Can you pay revenue to choose number on import?

Car99 · 12-08-2019 4:54pm #1

Hi,

Couple of questions regarding registering a car i am importing, a 1989 in this case , can i pay revenue a fee to choose a number that hasn't been used already ?
Secondly can you choose any county or does it have to be your county of your postal address?

Thanks.

fin12 · 12-08-2019 4:56pm

Car99 wrote: »

Hi,

Couple of questions regarding registering a car i am importing, a 1989 in this case , can i pay revenue a fee to choose a number that hasn't been used already ?
Secondly can you choose any county or does it have to be your county of your postal address?

Thanks.

I’m pretty sure u can choose whatever county u want. I know someone who imported a car, were living in Cork but were able to put a limerick reg on the car.

Cork Trucker · 12-08-2019 5:03pm

The NCT sort all imports these days, they’ll accept whatever proof of address you give them within the 26 counties, so if you turn up in a Cork test centre with a Donegal address it’ll be 89-DL-1**** AFAIK. I’m not 100% but I do know the nct bit is true. It’ll almost certainly be a high number for the year so it stands out. I’ve seen Cork registered imports from 1989 reading 89-C-16***

We had an Irish registered car at home that was 89-C-106** and it was first registered in November 1989.

OP is there a specific number you want such as say a Peugeot 205 reading 89-C-205 for example?

Car99 · 12-08-2019 6:52pm

Cork Trucker wrote: »

The NCT sort all imports these days, they’ll accept whatever proof of address you give them within the 26 counties, so if you turn up in a Cork test centre with a Donegal address it’ll be 89-DL-1**** AFAIK. I’m not 100% but I do know the nct bit is true. It’ll almost certainly be a high number for the year so it stands out. I’ve seen Cork registered imports from 1989 reading 89-C-16***

We had an Irish registered car at home that was 89-C-106** and it was first registered in November 1989.

OP is there a specific number you want such as say a Peugeot 205 reading 89-C-205 for example?

I was thinking something along those lines 89 LM 3 ideally but that won't happen.

Cork Trucker · 12-08-2019 7:44pm

Car99 wrote: »

I was thinking something along those lines 89 LM 3 ideally but that won't happen.

89-LM-3 is a 1988 Suzuki Swift, yes you read that right, the system was a bit different back then. That car has a last tax expiry of May 2002, NCT of January 2004 and is not showing up at all on Motortax.ie so they may be able to reissue it to a different vehicle as it appears the original might well be scrapped, but i know nothing on that process.

biko · 12-08-2019 8:07pm

Unless the classic process is somehow different from the regular process then your residence decides the county on the reg.

Are you not going to put a ZV on it?

colm_mcm · 12-08-2019 8:08pm

You can’t do it on used imports. I tried a few years ago.

mgbgt1978 · 12-08-2019 8:30pm

biko wrote: »

Unless the classic process is somehow different from the regular process then your residence decides the county on the reg.

Are you not going to put a ZV on it?

I'd guess it's a certain BMW Model . Hence the preference for an 'M' and a '3' in the Reg

colm_mcm wrote: »

You can’t do it on used imports. I tried a few years ago.

You've surely seen this car around Limerick (Black M3) 04 LM 3. Imported (used) by a Limerick Resident....who had to jump through a few hoops to get the Reg.

Car99 · 13-08-2019 12:34am

mgbgt1978 wrote: »

I'd guess it's a certain BMW Model . Hence the preference for an 'M' and a '3' in the Reg

You've surely seen this car around Limerick (Black M3) 04 LM 3. Imported (used) by a Limerick Resident....who had to jump through a few hoops to get the Reg.

Any idea what hoops or how I could get hold of this Limerick resident to ask a few questions ?

Car99 · 13-08-2019 12:36am

biko wrote: »

Unless the classic process is somehow different from the regular process then your residence decides the county on the reg.

Are you not going to put a ZV on it?

No not ZV , 89 -xx-xxxx plates were the official plates of that vintage so I'll stick with that.

Del2005 · 13-08-2019 12:45am

Car99 wrote: »

Any idea what hoops or how I could get hold of this Limerick resident to ask a few questions ?

It's €1k to reserve a number. It'd want to be some car to spend 1k on a piece of metal/plastic that doesn't ad value.

https://www.revenue.ie/en/importing-vehicles-duty-free-allowances/guide-to-vrt/vehicle-registration-tax/registration-plates.aspx

w124man · 13-08-2019 8:27pm

Del2005 wrote: »

https://www.revenue.ie/en/importing-vehicles-duty-free-allowances/guide-to-vrt/vehicle-registration-tax/registration-plates.aspx

Well that link explains it perfectly.

Reserving a registration number

For €1,000 you can apply to Revenue for a particular registration number for the current year.
To reserve a number, you must apply to the Central Vehicle Office at the address shown below, on or after 1 November in the year before it is intended to first bring the vehicle into use.

zilog_jones · 14-08-2019 10:55am

Cork Trucker wrote: »

89-LM-3 is a 1988 Suzuki Swift, yes you read that right, the system was a bit different back then. That car has a last tax expiry of May 2002, NCT of January 2004 and is not showing up at all on Motortax.ie so they may be able to reissue it to a different vehicle as it appears the original might well be scrapped, but i know nothing on that process.

Do they re-issue numbers at all? Especially for older cars, the records are so inconsistent and certificates of destruction were not a thing so it can be hard to tell if the cars are still actually out there.

Del2005 · 16-08-2019 2:47am

zilog_jones wrote: »

Do they re-issue numbers at all? Especially for older cars, the records are so inconsistent and certificates of destruction were not a thing so it can be hard to tell if the cars are still actually out there.

No numbers are reused in Ireland. IIRC VIP 1 was transferred but not sure how or even if the story is true.

mgbgt1978 · 16-08-2019 2:44pm

It has been known to happen. GTI 1 & GTI 2 were both on MK 1 Golf Gti's in Limerick in the early '80s. Those numbers would have been originally issued in the' 60s at the latest. They were on the cars belonging to two Brothers who had a Trucking and Truck repair company.
I have no idea how they did it.... But if you check Cartell, etc they still show up.

Edit :The Father bought a new Peugeot 504 in the mid 70s with the reg XTI 703. Going by this I can only guess that GTI xxx had to be well before this. Also in the early 80s Limerick City were using xxxGTI rather than the other way around.

PS. Actually they didn't even get to xxxGTI. They were on xxxFTI at the beginning of 1987 when the new format was introduced.

zilog_jones · 16-08-2019 2:57pm

I'd say back in the pre-'87 days, if you knew the right people you could do stuff like that.

mgbgt1978 · 16-08-2019 3:01pm

It seems so. Also this Company sold new Trucks so presumably had contacts in the Motor Tax office ðŸ˜

Silvera · 12-11-2019 11:07pm

For reasons unknown, Revenue changed the rules in 2015 - from then on, only owners of NEW vehicles can apply to reserve a registration number.

w124man · 13-11-2019 9:04pm

Of course 'For Reg' was transferred from year to year and from car to car !!!! :rolleyes:

Can you pay revenue to choose number on import?

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