Importing ?

dubtom

A friend who is in the used car trade was telling me of a 'licence', I believe it's called a tan, or something like that,that dealers are required to have if importing cars from abroad. He has imported a few that he got on ebay from the UK. He wasn't aware of the need for one of these licenses untill the revenue asked him for it at his last visit, aparently details are kept on computer of everyone who registers, register more than a couple and your deemed to be a dealer, a tan is required and mister tax man comes a snooping. Has anyone who has brought more than a couple of classics into the country had any problems with this.Although i'm sure their's plenty of ways of registering a car/mother /sister /wife etc, I'm wondering if they are as strict on someone who brings in 2 or 3 classic, purley for personal use, as I'm sure plenty do,and how do you prove your not a dealer.

PaulK_CCI

If you are bringing in a lot of cars, then the Revenue Office will start to ask questions, as it would appear you are doing this on a commercial basis and they will want to see if any tax issues arise.

If you are a dealer, and you want to register cars in other peoples names, then you must have a TAN number, or Trader Account Number. This is a number that you receive after you applied for it and your setup/premises have been approved.

In essence you are allowed to register the vehicles in your own name and I would say legally there is nothing the government/vrt office can do to prevent you from registering a large amount of cars in your name, but they can prevent you from registering it someone elses name! They will of course want to know what is happening with these cars, and if you just sell them on very quickly, they will ofcourse start to look into possible revenue that these cars would have made and if this is declared as income.

corktina

ive brought in a couple of dozen (maybe 30+) over the last 6 years...had no problems at all. I think that this trader thing is for people who want to hold a stock of them before re-reging them......

I always re-reg mine properly with the customs as soon as i can and they know me quite well by now.....they are usually for personal use but mostly get moved on eventually.

i think they should clamp down on all the people who bring them in and then run them on old logbooks.....(ringing in other words...) not only are they defrauding the Revenue of the VRT but I doubt their insurance is valid as they are coverd for a car scrapped long ago and not the actual one they are driving (on false plates) I know dozens of cars ringed like this...(probably many hundred of them on the classic circuit....

PaulK_CCI

corktina wrote:

ive brought in a couple of dozen (maybe 30+) over the last 6 years...had no problems at all.

This is the cork office again is it? :rolleyes:

mmmm, seriously thinking of getting my cars registered down there from now on, as they can be pretty fussy up in Dublin.

corktina

PaulK_CCI wrote:

This is the cork office again is it? :rolleyes:

yep.....my local office is in Mallow...but they are a bit tighter in there so i go to Cork...


in 1987 i moved to Ireland and brought with me a 1982 Talbot Horizon, worth next to nothing and in any case tax free as i had owned it for more than 6 months and it was part of my possesions, and the guy in Mallow spent ages down the back of the engine tracing the engine number on to a bit of paper so he could read it...whats the point? car could have had two or three new engines.....so i go to cork.......

PaulK_CCI

corktina wrote:

PaulK_CCI wrote:

, and the guy in Mallow spent ages down the back of the engine tracing the engine number on to a bit of paper so he could read it...whats the point? car could have had two or three new engines.....so i go to cork.......

Ah yes, the famous "Engine number" issue. On almost NO other european Lisence document the engine number is actually mentioned, but everyone in the VRO offices insists on having an engine number read when they inspect the car. As you say, it could be the umpteenth engine, or a modified engine for all they know, or the engine could give up 20 miles further down the road and you could whack in a new engine, and the number would be useless...

Depending on how new they are, or how bad a day they are having, this issue is sometimes blown out of proportion. In one case where we couldn't find the engine number, the guy was threatening NOT to register the car, so I got deep under the car again, shouted out that I had finally found it, read out the embossed Engine part number, got back out again. When he asked me if that was really the engine number, I invited him to lie down and get under the car himself.... which he fortunately declined ....

corktina

PaulK_CCI wrote:

corktina wrote:

Ah yes, the famous "Engine number" issue. On almost NO other european Lisence document the engine number is actually mentioned, but everyone in the VRO offices insists on having an engine number read when they inspect the car. As you say, it could be the umpteenth engine, or a modified engine for all they know, or the engine could give up 20 miles further down the road and you could whack in a new engine, and the number would be useless...

Depending on how new they are, or how bad a day they are having, this issue is sometimes blown out of proportion. In one case where we couldn't find the engine number, the guy was threatening NOT to register the car, so I got deep under the car again, shouted out that I had finally found it, read out the embossed Engine part number, got back out again. When he asked me if that was really the engine number, I invited him to lie down and get under the car himself.... which he fortunately declined ....

in cork they dont look for an engine number.....they check the VIN plate (which i could have made that morning and riveted on) and look for a chassis number....they dont seem worried if there isnt a chassis number.......often they send out a young girl to look at the car, and she usually says "nice colour" or some such.... cork VRO I love you!

