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

User1998

Anyway most people aren’t comfortable buying from auction or even buying from dealers without seeing the car first so Chris isn’t an option for most people

MrMusician18

L-M wrote: »

If a car is VAT qualifying a private person can get the back the VAT the same as a dealer.

Also, private people can access the same auctions but pay higher fees, but if you took the dealers lower fees + profit versus private person + higher fees it’ll still work out cheaper. Unless you’re completely opposed to a dealer making some money and having the car here ready to go, valeted, serviced and warrantied well then maybe go to auction?

Just remember like all industries if dealers aren’t supported, who’s going to be there when your car breaks down?

The vast majority of private buyers are A) not comfortable with buying without a test drive/sight unseen and resolve the logistics of attending a car auction where the price may end up exceeding what they're would to pay.

What you will see is a host of middleman merchants popping up that will bid on cars on your behalf for a fee and a large helping of trust as you'll have to lodge your max bid with them in advance.

As I said though, the days of the private buyer perusing autotrader, making enquires and flying over a few days later to seal the deal are over.

Also the idea of using NI as a landing point to get it into the republic vat free is a non runner. The agreement doesn't mean NI is in the single market and customs union, there are only certain exemptions for goods that are not at risk. Vat will almost certainly be charged on NI used imports generally at the point of registration.

L-M

The agreement also states it has to Originate on the North for VAT not to apply so that won’t work either.

I checked a V5 and it just says United Kingdom so I’m not sure how they’re going to tell.

User1998

Revenue have said they’ll be basing it on the registration number of the vehicle and the address of the registered owner. I think theres also some customs declaration required as well. It will be very limited as half the cars in NI are originally mainland UK cars

L-M

Could you buy a Northern Reg and put it on a UK car?

There’s an Irish way around everything.

daithi7

I'm looking at potentially purchasing a UK car:

It's vat qualifying, so can I claim the UK vat back? (& then I pay Irish vat yes??)
It's a Phev so ~8% vrt on omsp.
Add stg costs and logistics costs of say 1k.

So how much extra will this car cost?
Say if it's 50k stg, (using this as it's omsp for illustration say) how much will it be delivered & registered in Ireland??

I've worked it out myself, but I just need to check my sums (
& assumptions re VAT, etc

Thanks for any feedback.

gally74

daithi7 wrote: »

I'm looking at potentially purchasing a UK car:

It's vat qualifying, so can I claim the UK vat back? (& then I pay Irish vat yes??)
It's a Phev so ~8% vrt on omsp.
Add stg costs and logistics costs of say 1k.

So how much extra will this car cost?
Say if it's 50k stg, (using this as it's omsp for illustration say) how much will it be delivered & registered in Ireland??

I've worked it out myself, but I just need to check my sums (
& assumptions re VAT, etc

Thanks for any feedback.

if you havent done this before, now is not the best time to start, it could take a few months for it to work out and 2nd hand inports wotn be a priority for either government. flow of new commercial goods, food etc. will be priority,

Atlantic Dawn

User1998 wrote: »

Revenue have said they’ll be basing it on the registration number of the vehicle and the address of the registered owner. I think theres also some customs declaration required as well. It will be very limited as half the cars in NI are originally mainland UK cars

I can see Revenue putting a 6 month minimum period of ownership in NIRL or else someone up there will import about 1000 cars to flog down here

commited

L-M wrote: »

The agreement also states it has to Originate on the North for VAT not to apply so that won’t work either.

I checked a V5 and it just says United Kingdom so I’m not sure how they’re going to tell.

Where does it say that? Revenue video stated that the vehicle just had to be in NI pre Brexit.

daithi7

gally74 wrote: »

if you havent done this before, now is not the best time to start, it could take a few months for it to work out and 2nd hand inports wotn be a priority for either government. flow of new commercial goods, food etc. will be priority,

Thanks for your advice, but I don't really understand why not tbh?

Surely, revenue just operate as normal and apply the new rules & vrt tariffs etc and work away.

If anything there may be a few less cars to process so this might speed things up perhaps!?

