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

Carpentry

Conchy wrote: »

Just wondering will there be any problem starting a new insurance policy with a car with a UK reg?

You can swap over your own insurance for up to a month.

Conchy

Carpentry wrote: »

You can swap over your own insurance for up to a month.

But my policy ended last week so I'll have to start a new policy and was just wondering will that be a problem?

bazz26

Some might not cover you. You will have to ring and ask.

aka7

Was looking at usedCars on skoda.uk site.
I noticed few 2017/2018 cars that were not UK taxed for 6 months to a year.
Low enough mileage.

Was wondering what the story is there, can't sell them or if they are "model" cars?
If model cars, don't they get drive tested by customers so tax would be needed?

Any thoughts ?

Chartsengrafs

Dovies wrote: »

Can I use the Revolut to pay my VRT? Car is paid for an in the country - VRT appointment next week. TSB is max 1500 on the debit card so Revolut would work

It operates like a credit card so yes, it can be used for payments in general. I paid for part of a UK car with revolut last week, but needed to validate it first at a chip and pin. Bought a sandwich and a can of the fancy orange with the tin foil lid.

mgn

aka7 wrote: »

Was looking at usedCars on skoda.uk site.
I noticed few 2017/2018 cars that were not UK taxed for 6 months to a year.
Low enough mileage.

Was wondering what the story is there, can't sell them or if they are "model" cars?
If model cars, don't they get drive tested by customers so tax would be needed?

Any thoughts ?

Garages don't need to tax demo cars because the have garage plates, the just stick it on the dash for test drive.Demo cars are usually top spec.

Buffman

Conchy wrote: »

Just wondering will there be any problem starting a new insurance policy with a car with a UK reg?

I had no problem doing this, I was switching from commercial to private so I had to cancel the commercial policy and switched companies. The 30 day rule will still apply with the new policy.

Debub

Lads - does anyone have any insight into the sudden VRT increases? or is this normal for it to change (go up) as the perceived value of the car should not have gone up logically - or is it to offset the Pound devaluation?
any thoughts?

aodomhnaill

Debub wrote: »

Lads - does anyone have any insight into the sudden VRT increases? or is this normal for it to change (go up) as the perceived value of the car should not have gone up logically - or is it to offset the Pound devaluation?
any thoughts?

I'm curious as to this as well, what reason would revenue have for the fluctuation, you mention the pound, I fail to see how they could justify currency fluctuation for the value of the car to go up, also pound has bounced back somewhat in the last 10 days. As you say, logically, if anything the car should be going down in value as each day goes by. At the very least it should remain the same.

lordlame

Spoke with ptsb - €5,000 limit online with open24, can transfer another €5,000 by calling open24.

That’s €10,000 per day transfer to another account without setting foot in a branch.

Can transfer up to €100,000 in a branch otherwise, between 10am to 3pm.

Advised not to go into the branch after 14:50 to transfer anything over €10,000 as could run into issues.

aristotle25

Thats intersting about the VRT calculator. I stored my quote I did on 18th July and when I enter in all the same details now the VRT estimate has gone up.

The rate of VRT has not changed (20%) but the "rate of depreciation for this vehicle" has changed from 29% to 25%, hence the "current OSMP" value determined by Revenue has gone up from 44.7k to 47.4k. So then the VRT due increases too.

Sneaky.

I would imagine when Revenue get the quotes\invoices in they look at the euro equivalent values and then update their database and say that is the open market selling price for the car.

deezell

Debub wrote: »

Lads - does anyone have any insight into the sudden VRT increases? or is this normal for it to change (go up) as the perceived value of the car should not have gone up logically - or is it to offset the Pound devaluation?
any thoughts?

The OMSPs of cars are set partly 'in consultation with the trade'. Given the increased noises emanating from SIMI and others, and their distaste of private individuals importing quality high spec cars, (unlike the high miles base spec junk preferred by many dealers), I would mot be surprised at all if they have a hand in inflating OMSP. Easy to do, just advertise at ridiculous prices, the give generous trade ins. Sure, they have to pay the higher VRT too, but if it helps to curb private imports, they're happy. Just my opinion mind.

deezell

They revenue can't easily change the OMSP original price if say a 4 year old car, but they can change the depreciation by referring to current offered prices for used cars. The UK invoice price has no bearing on what you pay, it's the Irish price new at the time.

aristotle25

deezell wrote: »

They revenue can't easily change the OMSP original price if say a 4 year old car, but they can change the depreciation by referring to current offered prices for used cars. The UK invoice price has no bearing on what you pay, it's the Irish price new at the time.

Wonder what explain the change it OMSP in my case, it was a 6 month old car that is now apparently worth 3k more than last month?

I would think when they look at the sales invoice from the UK they use that to determine the OMSP for that type of car, age and mileage?

PaulKK

Just checked this too. Models I was looking at gone up between 300-500.

aka7

mgn wrote: »

Garages don't need to tax demo cars because the have garage plates, the just stick it on the dash for test drive.Demo cars are usually top spec.