Abelloid

It took me 6 weeks to register mine in the Cork office because of the engine - there were no 1835cc 1957 beetles on computer :rolleyes: -
and I had to wait for a code from C&E (I think) in Wexford, no problems after that, engine number taken from the MOT cert.

corktina

JustinOval wrote:

It took me 6 weeks to register mine in the Cork office because of the engine - there were no 1835cc 1957 beetles on computer :rolleyes: -
and I had to wait for a code from C&E (I think) in Wexford, no problems after that, engine number taken from the MOT cert.

when i re regd my 2.8 V6 mk3 Cortina (no such thing? thats what they said!!!) it took about a week...just left the forms and the €50 with them and they did it all for me....ppapers came in the post.....

is your beetle a nice silver one? are you from around Charleville perchance?

Abelloid

corktina wrote:

is your beetle a nice silver one? are you from around Charleville perchance?

Not me, I'm in Cobh - black beetle. Is this the one? -

http://img332.imageshack.us/img332/59/bugrun28ke.jpg

It should have taken a week to register but the staff were very "relaxed" :rolleyes:

corktina

JustinOval wrote:

Not me, I'm in Cobh - black beetle. Is this the one? -

http://img332.imageshack.us/img332/59/bugrun28ke.jpg

It should have taken a week to register but the staff were very "relaxed" :rolleyes:

could well be.....they are fairly laid back in cork arent they...practically horizontal.....:D

Spit62500

So what do they have to decide when registering a non-standard car? I've got a 2.5 litre Spitfire that I brought in from the UK. Problem is that the V5 cert lists the original 1300 cc engine size It's a '72 so VRT isn't really an issue... I've been sorting out a few issues so its been mostly off the road since I got it but I was planning on registering it in the next few weeks.

69 mustang

corktina wrote:

PaulK_CCI wrote:

in cork they dont look for an engine number.....they check the VIN plate (which i could have made that morning and riveted on) and look for a chassis number....they dont seem worried if there isnt a chassis number.......often they send out a young girl to look at the car, and she usually says "nice colour" or some such.... cork VRO I love you!

My Mustang was done in Tallaght office and she just looked at the tag in the window. She said she didn't need to see the engine number either.:)

Abelloid

Spit62500 wrote:

So what do they have to decide when registering a non-standard car? I've got a 2.5 litre Spitfire that I brought in from the UK. Problem is that the V5 cert lists the original 1300 cc engine size It's a '72 so VRT isn't really an issue... I've been sorting out a few issues so its been mostly off the road since I got it but I was planning on registering it in the next few weeks.

They just need a code, I don't know what it's for but I do know that without it "computer says no" and it comes from Frank in Rosslare.

dubtom

I got my mustang done in the tallaght office also, I got a trainee with a girl looking over her shoulder, got me to pick the car from the list on the pc, then checked the tag in the window. Actually my car had an English DVLA cert and the first registration was down as 82', the original first reg was in 72 which someone had conveniantly wrote in pen on the back of the form, but she accepted it. Could have been an expensive mistake.
On the subject of engine changes, if, for example, a new engine is fitted in a classic and someone at the VRT office spots it, will it still be accepted as a classic.

Blue850

I brought a Wolseley Hornet into the VRT in Galway ,no probs, even though a piece of the vin plate had broken off, enough of the digits matched the paperwork:)

PaulK_CCI

dubtom wrote:

On the subject of engine changes, if, for example, a new engine is fitted in a classic and someone at the VRT office spots it, will it still be accepted as a classic.

The only thing that is important with regards to what duties are to be paid, is the chassis number and the Date of First registration. As you mention in your post, the fact that the DVLA had 82 on it, could have been an expensive error and you were lucky they were in a good mood to accept the handwritten date...
But to come back to the engines, if the car has a different capacity engine than standard, the only issue that will arise is that they won't be able to run it through the computer at that particular moment, and they will need a couple of days to have a new entry made with the different engine capacity. Because you have shown them the car and the paperwork, you're generally asked to pay the duties, and the stuff will be sent out to you, or you are asked to come back when it's up on the computer and reapply again, but at least you won't have to bring the car in again.
That a car does not fit into the records is unfortunately a very common thing, because it's not just the engine that could be an issue: I have had to leave the paperwork in many times because they couldn't fit it in a database entry of another car: this was sometimes because there was no LHD version of that car, because the car had an automatic gearbox, or a specific model had never yet been registered before. In all these cases, the stuff will have to be faxed over to Rosslare, where a new entry in the database is made, and only then can the process be completed.
In Dublin, this generally takes a day or two, in Cork it seems a week to two weeks :rolleyes:

Abelloid

I must have had luck on my side- non standard engine, LHD and first reg down as 1996 (in the UK)
I did have a photocopy of a pink slip which showed it was originally reg'd in the USA in 1957 and they
glanced at this and wrote Jan 1st 1957 on my new cert.;)

There was a man in the office at the same time registering a pick up and told he had bought
the wrong model, and therefore would have to pay full 30% VRT.:mad:

corktina

most of my current fllet didnt fit the standard list never really had a problem...if less than 30 yrs old though, engine size will be relevant for road tax purposes....my 2.8 mk3 cortina was shownas such on UK logbook so was automaticllay accepted here...mind you being a '73 helps!!! 1977 3 litre Cortina costs over €1100 per annum (or would do if i paid it....:D