L-M

commited wrote: »

Where does it say that? Revenue video stated that the vehicle just had to be in NI pre Brexit.

He says in the video that if you’re importing a car form the north that came from the UK a customs declaration will have to be made. It’s about 2 mins in.

deezell

I think they will have to allow the cars in with VRT only. Adding 21% will just kill the market, depress the motor trade, deteriorate the condition and age of the national fleet, and leave a big financial hole in tax revenue. All they collected anyway pre brexit was VRT, they only collected VAT on VAT qualifying, and on dealers import margins if non vat qualifying I think. In order to protect the notion of EU vat receipt intergrity, they can use NI as a smokescreen, a state that's simultaneously outside the eu and in it. It's mad, but it might just work, there's no economic cost or loss to the rest of the EU, and it could well create a nice little earner for rhe motor trade up there, one more reason to keep a foot in the south. Expect some sort of fudge to keep the imports flowing, albeit with more middlemen.

User1998

I don’t think Ireland can just decide they don’t want to charge VAT on UK imports. Wouldn’t that be against EU law? Lowering VRT to compensate for the VAT being paid wouldn’t be an issue but I highly doubt they’ll do that

User1998

User1998 wrote: »

He is a c*nt to deal with

How come

Isambard

L-M wrote: »

He says in the video that if you’re importing a car form the north that came from the UK a customs declaration will have to be made. It’s about 2 mins in.

yes, electronically and in advance. I can see huge delays at ports and borders, we'll miss the free and easy days.

L-M

All I will say is maybe we should all just give it a miss for a month and let the panic threads appear on boards of people getting caught for x y and z and go from there.

Like when the Nox tax was first introduced.

Thomasirl123

Have we any idea when we will know if there is definitely vat on UK imports?
Only 2 days to go!I can only imagine with the lack of detail how many businesses must be in a panic! I thought by now there would be more than just the get brexit ready ads. Surely time for the government or national news paper to explain some impacts of the deal!
As regards vat on UK imports, for anything registered pre 2020 vat has already been paid in the EU. The new law should not be retrospective. But that's more what I hope than know!

L-M

Thomasirl123 wrote: »

Have we any idea when we will know if there is definitely vat on UK imports?
Only 2 days to go!I can only imagine with the lack of detail how many businesses must be in a panic! I thought by now there would be more than just the get brexit ready ads. Surely time for the government or national news paper to explain some impacts of the deal!
As regards vat on UK imports, for anything registered pre 2020 vat has already been paid in the EU. The new law should not be retrospective. But that's more what I hope than know!

Your last point is a very fair point, if it was EU VAT.

Wildly Boaring

daithi7 wrote: »

Thanks for your advice, but I don't really understand why not tbh?

Surely, revenue just operate as normal and apply the new rules & vrt tariffs etc and work away.

If anything there may be a few less cars to process so this might speed things up perhaps!?

Well then just assume you'll be paying VAT on top of the new VRT.
Assume it's non-VAT qualifying in UK. Privately owned cars are.

deezell

L-M wrote: »

Your last point is a very fair point, if it was EU VAT.

Yes, it was made before, many times, but fairness is not an attribute tax collectors. Even if it is valid, the clock is already ticking on economical imports. Anything before euro6 2016/17 already destroyed by Nox tax, anything after 2019 is post Brexit from a VAT perspective strictly speaking, they left last January. My other arguement though was that imports of cars of eu origin are effectively of eu manufacture, so should not attract customs duty. Im curious though about imports of non EU cars that came into Britain first, kia, Hyundai etc. They obviously will still have some uk import duty applied, but will they still be liable for another belt of it here in the eu?

L-M

That’s like the age old argument of VRT being a Double tax. I’m sure if they can get more tax they will collect it.

