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

contrary_devil

Brussels Sprout wrote: »

I have my NCT appointment next week. On the email that they sent me is:



Looking at the forms that are linked, the one in #1 appears to be for Commercial buyers (TAN holders) and the one in number #2 seems to be for people who bought cars that are going to end up being registered by someone else.

Is there a third form for private individuals who are going to register the car in their own name or do I just use one of the two above?

It's #2 you need to complete but you don't fill in section 3 if you bought the car yourself.

Holy Diver

Hi

This has probably been answered before so apologies in advance. Is the online VRT calculator generally accurate in relation to the amount payable when you go to make the payment?

Thanks

Amouar

Holy Diver wrote: »

Hi

This has probably been answered before so apologies in advance. Is the online VRT calculator generally accurate in relation to the amount payable when you go to make the payment?

Thanks

Yes its is, provided that you correctly enter your car details.

darragh o meara

Holy Diver wrote: »

Hi

This has probably been answered before so apologies in advance. Is the online VRT calculator generally accurate in relation to the amount payable when you go to make the payment?

Thanks

Just check the details on the Email. I had issues with giving the wrong model on a BMW Gave a quote for an SE instead of an MSport which threw out the VRT quote by a few hundred quid.

contrary_devil

How long will I have to wait after paying the VRT and getting a car registered to be able to tax it online?

Amouar

contrary_devil wrote: »

How long will I have to wait after paying the VRT and getting a car registered to be able to tax it online?

1 day.

johnjay1

What happens if.....

A registered Irish company buys a passenger jeep from a VAT registered dealer in the uk. The dealer doesnt charge VAT as the vehicle is being sold to a VAT registered company.

The jeep is imported and converted to a 2-seat commercial before its VRTed. Engineers report issued to say its now a commercial vehicle.
Does the company have to pay Irish VAT on this?

kuro68k

contrary_devil wrote: »

How long will I have to wait after paying the VRT and getting a car registered to be able to tax it online?

In my experience it took about a week!

Bobeagleburger

contrary_devil wrote: »

How long will I have to wait after paying the VRT and getting a car registered to be able to tax it online?

Next day

TripleSSS

Does anyone know how you can get the statistical code for a car to input into the VRT website.

Pkiernan

TripleSSS wrote: »

Does anyone know how you can get the statistical code for a car to input into the VRT website.

You first have to enter all the details manually. Then it will generate a stat code for you to use again later.

normanbond

The statistical code is given to you after each search u do. It is included at the bottom of your search result. It allows for a quick search again. Cars don't have an individual search code.

wassie

It's also worth retaining the statistical code (in fact do a printout) when paying the VRT. Last car I imported they had the wrong model as the VRT was higher than I expected. When I queried it I supplied them with the Statistical Code and quickly sorted the issue. Useful when there are a lot of similar models with minor differences.

aidyhawse

Hi,

Just a quick query. I'm looking at importing a car from NI but the MOT is set to expire before the VRT inspection. Will I need to book a separate NCT test once the car has the initial VRT inspection, insured and taxed or will I be issued with a new NCT certificate at the VRT inspection?

bazz26

I'd imagine you would have to get a NCT here. Easiest thing is get the seller to MOT it as part of the sale and then transfer that to a NCT when you VRT it down here. Just make sure to get the new MOT cert from the seller.

Isambard

yes, the NCT cert in these circs expires when the MoT cert does, so you'd need to NCT it straight away unless you do as Bazz suggests

normanbond

The original MOT cert didn't come with my car and I probably can't get it at this stage. On the UK government website it shows that the car is mot'd up until end of October 2019. In terms of NCT ...is this any use?

bazz26

They need the MOT cert afaik.

This crowd will issue a replacement but not sure how it works for cars that have been exported. Worth asking them anyway:

http://www.lostmotcertificate.co.uk/

aidyhawse

Given that the car I'm looking at is only a 2010 car, it'll make more sense to go with the NCT over MOT as I'll get 2 years instead of the 1 year. Please just say NCT waiting lists are a lot better than MOT waiting lists lol

Cheers for the advice though!

Brussels Sprout

I received the last of my paperwork today to finalise a purchase of a car from the UK. I found this thread an invaluable resource throughout the process. I'd like to give something back by going through all the steps that I went through, in long, boring, chronological order, which might be of some help to anyone who is doing some research buying a car in this manner.

Preliminary work: Before getting the wheels in motion with an actual purchase I spent a good few weeks researching the entire process. I read several months worth of posts on this thread and set up e-mail alerts on some British websites (autotrader.co.uk and motors.co.uk) which would alert me when the type of car I was looking for would appear.

