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

irishproduce

dave1982 wrote: »

I brought a 181 auris down for 2180 euro vrt and nox. Saved between 4 and 5,500 on what they charging down south.

Do you mind me asking was it a dealer or private sale? Looking to know what dealers make it smooth. Thanks

dave1982

irishproduce wrote: »

Do you mind me asking was it a dealer or private sale? Looking to know what dealers make it smooth. Thanks

Shelbourne motors Toyota branch but they have lots of different branches different makes of cars not just Toyota. Sent me personalised video of car. Explained everything ensured car was NI reg. It couldn't have went any smoother tbh

reubenreuben

dave1982 wrote: »

Shelbourne motors Toyota branch but they have lots of different branches different makes of cars not just Toyota. Sent me personalised video of car. Explained everything ensured car was NI reg. It couldn't have went any smoother tbh

Did they provide the nox figures for you too as they can be difficult to retrieve in some instances.

brian_gall85

The Nox figure is on the UK V5. Any seller should be able to provide this before any deal is done.

nialler1978

brian_gall85 wrote: »

The Nox figure is on the UK V5. Any seller should be able to provide this before any deal is done.

Its not on every V5. Had a dealer try and tell me it wasn't there because there were no NOx emissions, wasn't the case. I went to a garage in Dublin and they were nice enough to provide headed paper, signed from the service manager with VIN stating NOx emissions.

W123-80's

Just been talking to a dealer in Northern Ireland. He has a car I am interested in.
Its English registered though, not Northern Ireland.

He told me he can prove he brought it into the country before Jan 1st and therefore it is not liable for VAT and customs duty.
The rule states that the car must have been registered in Northern Ireland before January 1st 2021, to avoid VAT and Customs Duty.
He said it is registered in the trade.

Anyone know if I am still liable for VAT and Import Duty if I purchase?

nialler1978

W123-80's wrote: »

Just been talking to a dealer in Northern Ireland. He has a car I am interested in.
Its English registered though, not Northern Ireland.

He told me he can prove he brought it into the country before Jan 1st and therefore it is not liable for VAT and customs duty.
The rule states that the car must have been registered in Northern Ireland before January 1st 2021, to avoid VAT and Customs Duty.
He said it is registered in the trade.

Anyone know if I am still liable for VAT and Import Duty if I purchase?

AFAIK the car doesn't have to be registered in NI before that date, you just need proof of the car entering NI pre-1st Jan 2021, consignment notice, shipping invoice etc. There's also a fair bit of talk that its in the lap of the gods and whoever you get in the VRT centre. This is heard through someone in the trade who has now ceased due to the uncertainty of the whole thing.

6. Registering vehicles from Northern Ireland (NI)

Registering vehicles brought into Northern Ireland before 1 January 2021

A vehicle brought into Northern Ireland (NI) before 1 January 2021 and has remained there since, can be registered in the State with no customs obligations.

However, proof on the vehicle’s status in Northern Ireland prior to 1 January 2021 will be required, for example:

a ferry ticket showing the date of arrival in NI, and which clearly identifies the specific vehicle
a copy of an invoice from a transport company identifying the vehicle and delivery date
tax and insurance details indicating use in NI
or

a copy of the V5 showing the last registered keeper in NI and a date of registration to that keeper prior to 1 January 2021.

https://www.ncts.ie/vrt-home/vrt-faq/

gripcasey

Warranty. I am currently looking at a car in NI.
With brexit are warranties from cars imported from NI after 1/1/21 still honoured/valid by Main Dealers in ROI

brian_gall85

W123-80's wrote: »

Just been talking to a dealer in Northern Ireland. He has a car I am interested in.
Its English registered though, not Northern Ireland.

He told me he can prove he brought it into the country before Jan 1st and therefore it is not liable for VAT and customs duty.
The rule states that the car must have been registered in Northern Ireland before January 1st 2021, to avoid VAT and Customs Duty.
He said it is registered in the trade.

Anyone know if I am still liable for VAT and Import Duty if I purchase?

If he has a copy of the Ferry ticket/shipping details you'll be fine.

I only had a copy of the email from the shipping company (dated late December 2020) in for the VRT in April and was fine.

wassie

gripcasey wrote: »

Warranty. I am currently looking at a car in NI.
With brexit are warranties from cars imported from NI after 1/1/21 still honoured/valid by Main Dealers in ROI

If you are referring to manufacturer warranties, the answer is potentially no. As far as I am aware there is no requirement. Not much info on the interwebs, but VRT.IE has this:

Unexpected Costs Due to No Warranty on UK cars in Ireland

In most cases, when importing a used car from the UK to Ireland, the vehicle will not be under warranty. In general, a vehicle warranty only applies to the country of initial registration – even once your vehicle is re-registered in Ireland, it will still fall under UK warranty.

