gorm

Does anyone know where i would stand If I was to purchase a car from the uk and register it in a friends name who is resident in the uk and he brings it to ireland and lets say gives it to me as a gift would i still have to pay VRT even though it was a gift.

Also what about if I buy a car in uk, register it in my friends name, but drive it in ireland while being a named driver on his insurance. Does anyone think that either of these would work as a loophole. I would be interested in anyones thoughts on this.

jdr

Do you not think the taxman has had the same thoughts ?

gorm

Well of course I have thought of that, but I dont see any info or laws implemented to say you cannot do this.

jdr

Knowing the tax man I am sure there will be some, otherwise everyone would do it all over the world, I expect he would have to pay it when he brought it in.

pete.burrows

Hi,

I've just moved to Ireland from the UK and brought two cars over (only registered one of them). When it comes to VRT the cost is based on the market value not what you paid for it so claiming it was a gift is unlikely to get you anywhere. Lots of documentation is required when registering it. They're very used registering UK cars so they will have seen every trick in the book.

If you own the car for more than 6 months in the UK, it has to be registered in your name and you have to have been resident there for that period, then you pay no vrt as long as you keep the car for at least a year after registering it.

As far as driving it on a friend's insurance you have to check the insureance details, I know both our insirance policies only covered us for 90 days outside the uk in any given year and only one of them covered the named drivers.The cover also only applied to holidays and the car had to return to the UK at then end of that period.

Also it is worth bearing in mindthatthe Gards have been stopping and checking the paperwork of UK registered cars throughout Ireland. To be honest you are often better off buying a car in Ireland instead. I did that instead of registering one of our cars as the VRT was more than the car was worth IMHO.

There is lot of talk about cars costing more to buy in Ireland than the UK but I found that this only really applies to new cars and certain models/brands of second hand cars. If you do your research then it shouldn't be a problem.

It really isn't worth taking the risk with it as you'll probably only probably find out you're not properly insured when you have an accident at which point it is too late.

Hope this helps.

Pete

gekyle

I chose the second option. I am currently in dispute with the revenue over this, although but I cant see the legal grounds they have to force me to register the car in Ireland. What did u decide to do in the end?

gorm

I have not bought a car yet, i was testing to see what others thought of my theorys and if they would work, the way i see it is that if they have not published any details on these theorys then surely there should be no implications.

Londonuck

Im in the same boat.

I would rather not own a car at all but thats London living. Having a car sitting outside my house for 6 months insured, taxed and gassed up, waiting to go to Ireland would probably be the same as the VRT anyway.

pete.burrows

That seems like a very naive way to think about it - I don't think you can't rely on the fact that they haven't explicitly ruled out one of you theories in a leaflet; when it comes down to it they will have the full knowledge of the law WHEN they choose to call you up on it - you won't!

Pete

gekyle

i discovered today that, unfortunately, the irish revenue have now published on this. Form VRT2 states explicitly that an irish resident is not permitted to drive an unregistered vehicle in the state. So, although the UK reg car is allowed in the state (under a temporary exemption certificate) it can only be driven by a non-resident. The only way around this is to change your residency back to UK but I think this requires you to be back in the UK for 185 days in the year. The only consolation is that paying the VRT adds value onto the car so say in 2 years you decide to move back to the UK you could sell the car in Ireland and realise a higher price than if you sold in the UK.