I’ve great faith in the Irish though, we’re a crafty bunch. The cars will probably end up being exported from UK to some Island in the middle of the Atlantic and then re imported to Ireland to avoid it. Lol

Casati

deezell wrote: »

Yes, it was made before, many times, but fairness is not an attribute tax collectors. Even if it is valid, the clock is already ticking on economical imports. Anything before euro6 2016/17 already destroyed by Nox tax, anything after 2019 is post Brexit from a VAT perspective strictly speaking, they left last January. My other arguement though was that imports of cars of eu origin are effectively of eu manufacture, so should not attract customs duty. Im curious though about imports of non EU cars that came into Britain first, kia, Hyundai etc. They obviously will still have some uk import duty applied, but will they still be liable for another belt of it here in the eu?

No duty on anything from UK following the withdrawal agreement.

I doubt UK imports were good for the Irish economy and I’d guess govt would prefer you buy nice new cars where they can take all the vat, vrt, nox and duty due on a new car. I’d be fairly certain new cars will increase greatly in price too as Irish dealers won’t have to compete against nearly new imports

Vicxas

Has the VRT calculator been updated to reflect the emissions change?

colm_mcm

Vicxas wrote: »

Has the VRT calculator been updated to reflect the emissions change?

Yes it has. I did a calculation for my own car that I VRTd in Sept 2019 and it’s still around the same price (but plus another €1800 nox now) as it was.

Rate is 18% instead of 16% on the calculator now.

Thomasirl123

Looks like NI is the loophole 🎉

Published: 29 December 2020

If a vehicle is being imported from Northern Ireland, no import duty will apply but you may be liable to pay:

Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT)
VAT at 21% (only in respect of new vehicles).

gally74

CPTM wrote: »

How can I import it without a log book though? Surely they need the same paperwork as the irish authorities? How do they know I haven't sold the car in the meantime?

youll have to reimport it to the UK to get a new V5, then try again,

deezell

Thomasirl123 wrote: »

Looks like NI is the loophole ��

Published: 29 December 2020

If a vehicle is being imported from Northern Ireland, no import duty will apply but you may be liable to pay:

Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT)
VAT at 21% (only in respect of new vehicles).

That's what I've been saying all along, a little under the counter sweetheart arrangement to retain imports but move all the UK margin to NI, help the unionists save face over Boris backing down on his attempted breach of the protocol, and the customs border effectively in Belfast. Flags don't fill bellies, but a little bit of border massage will help their wallets. Watch out for Irish dealers setting up in NI soon.

gally74

Thomasirl123 wrote: »

Looks like NI is the loophole ��

Published: 29 December 2020

If a vehicle is being imported from Northern Ireland, no import duty will apply but you may be liable to pay:

Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT)
VAT at 21% (only in respect of new vehicles).

if you watch the video, the car had to have been in NI with proof before the 31st of Dec,

Vicxas

Anyone know of any good importers up north?

Thomasirl123

gally74 wrote: »

if you watch the video, the car had to have been in NI with proof before the 31st of Dec,

Could you link me to the video gally? Was it created before the trade deal was signed?

Vehicles registered in Northern Ireland before 1 January 2021
You can register a vehicle registered before 1 January 2021 without any checks on the customs status if it was registered:

in Northern Ireland
or
to a person resident in Northern Ireland.
Vehicles first registered in Northern Ireland after 1 January 2021
You can register a vehicle first registered in Northern Ireland after 1 January 2021 without any check on its customs status. If it is a new vehicle for VAT purposes, then the VAT is collected at registration.

Vehicles first registered in Great Britain and subsequently registered in Northern Ireland after 1 January 2021
Proof that vehicles were properly imported into Northern Ireland will be required for vehicles first registered in Great Britain and subsequently registered after 1 January 2021:

to a private individual
to a business
or
sold by a motor dealer with an address in Northern Ireland.
Proof will be in the form of:

A copy of the customs declaration showing the importation of the vehicle into Northern Ireland
or
A T2L document issued by HMRC.
The vehicle must be identifiable from the supporting documentation.
You should not purchase a vehicle from Northern Ireland with either:

a Great Britain registration
or
which had previously been registered in Great Britain where this documentation is not available.
If you cannot provide proof that a vehicle has been imported into Northern Ireland you can:

make a customs declaration
pay customs duty
pay VAT based on the import value of the vehicle immediately prior to registration.
Published: 31 December 2020