Day 0: Found a car that fit the criteria I was looking for. The first thing I did was pay for one of those online car tests to see if the Reg showed up anything. This came back clean. After that I phoned the dealer (using Skype) and agreed to transfer £100 in their account as a deposit. For this they would remove the car adverts and hold it for a week.
I then booked a test with https://www.dekra-expert.co.uk/ to arrange for someone to go and give the car a thorough inspection. One thing that's worth mentioning here is I ran into difficulties filling in the form on their website. After sending a screenshot to customer support they told me that it was my Irish address and just to place X's in the address box instead which worked fine.

Day 1: DEKRA contacted me to say that their pre-check showed that there was some outstanding finance showing on the car (so much for the other check!). They said it was something called "unit-stacking" which is common enough in the used car business but that I should seek clarification with the dealer before proceeding. I e-mailed the garage and googled the term. Apparently it's a standard enough way for dealers to purchase cars which they then pay off after the car is sold. The dealer replied saying as much. I told DEKRA I was happy to proceed and later that afternoon they told me that they'd arranged an appointment for early the next week.

Day 6: In the late afternoon I received an email saying that my Report was ready to download. This was 22 pages long (including photographs). It was fairly detailed although some of the sections seemed fairly generic. Fortunately they also included the phone number of the inspector so I rang him up when I got home and we had a decent chat about it. Now obviously he can't say "Buy this car" but I definitely got a good vibe from him about it so I decided to go ahead with it.
Sent another £100 to the dealer to hold the car for another week.

Day 7: Picked a day the following week that was convenient for myself and my employer. Booked return flights (just in case) and a ferry from Hollyhead to Dublin. I went for a 6am flight and a 8pm ferry to give me the maximum time possible. I also went with the flexible ferry ticket which would allow me to cancel with 2 hours notice (and give me access to the premium lounge).
Rang my Insurance company and told them I'd be transferring to a new reg. This wasn't a problem (except I had to pay for a higher premium due to the higher spec car) and they told me they'd send out paperwork.
Emailed the dealer telling them the date I'd be over and asked that they have 4 things ready for me:

1. the full V5C
2. The MOT cert
3. An invoice
4. A letter declaring that the finance would be paid off

Day 14 D-day. Had an epic journey to get to the dealer as they were out in a small country town in Bedforshire. Got up at 4am and took a taxi, flight, train and 2 buses to get there.
Took the car for a test drive. Grand. Settled up the paperwork then. They hadn't supplied the finance letter so I insisted that they write one for me before completing the purchase. I had a UK bank account from a previous time where I lived there so I was able to pay with my debit card (although I had brought my laptop as a backup to do an internet transfer if the card didn't work).
The journey to Holyhead was long and boring notable only for the fact that the police pulled me over near the Welsh border. They told me that the car had been flagged on a licence-plate scanner as having no insurance. Thankfully I had the letter from the insurance company on me and when they saw that they were happy to wave me on. Interestingly I had not purchased tax but they didn't even mention it (I did tell them where I was heading though so they probably took that into account).

Day 15 Back in Ireland. Booked the VRT. I was expecting to have to wait a long period but was offered 2 dates at the end of the month which were less than a fortnight away.

Day 30 VRT appointment. It worked out costing pretty much what the estimator on their website said it would be. I had gotten into a bit of a panic when I realised that I was missing a few sections of the VRT but it turns out I had enough of it. For what it is worth, I had one A-4 size page which had sections 1-8 (I think).
It is worth metioning as well that for proof of import they took the small receipt that I had gotten at Holyhead and not the ticket that Stena had e-mailed me.
I had a letter from a government department with my PRSI number on it which they took for both proof of address and PRSI number.
I bought my reg plate there and then as well (I ended up drilling holes in those to screw them on rather than use the double-sided tape that they gave me with them).
They also gave me a form to fill in and send off with my MOT cert to swap them for an NCT cert.

Day 32
Paid my annual tax. Wasn't impressed when I saw that I had to pay for the entire of November even though I had registered the car on the second last day of it (maybe it was based on the date on when I imported it but it didn't look like it).
Rang my insurance company with the new reg. Posted off the MOT cert.

Day 36
Got my tax disc in the post

Day 38
Got my new log book in the post

Day 41
Got my insurance disc and NCT cert in the post. Done!

wassie

Kudos for a brilliant post.

Having imported a few cars myself, I still learn something every time from others experiences. The MOT is something that I always wonder about - I tend to take it out regardless but interesting that you didn't.

You did miss out the final step - Appealing for a reduction in the VRT!!
Plenty of threads around to cover this - I've always managed to get a decent amount back with a reasonable claim.

https://www.revenue.ie/en/importing-vehicles-duty-free-allowances/guide-to-vrt/appeals/index.aspx

slave1

Always worth mentioning to avoid booking your VRT appointment at the end of the month as your car tax kicks in the day of VRT...

bfa1509

Brussels Sprout wrote: »

I received the last of my paperwork today to finalise a purchase of a car from the UK. I found this thread an invaluable resource throughout the process. I'd like to give something back by going through all the steps that I went through, in long, boring, chronological order, which might be of some help to anyone who is doing some research buying a car in this manner.

wassie wrote: »

Kudos for a brilliant post.

