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

colm_mcm · 29-02-2020 9:43pm

travist wrote: »

Is there any problem to import from UK if the car was previously a Japanese, or say Isle of Man, import to GB?

You’d want to be sure that the nox and Co2 are in the V5

travist · 29-02-2020 11:42pm

colm_mcm wrote: »

You’d want to be sure that the nox and Co2 are in the V5

thanks.. I note in the VRT site, the first question is whether car was first registered in Japan, so in the case of importing a UK car that was imported originally from Japan, then that seems to have an impact on VRT.

brimeh · 01-03-2020 12:17am

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

yup I was happy enough paying what I paid, was about €2000 cheaper than similarly specced cars in the UK and about €7000 cheaper than similarly specced cars in N.I. and the kicker, similarly specced car is about €43-45k in Ireland, after everything I'll land this for approximately €37k.

How did you go about finding one in the UK? As in did you just find one you liked online and put a deposit on it, travelled over and picked it up/paid?

I'm looking at getting a BMW M140i so only looking over in England/Scotland but just worry about going over and it not being in the same condition as pics etc. or other issues.

Atlantic Dawn · 01-03-2020 1:07am

travist wrote: »

Anyone buy a car in UK, but try to sell the plate (if worth anything) before export ?

Time would be against you and it's highly unlikely any seller will leave it on the car if it's worth anything.

colm_mcm · 01-03-2020 1:20am

travist wrote: »

thanks.. I note in the VRT site, the first question is whether car was first registered in Japan, so in the case of importing a UK car that was imported originally from Japan, then that seems to have an impact on VRT.

It would probably not fall into one of the exact model spec/Co2 figure combinations, so you might be looking at a fresh appraisal rather than a precalculated ROS.ie valuation.

If the nox isn’t available, say for a JDM car, and no COC is available, you’re paying top rate.

Peatys · 01-03-2020 8:29am

Export only price means no vat?
If that's the case, where would i get charged for vat? When vrt'ing it?

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202002247654462?atmobcid=soc3

Cheers

Creamy Goodness · 01-03-2020 11:22am

brimeh wrote: »

How did you go about finding one in the UK? As in did you just find one you liked online and put a deposit on it, travelled over and picked it up/paid?

I'm looking at getting a BMW M140i so only looking over in England/Scotland but just worry about going over and it not being in the same condition as pics etc. or other issues.

Started looking at Audi.co.uk pre-owned section - I assume bmw has the same - I then looked at them the same as any car website and when I found one Audi allowed me to request a video where someone walked around the car pointing out anything I had asked them to point out in the video.

I then placed a £500 refundable deposit upon telling them I was coming over on a certain date, this allowed them to take the car offline and I could test drive and inspect the car. After the test drive I filled out some paperwork, transferred my insurance and paid for the card using Revolut and I was on the road to Holyhead by 10:30am.

If you’re worried you can get the car inspected by the RAC/AA and others that have been mentioned on this thread. I didn’t cause the car is 13 months old, had 18k kilometres, a 144 point Audi inspection and 2 year manufacture warranty.

LillySV · 01-03-2020 11:24am

brimeh wrote: »

How did you go about finding one in the UK? As in did you just find one you liked online and put a deposit on it, travelled over and picked it up/paid?

I'm looking at getting a BMW M140i so only looking over in England/Scotland but just worry about going over and it not being in the same condition as pics etc. or other issues.

I can advise you of my experience a week or two ago... I went over to Manchester/Leeds/Doncaster/chesterfield area of Uk for afew days and went hunting for cars and discovered it a total waste of time .... all the cars are on autotrader ... they won’t discount them cause they say they’re at best price out there in that area ...and that’s cause the same crowd stratstone own all the relevant dealerships and supermarkets in the country ... you can find out the details of the cars from the comfort of your sitting room here in Ireland and put a deposit on em and go over and see em then... that’s what I’ll be doing... as regards scratches etc I think they have all that fairly touched up but u could ask about that when putting on deposit

If you look at autotrader you will see loads of cars marked as reserved ... and I came across afew potential buys while in uk but they were reserved... hence why I will reserve from my armchair in future ðŸ˜Š

L-M · 01-03-2020 2:04pm

Peatys wrote: »

Export only price means no vat?
If that's the case, where would i get charged for vat? When vrt'ing it?

