previous owners are and who imported the car, its just the person I bought it from and the previous owner don't seem to have anything on paper any more and the person who imported the car has deleted all records of it at this stage..

drunkmonkey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120493553#Comment_120493553

Was there MOT's in NI between 2017 and 2021? If not what was the milage difference between the two MOT's you'll want to satisfy them that the car could not have returned to the UK in the mean time and have be used there.

rowanh

Yes there were mots done every year in ni from 2017 until the current one on the car. I'm just not sure if this is accepted as the revenue site mentions other documentation.

drunkmonkey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120493770#Comment_120493770

Yes that will be fine. Just go to the vrt centre with it and they will send it to revenue for approval. Come back to me if it's rejected by revenue and I'll tell you what to do next but it should be fine.

rowanh

Brilliant that's a relief, thanks for the info!

Jackiebt

Thinking of buying a car in NI and importing it to Dublin. Is it worth the hassle? Are there any Free VRT calculator sites, a lot of them are asking for a fee. Thanks

acmatman

https://www.carandclassic.com/auctions/2003-toyota-land-cruiser-amazon-td-a-nvVOan?utm_campaign=website&utm_source=sendgrid&utm_medium=email This Land Cruiser just sold for £16000 the VRT calculator want €7740 in VRT ???

Gerry T

https://www.ros.ie/evrt-enquiry/vrtenquiry.html;rjsessionid=C7666D9FC2F93181556FE4C4FBC179D9?execution=e1s1

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120512954#Comment_120512954

Sure isn’t the equivalent car about €20k here? So VRT at 40% would be about €8k

bennyx_o

Hoping I can get some clarity on a UK car purchase (2011 MINI), I've read through the thread but want to make sure I have all my ducks in a row so to speak as I haven't imported anything since Brexit.

Customs Duty

I've seen both CarClear.ie and CustomsDeclaration.ie - anyone any experience with either? I'll be flying over and bringing the car back myself, do I need to have the car cleared before this? How long does the clearing process take? From reading the thread, this is 10% of the purchase price + shipping costs. If I drive the car back myself I'm assuming this is the cost of the ferry? Do they include the flight over too? Does this get paid to whoever clears the car for you?

VAT

How is this calculated / paid? Do I just submit it through ROS? I'm not VAT registered or the like. I think I need both VAT & Duty paid before I can VRT the car? Am I right in saying this is 23% of the Euro equivalent of the purchase price?

VRT

Done this a few times, about the only step in the process I'm familiar with. I've told the seller that I need the full V5 to register the car here and I've got a VRT quote (although this can't be treated as anything other than a ballpark figure) If I was to reserve a reg that's available, how does this work with NCTS?

Payment

Car is around £7k - having read through the thread, a few different methods have been mentioned - Revolut, Wise and CurrencyFair seem to be the more popular ones. I've opened a Wise account and uploaded my passport. If I transfer from them to a UK account, does it go through within minutes? (Their website calculator lists a 'Fast Transfer' option) I also have Revolut so this is an option too.

Is there anything else I'm missing?

Thanks.

kdevitt

If you're driving the car home, you do not need to have VAT and duty clearance prior to arriving here. Don't know either of those agents, I use Bell.ie who I've found very efficient.

VAT is 23% of the invoiced cost of the car - euro equivalent. Duty is 10% of the invoiced cost plus the cost of your ferry. You'll pay the clearance agent directly - you don't need to go near ROS.

You can't reserve a reg number for a used import anymore, VRT centre will need the original V5 and the customs clearance confirmation.

Have found Revolut the quikest for transfers lately - its been instant.

Gerry T

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120522043#Comment_120522043

Just to add, if the UK car is VAT Qualifying then the UK VAT (I think 20%) can be reclaimed, there are agents out there that charge a fee, probably 1 to 1.5k to do that. Also the 10% duty is not paid on UK manufactured cars and an EU manufactured car reimported less than 3yrs from when it arrived in the UK. this needs proof, hard to get, but if you can prove date and place of manufacture in the EU is less than 3yrs from you presenting the car for import your sorted.