Having imported a few cars myself, I still learn something every time from others experiences. The MOT is something that I always wonder about - I tend to take it out regardless but interesting that you didn't.

You did miss out the final step - Appealing for a reduction in the VRT!!
Plenty of threads around to cover this - I've always managed to get a decent amount back with a reasonable claim.

https://www.revenue.ie/en/importing-vehicles-duty-free-allowances/guide-to-vrt/appeals/index.aspx

I got 350 back, definitely worth it - covered the cost of the flight, ferry and fuel!

bifl

Hi,
Just looking at the list or documents you should get from the dealer

• the full V5C
• The MOT cert
• An invoice
• A letter declaring that the finance would be paid off

The car I'm looking at is 2 years old so there is no MOT done yet on the car so skip this item?

In the case above then with no MOT cert I presume again as the car is 2 years old that I don't need to disply an NCT in Ireland until its 4 years old.

Brussels Sprout

wassie wrote: »

You did miss out the final step - Appealing for a reduction in the VRT!!
Plenty of threads around to cover this - I've always managed to get a decent amount back with a reasonable claim.

https://www.revenue.ie/en/importing-vehicles-duty-free-allowances/guide-to-vrt/appeals/index.aspx

bfa1509 wrote: »

I got 350 back, definitely worth it - covered the cost of the flight, ferry and fuel!

I didn't even consider this. Looking at the process there it seems that you need to show proof that they over-valued your car.

What would constitute proof of this - DoneDeal ads of similar specc'd cars?

My car is a '12 reg and I think from memory that it is 154g of CO2. Based on the info in this link would that be 20% or 23% OMSP?

Hulk Hands

Does anyone know if I (UK based) bring my current car back in future and avail of the tax exemption, would I have to pay x months insurance in my name to get the road tax and VRT or could a parent (who'll prob be the one using the car in my absence) insure it instead and then we Tax, VRT it.

Plan would be to move home in the medium term but I'll probably head travelling after a few weeks if I do and would rather not pay 3 months insurance

Marcusm

Hulk Hands wrote: »

Does anyone know if I (UK based) bring my current car back in future and avail of the tax exemption, would I have to pay x months insurance in my name to get the road tax and VRT or could a parent (who'll prob be the one using the car in my absence) insure it instead and then we Tax, VRT it.

Plan would be to move home in the medium term but I'll probably head travelling after a few weeks if I do and would rather not pay 3 months insurance

To avail of the exemption, you have to prove that you are moving residence to Ireland. If you acquire a new property (lease or purchase) and take on a new job, the evidence required is pretty easy. However, you say “absence” so I doubt that you’ll have that evidence. A condition of the exemption is that you don’t loan the car to an Irish resident to drive. Again, a restriction that’s unlikely to help you!

Hulk Hands

Marcusm wrote: »

To avail of the exemption, you have to prove that you are moving residence to Ireland. If you acquire a new property (lease or purchase) and take on a new job, the evidence required is pretty easy. However, you say “absence” so I doubt that you’ll have that evidence. A condition of the exemption is that you don’t loan the car to an Irish resident to drive. Again, a restriction that’s unlikely to help you!

The travel period would be no more than 4 months or so but yeah I thought that might be an issue. I could just leave it laid up but again, insuring it is would be a waste and the quotes look hefty

Coley35

DrZeuss wrote: »

From what i remember:
- create an account on their site
- sign the form and send back (email)
- go through any money laundering checks they may have (proof of address, proof of where the money came from, loan... etc)
- lodge money to their account (if BOI, transfer to a BOI account of theirs, if AIB...similar)
- Pick time you want to send the money to destination
- Money gets sent (if destination is Ulster Bank, then it'll come from Transfermate's Ulster Bank account)

I think they said it would occur within 1 hour window of the time (but appears to be instant from my experience).
Plus you can add your email and the destination email address for receipt

Found them extremely helpful, and a lot better than credit card / bank transfer.

Hi, thanks for advice. I am currently in the process of purchasing a car from the UK and have signed up to Transfermate.
All proof of id provided and my A/c is now set up and ready to use.
They are looking for a screenshot of my funds in my bank before I go into bank and transfer funds to them.
Is this the usual process?
They have my iban etc when I registered, just seems a bit strange that they need a screenshot of my statement
Thanks in advance for any advice...

mgn

Not unusual,The just want to see that the account is active.Like the date of the last transaction.Just show them the top line of the statement,that will do them.