Bringing a car back to Ireland from Australia

b4bmm

I was wondering if there is anybody on here who knows about the ins and outs of bringing a car back to Ireland from Australia.

My understanding is you can bring a car back to Ireland, VRT free, if you have been a resident in Australia and you have owned the car for 6 months or 1 year I'm not sure which?

I think there are also other restrictions or requirements also but I'm not sure of them all, does anybody know or have gone through this process before?

stickman1019

If your on Facebook there is a group called Irish Living in Perth.

It's a common topic on there the admin of the group has fairly good experience with that sort of thing

b4bmm

OK thanks for that, I think I am in that group. Ill check that out

aido79

b4bmm wrote: »

I was wondering if there is anybody on here who knows about the ins and outs of bringing a car back to Ireland from Australia.

My understanding is you can bring a car back to Ireland, VRT free, if you have been a resident in Australia and you have owned the car for 6 months or 1 year I'm not sure which?

I think there are also other restrictions or requirements also but I'm not sure of them all, does anybody know or have gone through this process before?

You need to have owned the car for one year in Australia and you need to do a transfer of residency to avoid paying vrt in Ireland.

b4bmm

To avoid paying VRT and VAT?

aaakev

Theres the import info drom our side, transport is going to be a bitch but if its a nice car could certainly make it worthwhile. Whats the car?

http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/vrt/vrt-guide.html#section3

simdan

b4bmm wrote:

To avoid paying VRT and VAT?

No VAT, VAT only applies to new cars as you can buy them without it if exporting immediately. What's the car, maybe the vrt won't be much.

b4bmm

I haven't decided what type of car yet and there is nothing set in stone, I may not even bring one back.
I want to find out the costs of doing it before I can crunch the numbers and find out if its worthwhile.
The cars that I would be going for, there wouldn't be much of a selection available in Ireland so it would be more of a toss up of comparing prices between UK and Australia more so than Ireland and OZ to see which works out better value.

BMW M cars,
Audi S / RS,
Porsche,
HSV, but unlikely.

I would have to find out different costs then check for cost to tax the thing too and maybe even insurance.
I hear insurance can be a major rip off when returning home with no NCB.

Thanks for the replies, it seems once I own the car for over 6 months and have proof of ownership and proof that it is being used over that period, along with proof of residency abroad (in my case non-EU) for over 12 months I would be eligible to import the vehicle vrt/vat free.


I think this is basically all the requirements.
Please correct me if I'm wrong

d.pop

Haven't done it but did look at it briefly, actually taking cars both ways. Wasn't worth it for me.
I would suggest that if you are bringing a big Holden or ford like a V8 that you look at running costs at home here.
They can be up around 4L and tax and insurance costs will be an issue, as for selling on...same problem for next buyer.
Also check shipping costs probably around $3k+ for a container. You'll need to add that on plus insurance.
If it's a European car I doubt you would make any money back as you would have paid over the odds for it in Aus, however if it's yours, you own it and love it worth a shot.
Would def do some maths though, might be better off selling in Aus where cars hold value and buying fresh in Ireland.
Check Redbook for valuation of your car.

Just read your post, mostly European makes I see.
Will be hard to break even due to the loading paid in Aus on European cars.

As for HSV's there us a reason there are few if any running around Ireland, can't afford to put in road..
Would be nice though, wonder how a Maloo would go down here...😈

b4bmm

On another note, a high performance car that might have a high price are not very much in demand in Ireland.
Much bigger market in the UK. Is it expensive for people in the UK to import a car from Ireland or anywhere else?

aaakev

b4bmm wrote: »

On another note, a high performance car that might have a high price are not very much in demand in Ireland.
Much bigger market in the UK. Is it expensive for people in the UK to import a car from Ireland or anywhere else?

Not at all, there is alot of export going on from Ireland to the uk at the moment, the exchange rate is well in their favour and they dont get hit with extortionate vrt. Im exporting a lot of new vehicles the last year or so because of this

b4bmm

I see very good. I will be looking for comparisons to more so the UK then giving the type of car I will be going for. There wouldn't be much to compare it to in Ireland. Such a better car market over there and less of a rip off government.

digiman

b4bmm wrote: »

I haven't decided what type of car yet and there is nothing set in stone, I may not even bring one back.
I want to find out the costs of doing it before I can crunch the numbers and find out if its worthwhile.
The cars that I would be going for, there wouldn't be much of a selection available in Ireland so it would be more of a toss up of comparing prices between UK and Australia more so than Ireland and OZ to see which works out better value.

BMW M cars,
Audi S / RS,
Porsche,
HSV, but unlikely.

I would have to find out different costs then check for cost to tax the thing too and maybe even insurance.
I hear insurance can be a major rip off when returning home with no NCB.

Thanks for the replies, it seems once I own the car for over 6 months and have proof of ownership and proof that it is being used over that period, along with proof of residency abroad (in my case non-EU) for over 12 months I would be eligible to import the vehicle vrt/vat free.


I think this is basically all the requirements.
Please correct me if I'm wrong

I imported a BMW about 9 months ago. The car was only 3 months old when I brought it back but was able to get an exemption from the revenue under exceptional circumstances.