I spoke to one of such dealer, car not taxed since Oct 2018.
He said it was fleet car coming from VW and only since May in their sale list (Skoda approved dealer). Basically car not driven for 10 months

Not sure what to think

Liamo_mu

Anyone here ever buy a uk car from an irish dealer. The car still has UK plates. They said price includes vrt.

SO how does it work do they take it for a VRT appointment and i pay them the whole sum or do i take it but only pay the price minus the vrt?

Isambard

Liamo_mu wrote: »

Anyone here ever buy a uk car from an irish dealer. The car still has UK plates. They said price includes vrt.

SO how does it work do they take it for a VRT appointment and i pay them the whole sum or do i take it but only pay the price minus the vrt?

if they are following the procedure , they will VRT it and it will come to you on Irish plates.

Kitty6277

Checked what mine would be out of curiosity, paid €932, it’s now gone down to €744 :eek:

deezell

aristotle25 wrote: »

deezell wrote: »

They revenue can't easily change the OMSP original price if say a 4 year old car, but they can change the depreciation by referring to current offered prices for used cars. The UK invoice price has no bearing on what you pay, it's the Irish price new at the time.

Wonder what explain the change it OMSP in my case, it was a 6 month old car that is now apparently worth 3k more than last month?

I would think when they look at the sales invoice from the UK they use that to determine the OMSP for that type of car, age and mileage?

For very new cars, the spec for a particular model class (e.g, SE, sport etc.) may not yet be defined on the VRT site, and might not have an Irish spec equivalent. UK specs might exceed the nearest Irish equivalent (and base UK models might be well under ours), so the revenue might become aware after a few imports that say, the UK 'premiere' edition has 2 or 3 options more than the Irish edition, so they will price these, and add them to OMSP.
Back in the noughties, sat nav was rare on Irish cars, but not on UK, so many were clobbered by revenue when they presented for inspection a car which was never sold here with nav as standard.

L-M

deezell wrote: »

The OMSPs of cars are set partly 'in consultation with the trade'. Given the increased noises emanating from SIMI and others, and their distaste of private individuals importing quality high spec cars, (unlike the high miles base spec junk preferred by many dealers), I would mot be surprised at all if they have a hand in inflating OMSP. Easy to do, just advertise at ridiculous prices, the give generous trade ins. Sure, they have to pay the higher VRT too, but if it helps to curb private imports, they're happy. Just my opinion mind.

No they’re not and your entire post is pure nonsense.

bazz26

Liamo_mu wrote: »

Anyone here ever buy a uk car from an irish dealer. The car still has UK plates. They said price includes vrt.

SO how does it work do they take it for a VRT appointment and i pay them the whole sum or do i take it but only pay the price minus the vrt?

I've bought a few newly imported cars from dealers here. A legit dealer will pay the VRT and put it on Irish plates when you buy it. The price you pay will include the VRT and it will be registered in the county of the address you provide them. You don't have to worry about a VRT appointment.

Just make sure to do proper background/history checks on the old UK reg.

Liamo_mu

Isambard wrote: »

if they are following the procedure , they will VRT it and it will come to you on Irish plates.

Cool. Do you know do they have to do the same procedure and take it to an NCT centre or since they are a company can they do the vet over the phone?

Debub

Kitty6277 wrote: »

Checked what mine would be out of curiosity, paid €932, it’s now gone down to €744 :eek:

This is very painful reading for me :-(

seanels

I’m looking to buy from an Audi main dealer in the UK. Should I get an RAC inspection on top of the Audi approved inspection or can I take the Audi approved inspection at face value? A 2 yr used car warranty within the UK is included but probably only useful if I could bring the car to Audi Northern Ireland.

11wingnut

Chartsengrafs wrote: »

It operates like a credit card so yes, it can be used for payments in general. I paid for part of a UK car with revolut last week, but needed to validate it first at a chip and pin. Bought a sandwich and a can of the fancy orange with the tin foil lid.

Yes you can.. Card must have a pin number. So some foreign cards not excepted.

Isambard

Liamo_mu wrote: »

Cool. Do you know do they have to do the same procedure and take it to an NCT centre or since they are a company can they do the vet over the phone?

I don't know but you need not worry about it so long as it's all done when you collect it and pay for it.

Kitty6277

Debub wrote: »

This is very painful reading for me :-(

Painful for me finding it out as well

All in all

Is it possible to put previously imported car through vrt rebate and trade in, in UK/NI? Or is there a procedure for it?

deezell

All in all wrote: »

Is it possible to put previously imported car through vrt rebate and trade in, in UK/NI? Or is there a procedure for it?

No reason why not, you can export and reclaim residual VRT on any car with OMSP >€2000. What you can't do is assume you can just pop the old UK plates back on, without at least re-registering in the UK as the keeper. I don't know whats involved in that, but VAT is considered fully paid, at least pre brexit. You'd need to go on the DVLA site and dig, but perhaps the NI or UK dealer could enlighten you.