Look at NI, no VAT or Duty on cars pre 1stJan22.

drunkmonkey

UK&NI dealers can claim back 15% of the invoice price from next month as well so cars will be cheaper from then on. Probably worth waiting.

bennyx_o

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120522043#Comment_120522043

Cheers for the reply, hadn't heard of Bell.ie, will look into them now. Pity about the reserved plates, I think the long (11d13XXXX) look awful so was hoping to get a shorter one reserved. (We won't mention the €1,000 cost)

Just checked Revolut and see what looks like a local Sort Code & Account number so they could be a better option.

mickdw

I don't see how this can make sense. Bringing in a reasonably low value car for UK and paying Irish vat, duty vrt and nox tax on top of the UK vat inclusive price.

Sounds like madness to me.

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120522861#Comment_120522861

Sure the same applies when importing from the other 170 countries not in the EU.

Funny how no one has a problem with paying all these charges when buying from Japan, but when its from the UK its a different story?

VRT and Nox are ridiculous tho.

bennyx_o

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120522861#Comment_120522861

In my case there are only 2 comparable cars for sale in Ireland, one is 2008 and one 2010 and both lave lower spec than the one I've picked up in the UK, and, even factoring in Duty, VAT & VRT, it's just about the same cost as Irish cars.

bennyx_o

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120522043#Comment_120522043

Most likely overthinking this buy anyway, I've transferred the Euro equivalent into my Revolut account (EUR acct, waiting for the exchange rate to improve but that's a different story!) - do I need to notify Revolut I'll be making a transfer of ~£7k? Last thing I want is them to block the transfer and freeze the account or whatever it is they do leaving me high & dry in the UK

skinny90

why is it soo hard to calculate vrt and duty ? Is there sites that make it easy?

bennyx_o

VRT can be calculated on the revenue website (as long as the car is listed) It can take some trial and error finding the exact model but all you really need to do is make sure the CO2 matches what's on the V5. The duty is just 10% of the purchase price + transport costs. There is a website that will calculate it for you for €15 if you really want, but no doubt they have some disclaimer that says it may or may not be accurate

Esel

If there's duty, there's VAT on top.

jay28

Has anyone imported an audi s3 8l 2002 lately?

Nothing showing on the vrt calculator, only showing for the newer models

grayyhead

Hi can anyone help me here. I bought a motorbike in Northern Ireland which was registered in 2018 before brexit so I thought I would only have to pay vrt of 555 euro. Upon bringing it there I was told that it’s under 6000 km so it’s classed as new and I would have to pay customs fees of 1700 on top of vrt. I rang the place I bought it from and they issued me a refund and took back the bike. They used it and got it over 6000 km and called me. I bought the bike back off them and got a new invoice with the proper mileage on it. I’m booked in in the next two days and I’m worried I’m going to run into problems. Has anyone experienced this. So to summarise I have a new invoice with over 6000 klm on it for the next vrt this time

snx92

Hi, i am moving back from the uk after a year of living here. I will be moving back just 4 weeks under the 6 month requirement for vat and customs exemption is there any way I can avoid this ? Also how to i get a customs declaration? Are there any reputable agents to go through ?

Thanks

jinish

Can anyone help me ?

I am importing a car from NI. This had two owners, the first registration was in 2018 (new) in Northern Ireland. He kept it on his private plate, and sold it to dealer in Newry on Dec 2020.the current owner bought it from the dealer on April 2021 and kept it on his private plate. He gave it to a dealer to sell it and I put a deposit on it.

This car reg start with BSZ. The current dealer tells me that it was always in NI. To be exempt from VAT and Customs, I need to show revenue some proof that it was in NI prior to Jan 2021. I have the current V5C, but its from April 2021. It doesn't show the address of previous keeper. I contacted Tesla Belfast to see if they can give me some sort of evidence, but no, due to GDPR, they would not. I emailed DVLA, but not hopeful. I am awaiting the purchase invoice from the current owner to see, if it has something to prove that it was in NI before 2021 Jan.

I am in love with this car and dont want to let it go. Does anybody got any suggestions?

mickdw

I wonder if a history check showed up that northern plate being registered to that car back in 2018, would that be a help?

Atlantic Dawn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120609354#Comment_120609354

If it has paper based receipts/ documentation from service history that should show the previous owners address at each time it was serviced.

Lots of these records are digital so may not be available but receipts may have been kept.

jinish

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120622572#Comment_120622572

So I finally managed to get the purchase invoice of the dealer from the its first owner which was in 2020, . I think that should suffice?

Marcusm

House on a street near me had an NI reg’d car for a few weeks and now seers it’s in a 202D plate. It’s a GTC4Lusso, similar models for for £170-200k; the VRT must have been €70-100k, depending on the Irish OMSP.

