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

cojobt

cojobt wrote: »

Euro top-up Revolut, exchange to sterling, send to UK bank account takes a few hours?

Revolut advised me it'd be 1-3 working days.

For anyone interested, I sent the money around 2pm on Monday and it was in their account on Wednesday morning, and may have been there on Tuesday eve.

Duff

Rang my insurance company today about temporarily transferring my insurance policy for 24hrs to get the car I've left a deposit on home from the UK, and after going around in circles and giving them all the details for the car they ring my back and say they can't insure it as its a UK reg! What options have I, if any?

givyjoe

Duff wrote: »

Rang my insurance company today about temporarily transferring my insurance policy for 24hrs to get the car I've left a deposit on home from the UK, and after going around in circles and giving them all the details for the car they ring my back and say they can't insure it as its a UK reg! What options have I, if any?

Transfer it 'permanently', which in reality means you have 30 days to get the reg plates for your new car. That means leaving your existing one un-insured, sitting on your drive.

bazz26

They will do a permanent transfer from your existing car to the new car but as I mentioned in the last page they will not do a temporary transfer between both cars you own.

Prisoner6409

ra0044 wrote: »

I had forgotten about the tax. The dealer insisted on me taxing it for i think 6 months. I will have to claim that back now.

Does anyone know what kind of money we are talking about here. How much should I figure paying for the UK road tax up front.

bazz26

Like here the rate of tax will depend on the car but your average car's UK motor tax is low like here.

One thing though is that in the UK you can tax the car for a month, 6 months or 12 months. If you go for a month you need a UK bank account as it involves setting up a direct debit. This is the only way the DVLA will allow you to tax it for a month. So realistically you will need to tax it for 6 months using a debit or credit card and you can pay it at the dealers. Once you get the car home and it's confirmed as permanently exported with the DVLA then you can get a refund of unused motor tax from them. There is a process on their website for this. Usually the unused motor tax is rounded off to the nearest month so it you tax it for 6 months and the car is permanently exported within a month you will get 5 months tax refunded.

Damo W

paddydriver wrote: »

Since realised that my car is on their system... and she had it on my declaration form too. This makes me worried that are going to screw me on the extras, even though many of those extras are bundled in as part of promotions on the Irish price list. Will wait and see.. Might need to be thinking about an appeal if they screw me over.

Happened me last week, I was told that all cars under 1 year have to go to Revenue and that due to the increased number being processed it could take up to 10 days. (which is not a problem)

But the car was on the system and I received a statistical code, ran it on day of appointment and same VRT as I had calculated.

Should I be worried that I will be burned because of 'extras'?

Also will my VRT be based on my appointment date or the date the Revenue calculate it, as it seems to have increased today (small amount, due to mileage being spread out over another month I think?)...

paddydriver

Damo W wrote: »

Happened me last week, I was told that all cars under 1 year have to go to Revenue and that due to the increased number being processed it could take up to 10 days. (which is not a problem)

But the car was on the system and I received a statistical code, ran it on day of appointment and same VRT as I had calculated.

Should I be worried that I will be burned because of 'extras'?

Also will my VRT be based on my appointment date or the date the Revenue calculate it, as it seems to have increased today (small amount, due to mileage being spread out over another month I think?)...

15 working days later and still no word... Didn't call anyone today on as I get same answer from NCT every time. Next Monday my insurance is transferred 30 days and they tell me my policy will be cancelled.

Will get back on it tomorrow morning and will be looking for definitive answers.

JCDUB

I'm thinking of buying a 2013 car in from the UK. I've been looking on autotrader and there are a good few of them being sold by private sellers or smaller "backstreet" type garages, all with FSH.

I usually wouldn't see this as a problem and expect it tbh given the age of the car.I've always bought cars from private sellers here and had no issues.

I'm thinking that the warranty offered by a main dealer is no good to me in Ireland anyway, and there won't be much offered on a 2013 car anyhow.

However the issues of bank transfers, deposits, getting there, inspections, collection from airports etc. does worry me.

Has anybody bought from a private seller or smaller garage?
What, if any, issues did you have?
Was there anything you did differently to lessen any liability for loss on your part?
Would you recommend it?

Thanks.

paddydriver

paddydriver wrote: »

15 working days later and still no word... Didn't call anyone today on as I get same answer from NCT every time. Next Monday my insurance is transferred 30 days and they tell me my policy will be cancelled.