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202002247654462?atmobcid=soc3

Cheers

They would have to charge you VAT (20percent) on sale in the UK as you are not VAT registered.

Peatys · 01-03-2020 2:05pm

L-M wrote: »

They would have to charge you VAT (20percent) on sale in the UK as you are not VAT registered.

So what do you make of the term, export only price

L-M · 01-03-2020 3:52pm

Peatys wrote: »

So what do you make of the term, export only price

A load of bollox.

Edit what it really means is the car is probably VAT qualifying there can be purchased for export ex VAT, if you can claim it. Which as a private individual, you can’t.

Same way business advertised commercial vehicles ex VAT here.

Peatys · 01-03-2020 4:14pm

L-M wrote: »

A load of bollox.

Edit what it really means is the car is probably VAT qualifying there can be purchased for export ex VAT, if you can claim it. Which as a private individual, you can’t.

Same way business advertised commercial vehicles ex VAT here.

If my company brought it in, I'd be nailed on bik.
Whatever i end up going for will be brought in privately.

Cheers

Marcusm · 01-03-2020 4:25pm

Peatys wrote: »

Export only price means no vat?
If that's the case, where would i get charged for vat? When vrt'ing it?

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202002247654462?atmobcid=soc3

Cheers

Usually when ad says export only it means ex-EU as the car is not EU type approved or available for sale (eg designed for South Africa market). Doesn’t seem to be the case here though.

colm_mcm · 01-03-2020 4:53pm

Or it can’t be driven on uk roads because of write off category.

L-M · 01-03-2020 5:47pm

Peatys wrote: »

If my company brought it in, I'd be nailed on bik.
Whatever i end up going for will be brought in privately.

Cheers

The company would still have to pay Irish VAT on it which is actually higher than the UK VAT so it would be more expensive for the company to import it.

brimeh · 01-03-2020 11:55pm

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

Started looking at Audi.co.uk pre-owned section - I assume bmw has the same - I then looked at them the same as any car website and when I found one Audi allowed me to request a video where someone walked around the car pointing out anything I had asked them to point out in the video.

I then placed a £500 refundable deposit upon telling them I was coming over on a certain date, this allowed them to take the car offline and I could test drive and inspect the car. After the test drive I filled out some paperwork, transferred my insurance and paid for the card using Revolut and I was on the road to Holyhead by 10:30am.

If you’re worried you can get the car inspected by the RAC/AA and others that have been mentioned on this thread. I didn’t cause the car is 13 months old, had 18k kilometres, a 144 point Audi inspection and 2 year manufacture warranty.

Thanks for that info! I still have to sell my current car here so have just been browsing and trying to figure out how I might do it - hadn't thought of the video so that's very helpful!

Have also been looking into Revolut - that's fairly instant then I take it?

Not massively worried on the inspection side of things now, hoping to get one similar to you with a warranty from BMW.

LillySV wrote: »

I can advise you of my experience a week or two ago... I went over to Manchester/Leeds/Doncaster/chesterfield area of Uk for afew days and went hunting for cars and discovered it a total waste of time .... all the cars are on autotrader ... they won’t discount them cause they say they’re at best price out there in that area ...and that’s cause the same crowd stratstone own all the relevant dealerships and supermarkets in the country ... you can find out the details of the cars from the comfort of your sitting room here in Ireland and put a deposit on em and go over and see em then... that’s what I’ll be doing... as regards scratches etc I think they have all that fairly touched up but u could ask about that when putting on deposit

If you look at autotrader you will see loads of cars marked as reserved ... and I came across afew potential buys while in uk but they were reserved... hence why I will reserve from my armchair in future &#55357;&#56842;

That's very good to know, thanks! My original plan was to do exactly what you did and spend a few days over. Will definitely stick to browsing online until I find the exact one I want. Thanks!

deezell · 02-03-2020 12:10am

Peatys wrote: »

If my company brought it in, I'd be nailed on bik.
Whatever i end up going for will be brought in privately.

Cheers

With 20% UK VAT the asking price is £40,800, About average. What you should be asking is why is it export only? And why has it had both left side doors replaced. It was probably creamed in a side impact crash. Avoid.

