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

That website reported my car first being registered in Reading or somewhere despite it being a NI car and being successfully VRT without VAT.

The last logbook being issued 3 months ago is a bit of a red flag is it not?

new rules seem more clear

I'm in two worlds, one minute I'm buying an expensive car then an expensive electric but now I'm thinking of getting a cheaper NI car. It's a petrol.(just pointing that out incase it is cheaper to import an electric or hybrid)

What do I pay just VRT? or others payments like VAT. The car is a 2022 Northern Irish car with low mileage. What do I need off the seller V5 I think it's called, anything else I need?

Excellent but itnwould appear you are still at the mercy of whoever you meet at the vrt centre as to what they look for.

I'd imagine any genuine case should be fine at the end of the day.

Switching the registration from mainland UK to NI will not avoid VAT or customs duty. The car needs to be either registered in NI since birth or have been registered in NI before Brexit to avoid VAT and customs duty.

Unfortunately it's not as easy as that. The whole system was made to avoid people doing that, and trying to avoid paying vat and custom charges by importing a car from a non EU country to the EU.

Only Ireland (if I am right) has this "Northern Ireland option" other countries it's a direct import from a non EU country. So UK is same as importing from China or USA.

But it was recently announced that at the end of the month the rules are changing.

"Just got this from revenue

The rules are chaining again end of April.

Basically any car bought up north will NOT be liable for VAT once it was used for " a reasonable amount of time up there"

So someone could buy a car from mainland UK and register in the north and hold for a reasonable amount of time.

(This is an example) To not pay VRT when moving residence to Ireland you have to have the car at least 6 month and prove with insurance and receipts and so on.

So I would think a car registered in the North for 6 months would be sufficient as Revenue have not given an amount of time.

You are right in saying that they are expensive. I contacted two of them. One said the HMRC rules where that they had to organise the freight to Ireland i.e. instead of say, me collecting the car. This added another £1,200 to their fee.

I know if you were buying a brand new car then it could be easier to get it with no UK vat added. The other option is the vat qualifying car which you mentioned already, this is another one the dealers in the UK would be aware of. But I wouldn't be surprised they look for a vat number from you.

Now just to make you aware both of the companies I talked with that buy it and then sell it to me for a fee. They both were under the assumption that the car I was going to buy was a vat qualifying car.

Does it state anywhere that an individual (not a business) can buy a secondhand car (1 year old) vat free as you want.

There is a scheme were a dealership in the Republic can buy a secondhand car and get something like 1/5 of the price of the car back . But I am not sure an individual like yourself can use this scheme.

That's all I could find information on when I did research, all UK sourced information. No information this side of the water as usual.

Would be great if someone on here had knowledge in the exact procedure and if it's actually even possible.

I bought a vat qualifying car from a UK dealer last year and they returned the 20% vat to me once I proved I exported it,there was no extra fee for this.I drove the car back myself,also didn't have to pay the 10% customs as it was less than 3 years old done with the help of a customs agent here.I bought the car as an individual not a business even though I have a vat number which was not used.

Thanks for the information, so definitely a vat qualifying vehicle can have the vat returned upon export. And this has been discussed on the forum.

I had questioned the guy that I got a quote from and he was adamant that HMRC require the seller to export the vehicle. But then Beck Evans which is the other company I got a quote from never said that and was happy if I just show them that I registered it here.

Thanks

Can you let me know what the HMRC come back with.

Unfortunately like you said the dealerships don't seem to want to know or don't want the hassle. I had discussions with HMRC before and they said what the certain rules were but the dealership wouldn't follow it and HMRC couldn't enforce it.

I have a deposit paid on a car and now the dealer is sort of panicking. It is a large dealership in the North so I was comfortable that they had done this before and were on top of it. I am also rushing the purchase as need the car quickly. I generally do a lot of research but I failed a little on this.

The car is 182 and originally UK. The dealer said it was perfect for VRT and suitable for the south. He called me today a little less confident. The car was serviced in the North in 2020 which makes me comfortable that this is fine. The problem is I need to be 100% sure that I get what I need to get.

It seems as simple as check the V5 document? Is it possible the dealer does not have this?