I used a company called Chess shipping who came to my place and picked up all my house contents, I got a 20ft container from them and they put up some sheeting inside the container to seperate that from the car. I had about 10 boxes, bedroom furniture and a bike that I shipped back. They charged $5k and where extremely good. The car was in perfect condition and all my contents were bubble wrapped and separated from the car as promised. I did get insurance which was about $2k extra but felt it was worth it for the peace of mind.

It took around 3 months to get back and you will also have to pay a company in Dublin to unload the car for you and then another few quid to the port. Came to about E650 for that if I remember correctly.

On the insurance, only one company in Ireland would quote me on the car. It was a high performance car in their eyes and my NCB had expired so I got screwed on the insurance. If you are not planning on coming back for a while then it would be worth been put down as a named driver on your parents policy as they would include this as some experience and reduce the amount somewhat. That was the worst part of me as I hadn't factored that in at all.

Good luck with the move, I was more than glad I done it. Only problem is running a petrol car in Ireland is alot more expensive than in Australia!!

b4bmm

digiman wrote: »

I imported a BMW about 9 months ago. The car was only 3 months old when I brought it back but was able to get an exemption from the revenue under exceptional circumstances.

I used a company called Chess shipping who came to my place and picked up all my house contents, I got a 20ft container from them and they put up some sheeting inside the container to seperate that from the car. I had about 10 boxes, bedroom furniture and a bike that I shipped back. They charged $5k and where extremely good. The car was in perfect condition and all my contents were bubble wrapped and separated from the car as promised. I did get insurance which was about $2k extra but felt it was worth it for the peace of mind.

It took around 3 months to get back and you will also have to pay a company in Dublin to unload the car for you and then another few quid to the port. Came to about E650 for that if I remember correctly.

On the insurance, only one company in Ireland would quote me on the car. It was a high performance car in their eyes and my NCB had expired so I got screwed on the insurance. If you are not planning on coming back for a while then it would be worth been put down as a named driver on your parents policy as they would include this as some experience and reduce the amount somewhat. That was the worst part of me as I hadn't factored that in at all.

Good luck with the move, I was more than glad I done it. Only problem is running a petrol car in Ireland is alot more expensive than in Australia!!

Some good information there thanks for that. I'm surprised it was so expensive to ship home. I'm sure I have heard of quotes of around 3k to ship home. That's to be taken with a grain of salt but I will investigate more. For you all up your talking 8k Aussie. That's a lot more than I had expected. I don't own the car and for me to buy one the economics would have to make sense. I never even thought about insurance to be honest.
What's the chances of something actually happening in transit?

What kind of bmw was it?
The same mate actually who told me about that shipping price also said that no claims bonus can be carried from Australia home, he recommended to insure whatever car you have hear as cheaply as possible and it will save a lot of hassle when trying to get insured at home.

What a joke it is that insurance companies are rip off artists like that. It seems some things never change back there and it's the things like that that turn me off going back home. It's all down to the hopeless government

hawkeye_bmr

I had looked into doing this before I left Australia to come back home. 20ft container to ship all the stuff we had and a mini that I had just restored. Came in about 8k from most shipping companies, was one really dodgy quote of 3k, but a bit of investigation into that company gave enough information to avoid them.

8k was a lot, so we decided against it, sold everything instead

digiman

b4bmm wrote: »

Some good information there thanks for that. I'm surprised it was so expensive to ship home. I'm sure I have heard of quotes of around 3k to ship home. That's to be taken with a grain of salt but I will investigate more. For you all up your talking 8k Aussie. That's a lot more than I had expected. I don't own the car and for me to buy one the economics would have to make sense. I never even thought about insurance to be honest.
What's the chances of something actually happening in transit?

There are 2 ways to ship, roll on roll off I think its called. Here you basically give your car is driven on to a ship and each port it will be driven off one ship and onto another. From Sydney to Dublin there could be 4/5 transfers so I guess this way has the higher chance of something happening. I went with the container as I had other stuff to ship back as well. I had relocation expenses so I didn't mind as much paying the 8k.

I had talked to a few people who had shipped cars before and didn't hear any bad stories. You will read plenty on the internet but I guess people tell bad stories more often than good ones.

What kind of bmw was it? It was a 3month old 328i, could have sold it but not for a price that would have been worth it. Cars depreciate a hell of a lot when you try to sell them. The dealer offered me $25k less to buy it back from me that what I paid for it so no way I was doing that, I was under big time pressure as well, basically 3-4 weeks from when I was offered a new job till I landed back in Ireland.

The same mate actually who told me about that shipping price also said that no claims bonus can be carried from Australia home, he recommended to insure whatever car you have hear as cheaply as possible and it will save a lot of hassle when trying to get insured at home. Very few insurance companies in Ireland accept Australian insurance as a NCB, but it would be worth doing I guess.

What a joke it is that insurance companies are rip off artists like that. It seems some things never change back there and it's the things like that that turn me off going back home. It's all down to the hopeless government

.