Creamy Goodness · 02-03-2020 8:16am

brimeh wrote: »

Have also been looking into Revolut - that's fairly instant then I take it?

Once you have the money in Revolut the payment is instant. Getting (transferring) money to Revolut can be a bit of a pain depending on your Irish bank. My bank - kbc - only allows max daily transfer of €15000 per day and max single transaction of €5000. So it took me two days to get the money to Revolut.

A handy tip is to look at Revolut vaults. They’re like a savings account with a specific goal and amount. I used one of these so that the money wasn’t sitting in my Revolut main account and couldn’t be touched until I was ready to pay for the car, I then withdrew from the vault (savings account) to the main account and then did the transaction on the card.

IdHidden · 02-03-2020 3:48pm

I applied for a VRT refund on 28th January. I live in Dublin but the revenue website said to post the appeal to Wexford. I haven't had any response at all yet and when I ring they don't answer the phone. Any ideas?

User1998 · 02-03-2020 4:05pm

The VRT Appeals office is in Wexford. Just give it another couple of weeks, it takes a while

IdHidden · 02-03-2020 10:22pm

User1998 wrote: »

The VRT Appeals office is in Wexford. Just give it another couple of weeks, it takes a while

Thanks, didn't realise it would take so long.

brimeh · 03-03-2020 12:18am

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

Once you have the money in Revolut the payment is instant. Getting (transferring) money to Revolut can be a bit of a pain depending on your Irish bank. My bank - kbc - only allows max daily transfer of €15000 per day and max single transaction of €5000. So it took me two days to get the money to Revolut.

A handy tip is to look at Revolut vaults. They’re like a savings account with a specific goal and amount. I used one of these so that the money wasn’t sitting in my Revolut main account and couldn’t be touched until I was ready to pay for the car, I then withdrew from the vault (savings account) to the main account and then did the transaction on the card.

All very good to know, thank you! At what point is the currency exchange done for Revolut? Do you have Euros in your account and they do the currency exchange when paying for the car or do you ask your bank to do the exchange and put Sterling into your Revolut account?

deezell · 03-03-2020 12:35am

colm_mcm wrote: »

Or it can’t be driven on uk roads because of write off category.

brimeh wrote: »

All very good to know, thank you! At what point is the currency exchange done for Revolut? Do you have Euros in your account and they do the currency exchange when paying for the car or do you ask your bank to do the exchange and put Sterling into your Revolut account?

Never get your bank to put sterling in your Revolut ac, they'll cream you with their exchange rate. Just put in €, change it to £ in advance in the app if the rate looks good, (not at weekend), if you leave it in € and transact in £ it will be exchanged on the fly by Revolut at the current rate at the moment of the transaction.. £1000 is costing about €1146 on Revolut this minute, a bit of an improvement.

crystalbrite · 03-03-2020 12:42pm

Original sticky pages are after disappearing so I can't remember the answer.

I'm am getting a car shipped over without seeing it. It's being collected by a shipping company.
The dealer is going to give them the V5C form.
Does the UK dealer need to fill out anything in the V5C before handing it over?

Thanks!

Debub · 03-03-2020 1:25pm

crystalbrite wrote: »

Original sticky pages are after disappearing so I can't remember the answer.

I'm am getting a car shipped over without seeing it. It's being collected by a shipping company.
The dealer is going to give them the V5C form.
Does the UK dealer need to fill out anything in the V5C before handing it over?

Thanks!

No - they don't, but make sure that they DO GIVE the V5C, lots of pain otherwise as we have seen here a few times. Maybe get the driver to send a pic of it just to be sure that he has it

monseiur · 04-03-2020 1:52pm

Can someone on here confirm the following - The brother plans to import a 2018 VW Transporter Van (front seats only) from UK, am I right in advising him that all vans are charged a standard €200.00 VRT ? Also are vans subject to NoX charges ?

Thanks

deezell · 04-03-2020 5:00pm

monseiur wrote: »

Can someone on here confirm the following - The brother plans to import a 2018 VW Transporter Van (front seats only) from UK, am I right in advising him that all vans are charged a standard €200.00 VRT ? Also are vans subject to NoX charges ?

Thanks

Yes VRT, No Nox, provided he is vat registered, or signed off by employer as trade use, Otherwise it's private, nox charge, and the worst part, road tax calculated on cc, not emissions.

