Importing a car from the UK

[eamo]

I get all the costs involved and when duty and vat are applicable
But is the day of driving a car home from the uk over? Do you have to use a 3rd party to ship it over and do the paperwork for you?

[kdevitt]

You can drive it back over yourself - but it needs all the paperwork in order before it arrives in Ireland. Again, you can also do the paperwork yourself - assuming you're used to doing it. A clearance agent is around €85 for providing the service though - so you'd want rocks in your head to attempt it yourself for the sake of that amount of cash.

[kdevitt]

https://www.bell.ie are the crowd my brother reached out to for clearance services when my brother was looking at importing

[dergside]

I haven't looked in to the fine detail yet, but from what I can see the only change in process is that you need to make a Customs Declaration before the car is presented for VRT inspection, etc. It can be done online and I think there is no impediment to bringing the car here first (as you'd have done before) as long as the entire Customs and VRT transaction is completed within the usual 30 days limit. If the declaration hasn't been made then you won't have the reference number that the VRT folks will now ask for as part of a UK import documentation and procedure.

[kdevitt]

I haven't looked in to the fine detail yet, but from what I can see the only change in process is that you need to make a Customs Declaration before the car is presented for VRT inspection, etc. It can be done online and I think there is no impediment to bringing the car here first (as you'd have done before) as long as the entire Customs and VRT transaction is completed within the usual 30 days limit. If the declaration hasn't been made then you won't have the reference number that the VRT folks will now ask for as part of a UK import documentation and procedure.

The transport company my brother was in touch with said that the car will not get out of the port without the customs paperwork being all in order

Edit -
Not sure on how rigidly that could be policed (since you could drive in through NI) but seems like it should be compliant before entering Ireland

***
Importing a vehicle from Great Britain (GB)
From 1 January 2021 vehicles imported from Great Britain are liable to:

customs duty, if applicable
Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT)
VAT at the current standard rate.
An electronic customs declaration will be required in advance of the vehicle arriving in the State.

[dergside]

The transport company my brother was in touch with said that the car will not get out of the port without the customs paperwork being all in order

Edit -
Not sure on how rigidly that could be policed (since you could drive in through NI) but seems like it should be compliant before entering Ireland

I can understand that if the car is being imported commercially and back until 1993 when the single market came in to effect and VRT was introduced the car had to be declared at the port of arrival and couldn't be removed until all duty, VAT, etc. was settled and the paperwork stamped.

Here - https://www.revenue.ie/en/importing-...e-from-gb.aspx there's a comment:

"Where a customs declaration is required in respect of a vehicle brought into the State, the vehicle will be liable to seizure if the customs declaration is not completed and, or the vehicle is not registered within 30 days of its arrival in the State."

[kdevitt]

"Where a customs declaration is required in respect of a vehicle brought into the State, the vehicle will be liable to seizure if the customs declaration is not completed and, or the vehicle is not registered within 30 days of its arrival in the State."

So that would indicate that it does need to be clear prior to arrival in the state, and needs to be VRT'd within 30 days

[dergside]

So that would indicate that it does need to be clear prior to arrival in the state, and needs to be VRT'd within 30 days

Not sure I'm reading it that way. My reading focuses on the AND/OR part suggesting only the requirement is that they are completed within 30 days of arrival. As I said though, there seem to be contradictions between different bits of information.

[eamo]

The transport company my brother was in touch with said that the car will not get out of the port without the customs paperwork being all in order

Edit -
Not sure on how rigidly that could be policed (since you could drive in through NI) but seems like it should be compliant before entering Ireland

***
Importing a vehicle from Great Britain (GB)
From 1 January 2021 vehicles imported from Great Britain are liable to:

customs duty, if applicable
Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT)
VAT at the current standard rate.
An electronic customs declaration will be required in advance of the vehicle arriving in the State.

Unless they inspect every UK reg car coming off the boat how would they know?

[kdevitt]

Unless they inspect every UK reg car coming off the boat how would they know?

Who knows in reality - although if you're required to provide the ferry ticket it would make it pretty simple. Theres quite a bit in the link on the revenue site about requiring a customs declaration for the car to be loaded on a ferry.

From revenue.ie -
Before registering vehicles imported from GB after 31 December 2020
If you import a vehicle from GB into the State, you must complete a customs declaration. You must also pay customs duty, if applicable, and Value-Added Tax (VAT) on the import value of the vehicle. This must be done prior to importation of the vehicle. It will not be possible to register the vehicle in the State without having completed the necessary customs declaration. You can obtain more information on filing in Customs declarations.