VRT question

Stephen

My employer is moving me up north for 6 months. I'll be living there for the duration. I'm told that i should sell my car here, and buy a car in the north and keep it for the 6 month period. Can I then bring it back into the republic when I move home at the end of the 6 months without paying VRT on it?

lomb

yes but only if u dont return to the south to see ur family on your days off, the way it works is u have to PROVE that u spent more saturdays and sundays in the north than the south. also trade ur license for a uk one IMMEDIATELY. when u come back u can again retrade it for a irish one if u want.

other than that give someone u trust up north ur atm card, and get them to widtdraw a tenner every saturday and sunday from ur bank account up there so it shows up on ur bank statements. also register to vote there, get a uk bank account there with the address on it in the north and give the uk taxman a uk address.


that should do it for sure, otherwise ul have to pay, trust me

unkel

lomb wrote:

that should do it for sure

LOL, I'd say so too

Stephen

I'll only be coming home (kilkenny, bit of a hefty drive from belfast) about once a month. I will be getting a bank account and all that stuff up there (can't bear to be crippled by "international" ATM charges from AIB). Is it really necessary to get a UK licence? I thought that since Ireland and the UK are both EU countries you could drive indefinately on any EU licence within them?
Or is it just to look more convincing to the VRT ****?

whippet

you will need to prove residence and then subsequent transfer of residence - Bank statement, Utility bills, employment, council tax, that the car was taxed and insured in the UK.

If you buy a car and try and re-regiester 6months to the day after buying it expect to get a grilling from the VRT crowd.

Stephen

Bank statement, utility bills, car tax and insurance etc shouldn't be a problem. I know nothing about "transfer of residence" or council tax though.
I know what you mean by a grilling. My ould lad was in kuwait before the war in Iraq started and brought a car back with him, being there well over the required period, and he had to fight the dickheads tooth and nail, lots of appeals etc. After about a year of driving on Kuwaiti plates he finally got registered in ireland without VRT.

a_ominous

Stephen wrote:

I'll only be coming home (kilkenny, bit of a hefty drive from belfast) about once a month. I will be getting a bank account and all that stuff up there (can't bear to be crippled by "international" ATM charges from AIB). Is it really necessary to get a UK licence? I thought that since Ireland and the UK are both EU countries you could drive indefinately on any EU licence within them?
Or is it just to look more convincing to the VRT ****?

My understanding of the licence exchange is that you are required to exchange your licence for local one if you are resident in a country. That way they can apply penalty points and makes life easier in general for other things where ID might be required. Re penalty points, if you did get points in NI and had a UK licence, they would not be transferred to Irish licence. No EU database so no transfer of points yet. And whenever you did return South, you probably wouldn't need to declare points from outside EU on insurance form.
Also it would help strengthen the case for VRT heads.

Stephen

Cool, thanks.

Alun

My understanding of the licence exchange is that you are required to exchange your licence for local one if you are resident in a country.

Wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong again !!! This has been discussed here squillions of time already, but just look on oasis.gov.ie if you don't believe me. The long and the short of it is that you can swap it for a UK one immediately if you want to, but you don't have to until your old licence expires.

See also http://www.transport.ie/roads/licensing/licence/index.asp?lang=ENG&loc=1836#Exchange_Driving_Licence for a more succinct summary of the situation.

Stephen

I rang the local tax office today and got put through to their VRT dept. The biddy on the other end of the line sounded rightly pissed as usual, and said that no I can't import a car without liability for VRT because I'm not leaving the country permanently, i.e. I know I'll be coming back in 6 months.
Even though their website says that if I'm residing outside of the republic of ireland and have a car in wherever for over 6 months I can bring it back VRT-free, she wasn't to be swayed.
See here: http://www.oasis.gov.ie/moving_country/moving_to_ireland/importing_car_into_ireland.html

Nasty VRT men wrote:

Exemptions from paying Vehicle Registration Tax

There are different reliefs and exemptions from VRT. Even if you are not required to pay VRT, you must still register your vehicle when you come to Ireland (see Rules below). The following groups are exempt from paying VRT:

* Certain disabled drivers
* Visitors to Ireland who have owned their vehicles abroad for more than 6 months and who will be resident here temporarily
* People who have owned their vehicles abroad for more than 6 months and who are moving permanently to Ireland
* People posted to Ireland as part of the diplomatic corps

NOTE: If you are moving to Ireland and are among those exempt from paying VRT you cannot sell your vehicle for more than 12 months after the vehicle is registered.

If you are required to pay VRT, then you can sell your vehicle here in Ireland when you wish, once it has been registered. Further information is available from your local VRO.

Farls

Pass no remarks on that auld biddy, i honestly can't understand why they can't employ some young people in the know in these positions.

Anyway if you do all that's said above you'll be laughing, should be plain enough sailing to get her in VRT free.

Farlz

Stephen

I got on to the Citizens Information people whose phone number i got off Oasis, they agree with me about this, but they're going to contact the revenue and find out for sure

unkel

But you are moving permanently to the UK. In 6 months time, you'll just change your mind and then you're moving permanently to Ireland ;~)

Stephen

My thoughts exactly! In 6 months time they might even move me elsewhere (USA for example) and this would all be irrelevant, but its more likely that I'll either return to Ireland or they'll extend my time in NI.

mackerski

Stephen wrote:

I will be getting a bank account and all that stuff up there (can't bear to be crippled by "international" ATM charges from AIB).

Going OT, but Ulster Bank (on the account I have, anyway) don't levy a charge for using UK ATMs, nor for Euro-zone ones. Not a plug, I'm just a customer, they're less good at some other things etc....

Dermot