SilverMan101 · 05-03-2020 12:06am

Recently brought a car over from the UK . A family member is giving me the car so the ownership is just being transferred over to me . Have it booked in for the VRT inspection this week . Is it still the VRTVP2D form I fill out and a deceleration of transfer from the other owner ?

Thanks

User1998 · 05-03-2020 12:08am

No. Don’t transfer the car into your name. Just vrt the car as is. The car doesn’t have to be in your name

Atlantic Dawn · 05-03-2020 12:09am

SilverMan101 wrote: »

Recently brought a car over from the UK . A family member is giving me the car so the ownership is just being transferred over to me . Have it booked in for the VRT inspection this week . Is it still the VRTVP2D form I fill out and a deceleration of transfer from the other owner ?

Thanks

No, don't transfer the ownership, you need the full V5 form.

SilverMan101 · 05-03-2020 12:19am

I have the full V5 form but it's in my brothers name , just the export sectioned has been sent off . The car is mine now so the ownership is going to be transferred over anyway, or am I just over complicating it for myself ?

Thanks

User1998 · 05-03-2020 12:26am

You need a dated invoice from your brother for the car. Don’t change the ownership officially. You need to send the V5 to the DVLA to do that and you need the V5 for the VRT appointment. They won’t send the updated V5 to an address in Ireland, and even if they did you wouldn’t have it in time for the VRT appointment and you will have an extra owner on the car

bazz26 · 05-03-2020 1:07am

SilverMan101 wrote: »

I have the full V5 form but it's in my brothers name , just the export sectioned has been sent off . The car is mine now so the ownership is going to be transferred over anyway, or am I just over complicating it for myself ?

Thanks

The Irish authorities here don't care who the last or current UK registered owner is so your just adding unnecessary complication and an extra owner to the car. They require the full V5C to get details about the car such as UK registration, VIN, Co2 and NoX rating, etc when transferring it to Irish plates. You will also need a dated invoice from the seller (your brother) along with a ferry ticket receipt to prove when the car came into the country if from the UK mainland.

SilverMan101 · 05-03-2020 1:33am

I get what yous mean now. It doesn't matter what the name is on the V5 . So just fill out the VRTVPD2 and get an invoice from my brother , and obviously the other listed documents too . I just confused myself reading too many threads.

Thanks for the info lads&#55357;&#56397;

deezell · 05-03-2020 9:12am

Three most important things to have, the V5, V5 and V5.

Creamy Goodness · 05-03-2020 11:05am

Hey all, finally got word the V5 is at my cousin's home and they'll be coming over with it on the weekend. Quick question about Question 10. on this form

https://www.ncts.ie/media/1003/vrtformfinal-version.pdf

What the hell do I put there, the explainer text on the second page makes zero sense to me?

darragh o meara · 05-03-2020 11:50am

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

Hey all, finally got word the V5 is at my cousin's home and they'll be coming over with it on the weekend. Quick question about Question 10. on this form

https://www.ncts.ie/media/1003/vrtformfinal-version.pdf

What the hell do I put there, the explainer text on the second page makes zero sense to me?

I don’t bother filling that out. Have imported loads of cars and never done it once. It could well be on the V5 if you really wanted to fill it in

peneau · 05-03-2020 11:53am

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

Hey all, finally got word the V5 is at my cousin's home and they'll be coming over with it on the weekend. Quick question about Question 10. on this form

https://www.ncts.ie/media/1003/vrtformfinal-version.pdf

What the hell do I put there, the explainer text on the second page makes zero sense to me?

I left it blank also.

Creamy Goodness · 05-03-2020 11:57am

Glad it's not just me so :pac:, thanks all.

deezell · 05-03-2020 5:16pm

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

Glad it's not just me so :pac:, thanks all.

Just for clarity, the eu type approval is a number like this,
e.g. e13*2001/116*0260
Usually on the V5, you'll see it also on Irish reg. certs. Its implicit if the vehicle was already registered in an EU country, though if it was originally say a Jap import in UK, you would need that number on V5 as revenue here might not have it's type on record.