Will get back on it tomorrow morning and will be looking for definitive answers.

So finally got my figure this morning... was exactly as it was on the NCT calculator... :o Took 3 weeks to confirm that! Happy now that I didn't get roasted on the extras.. of which there are a lot!

J.pilkington

Hello all,

I am just about to pay a deposit and start the import process on a 7mth old car with 4k (kilometres). This is below the required 6k required to avoid Irish VAT being applied. I will be bringing the car in from GB via Belfast so thankfully will avoid the revenue cameras at the port.

I am confident that I will have greater than necessary 6k when I visit the VRT centre within the 30 days, however I see from revenue leaflets that it is actually the date the car enters the country that matters (pg 32 of link below) not the date when it visits the VRT centre.

What do the VRT centre ask for?
- Do they follow the leaflet below or just work of the odometer when the car is presented to them?
- Will they ask for for invoice from garage (my problem will be that my garage invoice will show the 4ks and as its an official bmw garage they have to show this).
- Will they insist on my Belfast ferry ticket even though I crossed into ROI via a land border (I am afraid they will say you got the car with 4ks and 10hrs later you took a ferry so not possible to put up 2ks).

I really don't want to get stung for the extra 3% VAT (after UK refund) together with all the hassle that would follow.

My plan B would be to delay by Belfast ferry by 24hrs where it would be more plausible that I completed the 2k but would prefer not to.

https://www.revenue.ie/en/tax-professionals/tdm/value-added-tax/part03-taxable-transactions-goods-ica-services/Goods/goods-transactions-motor-vehicles.pdf

I do see that several posters had similar situations except they (and subsequent posters) were under the impression that its the odometer at the date of the VRT inspection is what counts, not the date of entry to the country - so maybe my leaflet is wrong / not followed.

Silpac wrote: »

please help !

Ok I'm clear that anything my car I'm importing will be subject to VAT also if its either less than 6,000km OR less than 6 months old.
Its 7 months old but only 3200km.

I understand I have 7 days to make an appointment and that the criteria above apply at REGITRATION. Am I correct in understanding this is the day at the NCT centre which within the 30 days of first entry. So I need to put up 2,800 km quickly ?! I can do this during the 30 days is y assessment.

Anyone any experience here ?

slave1 wrote: »

I'm in the same boat with 3,234kms to make up, just plan on driving up the shortfall to the 6,000kms over the first 29 of my 30 days, 2 hrs on the motorway every second night should do it, just take it on the chin if the car is worth it, certainly worth it for me...

awec

J.pilkington wrote: »

Hello all,

I am just about to pay a deposit and start the import process on a 7mth old car with 4k (kilometres). This is below the required 6k required to avoid Irish VAT being applied. I will be bringing the car in from GB via Belfast so thankfully will avoid the revenue cameras at the port.

I am confident that I will have greater than necessary 6k when I visit the VRT centre within the 30 days, however I see from revenue leaflets that it is actually the date the car enters the country that matters (pg 32 of link below) not the date when it visits the VRT centre.

What do the VRT centre ask for?
- Do they follow the leaflet below or just work of the odometer when the car is presented to them?
- Will they ask for for invoice from garage (my problem will be that my garage invoice will show the 4ks and as its an official bmw garage they have to show this).
- Will they insist on my Belfast ferry ticket even though I crossed into ROI via a land border (I am afraid they will say you got the car with 4ks and 10hrs later you took a ferry so not possible to put up 2ks).

I really don't want to get stung for the extra 3% VAT (after UK refund) together with all the hassle that would follow.

My plan B would be to delay by Belfast ferry by 24hrs where it would be more plausible that I completed the 2k but would prefer not to.

https://www.revenue.ie/en/tax-professionals/tdm/value-added-tax/part03-taxable-transactions-goods-ica-services/Goods/goods-transactions-motor-vehicles.pdf

I do see that several posters had similar situations except they (and subsequent posters) were under the impression that its the odometer at the date of the VRT inspection is what counts, not the date of entry to the country - so maybe my leaflet is wrong / not followed.

The revenue leaflet is misleading.

Arriving in the state = when you bring it for VRT. The mileage for VAT purposes is whatever the odometer says when they inspect it at the VRT centre.

Revenue have no way of knowing the mileage of a car when it enters the state, they don't really even have a way of knowing when a car enters the state never mind the mileage. The odometer at VRT is the best they can do and that's what they go off.