This website (not anything to do with govt NCT/VRT centres) is also trying to sell after market warranties so read their advice with this in mind.

The fact that we also have RHD cars same UK does make the car situation a bit unique in a post brexit world.

Best thing to do is to contact a couple of dealers and ask them. Don't let on that you are considering purchasing but infer that you have had the car for a while. You could also contact the head office in Ireland as they may have a very specific view on this.

dave1982

Regarding manufacturers warranty here's response I got from Toyota

Dear David,

Thank you for your email correspondence and for your interest in Toyota products.

We note specifically your interest in the Efficient Toyota Auris.

In respect of your query, we welcome the opportunity to clarify that all Toyota vehicles purchased in the UK and where the extended promotional 5 year UK Warranty applies, will not be covered in the Republic of Ireland beyond the standard 3 year manufacturers warranty, as the extended warranty applies only to vehicles in the UK.

We hope this information has been helpful and thank you once again for contacting Toyota Ireland.

Assuring you of our best intentions at all times.

Kind regards,
TOYOTA IRELAND.

I read that as the Standard 3 Yr warranty is covered same as other new toyotas here

wassie

I agree - I think it answered the question, but that is certainly a piece of prize winning public relations BS if I've ever seen it.

Assuring you of our best intentions at all times.

WTF does that even mean? Do people regularly think Toyota's intentions are otherwise?

nialler1978

wassie wrote: »

WTF does that even mean? Do people regularly think Toyota's intentions are otherwise?

Bit of a disclaimer, if we f*ck up, we didn't mean to. Must mean they f*ck up quite regularly.

TomOnBoard

Ah, Jazes lads.... Ye'er in fierce picky form today!!! Poor Mr Toyo was only trying to be nice...

slipperyox

Looking at buying a 1989 English reg car, that is in northern ireland.
Its not registered in NI, and was taken in after 1/1/2021, no docs...

As the car was first regestered in japan(jap import), does this make any difference?

The phrase "first registered" is confusing me..

GuilleDublin

Hi, thinking on buying a car pretty cheap from a friend in London and I’m a bit lost with all different charges and all.
I want to believe that register the car once it’s here in ROI should be easy enough if I have logbook on my name but what about the custom duties and vat?
Are those calculated from the amount I paid or from OMSP like the vrt?
Also, what would you recommend? Go, pick it up and drive back or pay for delivery? Both involves costs but not sure about insurance issues if I drive back.

As I said I’m just a bit lost and not sure if it’s worth it as same car here costs around 6k and my friend is selling to me for 2.5/3k.

Thanks a million for your help!

Atlantic Dawn

GuilleDublin wrote: »

Hi, thinking on buying a car pretty cheap from a friend in London and I’m a bit lost with all different charges and all.
I want to believe that register the car once it’s here in ROI should be easy enough if I have logbook on my name but what about the custom duties and vat?
Are those calculated from the amount I paid or from OMSP like the vrt?
Also, what would you recommend? Go, pick it up and drive back or pay for delivery? Both involves costs but not sure about insurance issues if I drive back.

As I said I’m just a bit lost and not sure if it’s worth it as same car here costs around 6k and my friend is selling to me for 2.5/3k.

Thanks a million for your help!

Is the car a diesel? If yes it won't be worth it due to Nox emission charges.

GuilleDublin

It is a diesel I’m afraid...😔
Dunno the specs yet, I will check the emissions once my friend send me the specs

bazz26

What car is it?

You will have to pay VRT, Nox charge and import duty of 10% I think. More than likely it will turn out to be just as expensive if not more expensive than buying the same car over here.

slipperyox

how do customs "value" a car? is it based on transaction, or do they use the omsp that vrt use?

nialler1978

slipperyox wrote: »

how do customs "value" a car? is it based on transaction, or do they use the omsp that vrt use?

Based upon the invoice you get, so a lot of underinvoicing going on apparently.

Which by the way, had a thought, this might be one for any tax experts, and this is just a thought, I’ve absolutely no intentions of doing it.

