Buying commercial car on private - can I sell again as commercial?

ferg01

Hi there,

I'm about to buy an SUV that’s currently on the commercial tax regime so I’ll need to switch over to the personal tax system and pay VAT etc…

When/if I go to sell this again, can it be brought back into the commercial tax system? I’ve heard about going from commercial to private but not sure about the other way. Will the buyer that I sell to be able to claim VAT back and go onto the commercial tax system?

Thanks in advance.

User1998

As far as I know, once a non VAT registered person buys the vehicle then VAT is no longer reclaimable.

If its a commercial vehicle then I believe they can change it back to commercial tax no problem

ferg01

Ok thanks for the quick response, I suspected as much to be honest. It’s a five seater (I should have said) so does that mean it’s not commercial?

ELM327

If it's N1 then it remains N1 and the next purchaser would be able to change it back to commercial tax if they have specific documents etc but it would be more hassle than buying one that is already taxed commercial. I note you say it has 5 seats, this would be more hassle again.

Regarding VAT, once it is in private ownership (which if you bought it it already is !) you can't bring it back out of that.

So you have 3 things.

-Commercial status in the log book (You will see N1 if its commercial, this won't change, and means the vehicle requires a CVRT and not an NCT)

-Commercial/Goods tax (you can change this if you wish or if you don't have the required documents to get the goods rate)

-Vat status (once you purchased it net instead of gross, the vat part is gone permanently)

ferg01

Thanks @ELM327 - I’ll be speaking to the dealer on Friday so will suss out. I’m not 100% sure that I understand your point re: N1 correctly. Does that mean that even if I’m not a commercial user I’ll stay on €333 tax a year but have to get the car CVRT’d? If not, the annual CO2 based tax is pretty steep so there might be savings for any future buyer to go back to the lower system. Again, I may have interpreted this incorrectly.

Re: your third point, yeah that’s as expected but good to have it confirmed. When I sell it in the future it’ll be competing with vehicles that are ex VAT. Better run it for a long time so!

Thanks again 👍🏻

colm_mcm

You’ll pay tax on the old cc rates. You’d want to check insurance too before you buy.

ferg01

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121668177#Comment_121668177

ok thanks @colm_mcm

ELM327

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121667740#Comment_121667740

No worries, the N1 on the logbook only determines the classification (eg what tolls you pay and what testing is required). Taxation class is separate and taxing an N1 vehicle can only be at either the goods rate or the CC rate

ferg01

Thanks again.

1) pay VAT

2) CVRT annually

3) annual motor tax at engine size rate.

ferg01

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but have finally found a commercial car that I wanted to use for personal use. Know that I’ll need to CVRT it and pay tax at the engine size rate but now I’m having an issue with finding insurance, as flagged by @colm_mcm above. My current company won’t insure until they see a copy of the logbook showing it’s for personal use or until I’ve paid the annual road tax. Will the logbook change over to personal use in this instance? Alternatively, will I be able to tax it if I don’t have insurance sorted? I believe nowadays that you need to provide the policy number?

Thanks again.