Doesn't matter if your invoice has a much lower mileage than your odometer at inspection time.

J.pilkington

Thanks for the reply, upon further reading I do see the following which does align to your post:

"VAT and Customs Duty
Value Added Tax (VAT)
A goods or passenger vehicle or motor cycle is new and VAT is chargeable if it meets either one of the following:

it has travelled 6,000 kilometres or less at the time the vehicle is first presented for registration."

https://www.revenue.ie/en/importing-vehicles-duty-free-allowances/guide-to-vrt/calculating-vrt/vat-and-customs-duty.aspx

Just one point, i have seen it mentioned several times that revenue do have ANPR cameras at dublin port so they do know when a car has entered the country. And from using the port a lot in previous years they do have an active presence there.

awec

J.pilkington wrote: »

Thanks for the reply, upon further reading I do see the following which does align to your post:

"VAT and Customs Duty
Value Added Tax (VAT)
A goods or passenger vehicle or motor cycle is new and VAT is chargeable if it meets either one of the following:

it has travelled 6,000 kilometres or less at the time the vehicle is first presented for registration."

https://www.revenue.ie/en/importing-vehicles-duty-free-allowances/guide-to-vrt/calculating-vrt/vat-and-customs-duty.aspx

Just one point, i have seen it mentioned several times that revenue do have ANPR cameras at dublin port so they do know when a car has entered the country. And from using the port a lot in previous years they do have an active presence there.

Even if Revenue do monitor cars coming off the ferry (and I doubt they are really monitoring this), they are not checking the mileage.

seannash

Hi all,
Slightly confused by all the info here.
So I have the car bought and I'm picking it up in Liverpool on the 11th.
In terms of what I have to do when I get it into the country I'm clear but what do I have to do to get it into Ireland. Do I have to present anything when I arrive?
I've read I need to inform the UK government that Im exporting the car but I assume I can do that at a later stage.

bazz26

You don't need to inform the UK government of anything As part of the changing the registration to Irish plates process here, Shannon will notify the DVLA in the UK that your car has been exported permanently. Just make sure you get the full UK V5C registration document (logbook) from the UK seller as you need this to re-register the car in Ireland.

masit

J.pilkington wrote: »

Thanks for the reply, upon further reading I do see the following which does align to your post:

"VAT and Customs Duty
Value Added Tax (VAT)
A goods or passenger vehicle or motor cycle is new and VAT is chargeable if it meets either one of the following:

it has travelled 6,000 kilometres or less at the time the vehicle is first presented for registration."

https://www.revenue.ie/en/importing-vehicles-duty-free-allowances/guide-to-vrt/calculating-vrt/vat-and-customs-duty.aspx

Just one point, i have seen it mentioned several times that revenue do have ANPR cameras at dublin port so they do know when a car has entered the country. And from using the port a lot in previous years they do have an active presence there.

What about the cars imported from the north and from Scotland using Belfast port. If they do check, I'm sure they are missing a good few cars from the north/Scotland

plu

I had to pay UK vat and will have to pay Irish vat on a car which is less than six months old.

How do I go about reclaiming rhe UK vat? The UK dealer won’t cooperate. I have the vat invoice for the car.

LeakingLava

Hey guys,

As a result of my thread( https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057860326&page=2 ), I am now persuaded to consider importing from the UK. My issue is that I'm not entirely sure if I can afford it on my budget so I wanted to ask about my calculations to see if it's doable at all. From the OP, here is my calculation so far:

Tax 180
Flights 60 (Partner coming with me)
Ferry 255 (Again, partner coming with me. This is the refundable price until 2 hours before departure)
VRT 700 (This is the highest that I've seen on the example plate numbers that I've seen)
RAC Inspection 275
HPI 35
Fuel 60 (£50 enough?)

Total 1565

Left from 10000 = 8435 (£7191 from AIB exchange rate)

My main question is, are these calculations correct? If so, could I haggle £8500-£8990 down to around £7500? I do have a few hundred to add towards the car after the €10k, but it was really meant to be just in case of emergencies.