GodlikeRed · 05-03-2020 9:18pm

Hi Folks,

What the word on buying from NI now that the there are extra charges on top of VRT. Am looking to buy something in the €10-12k range ones all costs are taken account of.

thanks

crystalbrite · 05-03-2020 9:29pm

GodlikeRed wrote: »

Hi Folks,

What the word on buying from NI now that the there are extra charges on top of VRT. Am looking to buy something in the €10-12k range ones all costs are taken account of.

thanks

Are you looking for a petrol or diesel?

The new Nox charges are punishing old diesel engines. Diesel cars in the €10-12k are more likely to be an old Diesel engine so you might get hit with a high Nox tax.
Newer Diesel engines have a EURO6 engine and the Nox can be <100e. But there are cases where it can be several 100e still so you still need to look this up for each individual car.

The max Nox on petrol engines they can charge is 600e but often it's much lower than this.

There is no VAT being charged until 2021 at least.

The other option then is hybrids and electric cars. There's a big VRT saving on these due to a tax incentive e.g. VRT ~4000e for 1.4L TFSI A4 S-line 2016 vs ~750e for 2L BMW 330e 2016 plug in electric hybrid.

SilverMan101 · 05-03-2020 10:33pm

VRT cost on a 06 Skoda Octavia VRS . Revenue VRT calculator giving me an estimate of €4,384 including NOx and Co2 charges.

NOx value is 0.211g/km.

Is this accurate ? Probably best to scrap the car if so .

colm_mcm · 05-03-2020 10:40pm

Waste of time registering old diesels.

michellie · 06-03-2020 12:09pm

NOx has finally been added to the VRT calculator (about time) unfortunately doesn't give a breakdown of the total amount on the final quote, which is a nuisance, as you have to enter the NOx yourself, so make sure you're choosing the correct figure ( section V. 3 on the V5)

michellie · 06-03-2020 12:11pm

SilverMan101 wrote: »

VRT cost on a 06 Skoda Octavia VRS . Revenue VRT calculator giving me an estimate of €4,384 including NOx and Co2 charges.

NOx value is 0.211g/km.

Is this accurate ? Probably best to scrap the car if so .

the NOx alone on that is €3875..

SilverMan101 · 06-03-2020 1:10pm

Sure the car is only worth half of that, it's a joke. I can either scrap it or bring it back to the UK I suppose...

peneau · 06-03-2020 2:27pm

You may find the nox value of your vehicle listed in this excel document from the Revenue website

https://revenue.ie/en/importing-vehicles-duty-free-allowances/documents/vrt/nox-values.xlsx

monseiur · 10-03-2020 5:35pm

deezell wrote: »

Yes VRT, No Nox, provided he is vat registered, or signed off by employer as trade use, Otherwise it's private, nox charge, and the worst part, road tax calculated on cc, not emissions.

Thanks Deezell for reply, (just catching up now due to laptop problems:mad:)
This lad is a part time farmer and a PAYE worker, I guess he'll have no problems getting the van commercially taxed as it's for farm use - It's the NoX charges he's concerned about now (as you have confirmed that the VRT is €200.00)
If I'm reading your reply correctly, is it the case that if he qualifies for commercial tax etc. he won't have to pay NoX charges ?
He has no problem paying say €300 to €400 but a huge bill say double that would make the van uneconomical to import. It seems that VW are the most expensive make across the pond.
Thanks. M.

deezell · 10-03-2020 5:42pm

monseiur wrote: »

Thanks Deezell for reply, (just catching up now due to laptop problems:mad:)
This lad is a part time farmer and a PAYE worker, I guess he'll have no problems getting the van commercially taxed as it's for farm use - It's the NoX charges he's concerned about now (as you have confirmed that the VRT is €200.00)
If I'm reading your reply correctly, is it the case that if he qualifies for commercial tax etc. he won't have to pay NoX charges ?
He has no problem paying say €300 to €400 but a huge bill say double that would make the van uneconomical to import. It seems that VW are the most expensive make across the pond.
Thanks. M.

Unless I'm mistaken, Nox is on private cars only. Lads here were saying it's much tighter to get commercial status for a van if you're not VAT reg'd. It was easy enough in the 90s if you had 10 acres and were paye working, you just put down farm use. Haven't had a van for 13 years now, so I couldn't say how tricky it might be.

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

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