Customs and VAT charges on imported electric cars

DarrenR

Hi, I was thinking of importing a Nissan Leaf from Northern Ireland to Ireland. I imported my current car from there pre Brexit.

It seems so much more complicated doing the same now.

While I know about the official VRT calculator on the revenue website; there doesn't appear to be any official Irish Government online calculator to estimate the VAT and customs charges for importing cars from abroad. Just a bunch of third party websites offering their version of an online customs charges and VAT estimates service at a price.

Does anyone know if there is an official online calculator to estimate the VAT and customs charges for cars?

Gumbo

Pre brexit registration means no vat/customs duty.

VRT as it always was on EV, depends on value.

User1998

35.3% of the invoice selling price. Unless the car was registered in NI pre Brexit, then it would be zero.

drunkmonkey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120948411#Comment_120948411

For private imports it's on revenues valuation not on whatever your invoice/receipt says. You'll need to produce a receipt of purchase but it's irrelevant for calculating vat & customs.

23% Vat + 10% customs.

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120948622#Comment_120948622

What? That is completely false. Its based on the invoice selling price. VRT is based on Revenues valuation, which OP is not paying

And by the way, my formula of 35.3% is just a quicker way of doing 10% + 23%

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120948622#Comment_120948622

Invoice total including cost of shipping.

DarrenR

Thanks for the advice. Doing the sums I don't really think there's any savings to be made importing a used Leaf from NI compared to whats available from local garages. Might even cost more. They seem to have the better one though on Carsni. This is the one I was thinking about buying.

https://www.usedcarsni.com/2022-Nissan-LEAF-110Kw-Tekna-39Kwh-5Dr-Auto-324138082

It's clear a car is just a thing to get from point a to b now under the Greens. Ideally, avoid having to drive at all although I do need one to get to my work location. There's to be no fun had or skill shown in driving one. May as well drive one of these mostly quirky looking electric cars.

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120949509#Comment_120949509

Nope. I stopped buying in the uk after brexit.

joe1303l

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120949509#Comment_120949509

Worthwhile savings only there on high value but low emission vehicles. It should be worth paying a small premium for a N.I pre-brexit registered vehicle in that instance. Saw a transporter full of 2018-2020 XC90 SUV’s heading south last week. Presumably petrol plugin hybrid models.

drunkmonkey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120948761#Comment_120948761

I don't know I couldn't get the figures they gave me to add up recently if they were based on the invoice price when I was clearing a car.

Car was £13000 Sterling

They were looking for...

€10,600 - VRT

€405 Penalty

€600 NOX

Vat & Customs €3423

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120964931#Comment_120964931

What car?

NOX on an EV?

drunkmonkey

Not an ev, people call their plugins after it though...

creedp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120964931#Comment_120964931

Christ that VRT figure is extortion. The private motorist is really exploited in this country. I thought €7.5k on a £15k car was bad back in 2009. Are you still saving money on an equivalent Irish car after all that excuse for environmental concern crap is added on?

murphthesmurf

VRT calculator says €0 VRT for a Jap import 2017 Leaf, is that correct? I know it's worked out on value and CO2, and so zero CO2 should be €0. But I don't trust the calculator, I thought government was doing away with the VRT relief for them?

murphthesmurf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121105805#Comment_121105805

Never mind, just answered my own question with Google 😅

I'd misunderstood what I'd heard. Up-to €40k still have relief up to €5k, so for the example Leaf above it would be €0 VRT.

Would a Jap import Leaf qualify for the 4% customs as its a Japanese car?

Anyone ever imported one? Is it easy to change over language and maps etc?

User1998

I’ve been told by my customs broker that Irish customs have made it virtually impossible to get the reduced customs rate. They need a lot of paperwork for it now which is very hard to get.

kanuseeme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121105852#Comment_121105852

yes 3.8% ATM, I think it will drop to 2% next march or April, then the next year 0, to qualify it must be Japanese, sometimes the VIN will tell you where its made, date etc.

Thought about it, but with degradation, language and the complaining of too many chademo installations, I think it would be harder to sell.

I done some research into the language problem, seems to me New Zealand and Russia are ahead in that field, my BMW the radio and maps were done remotely by some guy in Germany, some other makes its an SD card or nearly the worst case is removing the dash and flashing some component as with my prius.

Edit, I see user1998's comment, its 2 years since I bought a Japanese Japanese car, so it could be true.

murphthesmurf

Too many Chademo installations?? This the chargers?

Do they use a different charger?

As long as cars not too old or too many miles I would have thought degradation wouldn't be much of a problem?

Without being able to change language though it'd be difficult to sell.

murphthesmurf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121106080#Comment_121106080

🙄🙄🙄🙄 well there's a surprise. Another rule that exists only in paper.