Examples:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201802083550271?radius=100&keywords=sat%20nav&sort=price-asc&postcode=l38en&make=LEXUS&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=New&advertising-location=at_cars&model=CT%20200H&page=1
https://www.carsite.co.uk/used-car/lexus/ct/mtz_13302_48722581
https://www.carsite.co.uk/used-car/lexus/ct/sat_2797_299050442208102
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201803224836824?model=CT%20200H&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=New&make=LEXUS&postcode=l38en&sort=price-asc&advertising-location=at_cars&keywords=sat%20nav&radius=100&page=1

EDIT: Things I forgot to take into account:

Number plates
Travel costs in UK
Flights are actually a lot more expensive than 60. I think my partner might have quoted the wrong dates on that one. I think it works out at around 250. I am looking to schedule the flight for within this week, which is probably why it's a much higher price. I will now consider scheduling everything for next week for which the flights cost 68 for the both of us. The ferry is also a bit cheaper so the calculations work out pretty much the same in this case. (Everything tentatively scheduled for 19/04/2018.)

Fann Linn

I don't think you'll get a €1000 off the price. I'm also looking and to date the most a dealer has moved is €300. Let us know how you get on.
Good luck.

LeakingLava

Fann Linn wrote: »

I don't think you'll get a €1000 off the price. I'm also looking and to date the most a dealer has moved is €300. Let us know how you get on.
Good luck.

In that case, I probably wouldn't risk all the hassle to go over. There just isn't much options for me on this budget for this specific vehicle so I just don't think I can actually afford it.

Fann Linn

LeakingLava wrote: »

In that case, I probably wouldn't risk all the hassle to go over. There just isn't much options for me on this budget for this specific vehicle so I just don't think I can actually afford it.

Have ye phoned up the dealers and asked them for their best quote? I rang up up a fair few and it's pretty hard to get hard cash knocked off the price. I've been offered oem mats, sat navs, aa membership etc but its hard to move them on price.

I've just decided to save the extra couple of €k and go over in Sept/Oct.
Looking at volvo s60 myself.

LeakingLava

Fann Linn wrote: »

Have ye phoned up the dealers and asked them for their best quote? I rang up up a fair few and it's pretty hard to get hard cash knocked off the price. I've been offered oem mats, sat navs, aa membership etc but its hard to move them on price.

I've just decided to save the extra couple of €k and go over in Sept/Oct.
Looking at volvo s60 myself.

I haven't yet as this option only came up for me last night. I was going to try and ask, however, I don't think there's much point as any article/thread that I've seen so far are saying that around 5% is about right in terms of discount. In which case, even if true, still isn't down to my budget. It just doesn't seem like it's worth it for the budget that I have. I do completely understand though if my budget was about €5k higher. I would've definitely gone over as the miscellaneous costs would've definitely been worth it.

Fann Linn

LeakingLava wrote: »

I haven't yet as this option only came up for me last night. I was going to try and ask, however, I don't think there's much point as any article/thread that I've seen so far are saying that around 5% is about right in terms of discount. In which case, even if true, still isn't down to my budget. It just doesn't seem like it's worth it for the budget that I have. I do completely understand though if my budget was about €5k higher. I would've definitely gone over as the miscellaneous costs would've definitely been worth it.

In fairness, you've got to do the groundwork from the comfort of your kitchen before hopping on any plane. Pick 5/6 cars that really catch your eye and start making those calls.

LeakingLava

Fann Linn wrote: »

In fairness, you've got to do the groundwork from the comfort of your kitchen before hopping on any plane. Pick 5/6 cars that really catch your eye and start making those calls.

Of course I wouldn't fly just like that. I wouldn't fly at all if I don't do these checks. I will still try call a few up later on and see. Worse comes to worst, I will probably settle with less specs locally. I don't think I have much choice. I'd imagine I'm about €1-2k short and that's on absolute maximum budget-wise. Ah well, we'll see how things get on later on when I make those calls to the examples above.

Thank you very much.

givyjoe

LeakingLava wrote: »

Hey guys,

As a result of my thread( https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057860326&page=2 ), I am now persuaded to consider importing from the UK. My issue is that I'm not entirely sure if I can afford it on my budget so I wanted to ask about my calculations to see if it's doable at all. From the OP, here is my calculation so far:

Tax 180
Flights 60 (Partner coming with me)
Ferry 255 (Again, partner coming with me. This is the refundable price until 2 hours before departure)
VRT 700 (This is the highest that I've seen on the example plate numbers that I've seen)
RAC Inspection 275
HPI 35
Fuel 60 (£50 enough?)

Total 1565

Left from 10000 = 8435 (£7191 from AIB exchange rate)

My main question is, are these calculations correct? If so, could I haggle £8500-£8990 down to around £7500? I do have a few hundred to add towards the car after the €10k, but it was really meant to be just in case of emergencies.