Atlantic Dawn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120623474#Comment_120623474

I think it should, it will tally with number of owners as per V5.

vidapura

Ehhh... I just tried using the VRT Calculator on the motorcheck.ie

Is the Nox Levy in addition to the VRT ?? If so.. jayses...

Reg JRZ4429

Date of Registration May 2015

Vehicle RENAULT GRAND SCENIC 1.5DCI DYNA S NAV 110BHP 5DR

Engine CC1461 cc

Fuel Diesel

Body 5 DR

Transmission Manual

Mileage 74,720

OMSP €11,560

CO2 104 g/km

Rate of VRT 19.25%

VRT Estimate €2,225

NoX 141g/km

NoX Levy Estimate €2325

Really? so it would be €4550 to import this fecker??

Actually I notice it got the car model wrong.. its not a Grand Scenic.. its just a Scenic...

User1998

No car has 141 grams of nox

You either left the nox blank or entered it wrong.

If your certain its 141 then enter it as 0.141

And FYI the maximum Nox a late 2015 car can have is 0.060

vidapura

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120632220#Comment_120632220

Hmm.. I didn't actually have to enter any nox value.. just the Reg.. and the motorcheck.ie calculator did the rest...

Seems like its not very reliable then eh? Doesn't instill much faith in their main service so..

Ok, so the Nox Levy value .. if it was right.. would be added to the VRT then ? Grand..

Really wish someone would make a proper calculator available.. you'd think the feckin revenue would do it...

User1998

There is a proper calculator… And guess what, its Revenue that do it.

https://www.ros.ie/evrt-enquiry/vrtenquiry.html%3Brjsessionid%3D81E5BA7F1345FC163334556A5989D262?execution=e1s1

vidapura

Mmmyeah.. I found that one a bit fiddly.. pickin the exact model off the info provided on usedcarsni .. the info isnt really there..

And then the Nox .. on usedcarsni for a mitsubishi outlander it says "CO2 Emission 154 g/km" but putting that into the Nox box in the revenue VRT calculator it says that number is too high... so, I tried 0.154 .. and it took that but came out with a Nox Levy of €2,650... so. I'm doing something wrong probably.. heh.. not really sure if Co2 emission is the right thing is it?

User1998

Your entering the Co2 emmisions instead of Nox, so yes that is wrong

vidapura

Ahh yeah, thought it might be.. but the usedcarsni and autotrader sites don't seem to show the Nox .. I'll have to find some other way.

All I'm really trying to do is get a feel for the VRT on the NI cars..

Gerry T

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120634363#Comment_120634363

If you're buying in NI ask for a copy of the V5C cert. Mine had the NOX value for the car on it. You'll need the original V5C anyway to get the car registered in IRL.

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120634363#Comment_120634363

Petrol cars are usually around 0.020g of Nox

Diesel cars pre 2015 you can forget about. Nox is way too high on them.

Maximum Nox for 2016+ diesels is 0.060, so just use that figure

mickdw

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120632878#Comment_120632878

Why use 3rd party vrt calculator when revenue do one that is reasonably good for everyday cars.

Re nox, you need to get it from the registration cert to be sure but lots of good advice here.

coisnacriann

Hi looking for advice with importing a northern reg car. Its a 2019 Ford kuga OSMP is 20k and vrt comes in around 6k but I presume that's based off UK reg. Since car has always been registered in NI would anyone have an idea of roughly how much customs I would have to pay please.

Thanks.

bazz26

If it's been registered in NI since birth then there are no customs charges due on it.

bennyx_o

Anyone had a car be sent to Revenue for an VRT figure recently and how long did it take? Apparently mine was outside the allowable window and had to be sent to Revenue on Saturday morning and not heard anything back yet - last car I imported the same happened but I heard the following day.

Gerry T

For 2019 you shouldn't have vat or customs, once you can show the car was always in NI , is there wasn't an owner in say 2022 in England.

But you will have to pay the VRT.

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120659692#Comment_120659692

Can take up to 10 days

bennyx_o

Yeah, it says that on the document alright but just wondering if anyone had any recent experience in timeframes. Car will be 30 days in on Sunday and don't particularly want to have to pay a fine (not that it appears it'll be much) when I booked the earliest date I could for the VRT appointment

mickdw

Why would you have to pay a fine?

If you showed up at vrt centre at earliest available booking?

The fact that they have to go away and comeback with a figure for you is not your problem.