For example, what would happen if you bought a UK registered car post brexit and liable for taxes from a dealer for £15k, then traded it in automatically to same dealer for £14k for another car worth £15k. Your invoice would essentially state you purchased the new car for £1k, you wouldn’t be liable to pay vat and duty as you’d never have brought it into ROI. so would your euro equivalent in vat and customs be just 33% resulting in £333.33?

Loophole or tax fraud. If it’s a loophole I’d imagine revenue will be on to it quick enough.

TomOnBoard

nialler1978 wrote: »

Based upon the invoice you get, so a lot of underinvoicing going on apparently.

Which by the way, had a thought, this might be one for any tax experts, and this is just a thought, I’ve absolutely no intentions of doing it.

For example, what would happen if you bought a UK registered car post brexit and liable for taxes from a dealer for £15k, then traded it in automatically to same dealer for £14k for another car worth £15k. Your invoice would essentially state you purchased the new car for £1k, you wouldn’t be liable to pay vat and duty as you’d never have brought it into ROI. so would your euro equivalent in vat and customs be just 33% resulting in £333.33?

Loophole or tax fraud. If it’s a loophole I’d imagine revenue will be on to it quick enough.

They will be onto it now!!

Well, not NOW... Its Saturday night... And Eurovision is on...

So, They'll be onto it on Monday!!

gussieg

slipperyox wrote: »

Looking at buying a 1989 English reg car, that is in northern ireland.
Its not registered in NI, and was taken in after 1/1/2021, no docs...

As the car was first regestered in japan(jap import), does this make any difference?

The phrase "first registered" is confusing me..

as far as i know, with that vintage, its a flat fee of 200. could be wrong, but if its going ok, well done.

Isambard

gussieg wrote: »

as far as i know, with that vintage, its a flat fee of 200. could be wrong, but if its going ok, well done.

i suspect it will attract the full wallop of tax on top of the VRT

irishproduce

Gonna fire off a few offers on some cars up north.
Mix of petrol and Diesel all in the 2017 - 2019 bracket.

What are the standard bullet points that I need to include in order to filter the responses in order to choose one to buy?

1) Is the car registered in NI prior to 01.01.21
2) is it ready for "export" south with relevant paperwork in order?
3) Is V5c ready included/ completed (I am not certain on the requirement there it is so long since I imported and it was so much easier before)
4) Do you operate a delivery option or does it have to be collected?
5) What period of warranty included?

Anything else I should watch for and/ or include in a list to filter available options?
I don't intend to speak to any one until I am fairly certain I am ready to buy so hence filtering out the incompatible options first.

I will document the process and include here for others to use if I end up completing the purchase.

User1998

Your offers will most likely be declined. UK and NI prices generally are not negotiable. Dealers up North know that they have the upper hand now since Brexit so they have no reason to accept offers even more so than before

But regards the questions you have as long as the car was in Northern Ireland before Brexit it will qualify for VRT only. The car doesn’t have to be registered up there. So ask the dealer have they proof of this

GuilleDublin

nialler1978 wrote: »

Based upon the invoice you get, so a lot of underinvoicing going on apparently.

Which by the way, had a thought, this might be one for any tax experts, and this is just a thought, I’ve absolutely no intentions of doing it.

For example, what would happen if you bought a UK registered car post brexit and liable for taxes from a dealer for £15k, then traded it in automatically to same dealer for £14k for another car worth £15k. Your invoice would essentially state you purchased the new car for £1k, you wouldn’t be liable to pay vat and duty as you’d never have brought it into ROI. so would your euro equivalent in vat and customs be just 33% resulting in £333.33?

Loophole or tax fraud. If it’s a loophole I’d imagine revenue will be on to it quick enough.

What happens if is my friend who sell it to me? Should I get an invoice from her too? Also, she will probably sell it to me very cheap but I could even ask her to reduce the amount in the invoice if that means to pay less custom duties. Would it be a problem with a very low price?
Cheers

User1998

That would be under invoicing / tax evasion / highly illegal

If Revenue think the car is too cheap they will look for 6 months bank statements to see how much you really paid for the car

GuilleDublin

User1998 wrote: »

That would be under invoicing / tax evasion / highly illegal

If Revenue think the car is too cheap they will look for 6 months bank statements to see how much you really paid for the car

Well, she’s actually like my sister and I wouldn’t even need to pay her straight away. It would be loads of ways to pay her back without revenue noticing... it’s a cheap car.
It would be posible that she even give it to me for free, that’s why I ask...

Speedline

There have been lads doing this with jap imports for years. A certain group of lads twigged the method involved, and ripped the piss out of it to the extent that revenue cottoned on to it.

They are well wide to it now.