Examples:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201802083550271?radius=100&keywords=sat%20nav&sort=price-asc&postcode=l38en&make=LEXUS&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=New&advertising-location=at_cars&model=CT%20200H&page=1
https://www.carsite.co.uk/used-car/lexus/ct/mtz_13302_48722581
https://www.carsite.co.uk/used-car/lexus/ct/sat_2797_299050442208102
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201803224836824?model=CT%20200H&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=New&make=LEXUS&postcode=l38en&sort=price-asc&advertising-location=at_cars&keywords=sat%20nav&radius=100&page=1

EDIT: Things I forgot to take into account:

Number plates
Travel costs in UK
Flights are actually a lot more expensive than 60. I think my partner might have quoted the wrong dates on that one. I think it works out at around 250. I am looking to schedule the flight for within this week, which is probably why it's a much higher price. I will now consider scheduling everything for next week for which the flights cost 68 for the both of us. The ferry is also a bit cheaper so the calculations work out pretty much the same in this case. (Everything tentatively scheduled for 19/04/2018.)

I'd say have a look at some cars in the north for that budget. Still some great cars with great specs to be had. There's a fair few nice 141/142 Mazda 6's around for circa 7/8k sterling for example.

LeakingLava

givyjoe wrote: »

I'd say have a look at some cars in the north for that budget. Still some great cars with great specs to be had. There's a fair few nice 141/142 Mazda 6's around for circa 7/8k sterling for example.

I wouldn't mind going to the north for the car, however, I kind of had my eye fixed on the Lexus CT200H as it always catches my eye whenever there's one on the road. And I do like the idea of better fuel consumption. I will have a look around for options again and see if there's a car that would change my mind. Any suggestions of a website that I could use? I've checked usedcarsni previously with not much results. Thanks a lot!

givyjoe

LeakingLava wrote: »

I wouldn't mind going to the north for the car, however, I kind of had my eye fixed on the Lexus CT200H as it always catches my eye whenever there's one on the road. And I do like the idea of better fuel consumption. I will have a look around for options again and see if there's a car that would change my mind. Any suggestions of a website that I could use? I've checked usedcarsni previously with not much results. Thanks a lot!

I find the traditional car sites crap to use. I just used donedeal, it lets you filter by country of registration and province (also county) to make it easy to find NI based cars.

Probably best to just filter sales from Dealers only. Handy tip is to scroll down to the bottom of an add and see the dealers full listing of cars. They have more than one car of the model you are looking for.

bazz26

LeakingLava wrote: »

I wouldn't mind going to the north for the car, however, I kind of had my eye fixed on the Lexus CT200H as it always catches my eye whenever there's one on the road. And I do like the idea of better fuel consumption. I will have a look around for options again and see if there's a car that would change my mind. Any suggestions of a website that I could use? I've checked usedcarsni previously with not much results. Thanks a lot!

Here is one up North:
https://www.usedcarsni.com/2011-Lexus-CT-200h-SE-L-1-8-CVT-AUTO-LEATHER-HEATED-SEATS-196526247?search_type=1&make=36&fuel_type=0&age_from=0&price_from=0&user_type=0&model=69111968&trans_type=0&age_to=0&price_to=0&mileage_to=0&keywords=&distance_enabled=0&distance_miles=50&distance_postcode=&car_class=

VRT is coming in at about €700.

LeakingLava

bazz26 wrote: »

Here is one up North:
https://www.usedcarsni.com/2011-Lexus-CT-200h-SE-L-1-8-CVT-AUTO-LEATHER-HEATED-SEATS-196526247?search_type=1&make=36&fuel_type=0&age_from=0&price_from=0&user_type=0&model=69111968&trans_type=0&age_to=0&price_to=0&mileage_to=0&keywords=&distance_enabled=0&distance_miles=50&distance_postcode=&car_class=

VRT is coming in at about €700.

If there isn't much haggling on price, this vehicle would come out at around €11000. Still a little bit outside my budget, however, more to the point, there is one local that is asking 10900 for the same spec(without the screen).

Also, there is this one: https://www.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/lexus-ct200h-1-8-cvt-se-hybrid-automatic-model-/18438441 that I could maybe ask for a discount on to get down to 10500 or so? Pro on this one is that it has the screen which is the main spec that I was really only concerned with. What do you think?