Costs involved in importing cars from UK to Ireland

S

sitecorp

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Hi,

I'm an Irish ex-Pat who recently moved to London for a few years. While I'm over here a friend suggested trying to make a few quid on the price differential between Irish and UK car prices.

The idea would be to buy a second hand car in the UK (about 2 years old), drive the car back to Ireland. Place an add on an online car dealership such as www.carzone.ie and have a friend in Ireland to show the car and do any haggling.

As I'm not planning to return home within the next 12 months I don't think I'm exempt from VRT. However, other than the VRT (calculated on the OMSP), insurance, ferry to Ireland, flight to London, fuel, online broker fee, and time & hassle is there any other expenses or pitfalls I might have over looked?

If anyone has actualy done this I'd especially love to hear thier story and any words of wisdom they might have to offer.

Thanks in advance
 
Yeah the idea in principle is excellant, however if you register over seven cars for VRT purposes within 18 months you'll be forced to register to Revenue so they can track your dealings.

Also what you said also clearly constitutes a trade meaning that you would be liable to Irish Income Tax on the profits you make. Regardless of your resdiency. On the up side you could cliam expenses such as all the expenses you mentioned above.

I know of you lad who had a very good system going, he used to buy fairly high end cars from big dealers so they'd still have European warranty, than maybe 4-5 times a year he'd drive his lorry over here packed with cars. Loads of people new him and the goods were genuine so he'd spend a few days over here and sell the lot of them (still with English plates), then the individual would register the car here themselves thus he was avoiding having to register with Revenue. He stopped about a year ago, I think he got himself in some trouble with a few Revenue guys who weren't too happy with him.

You have to remember the car market has fallen apart in ROI now and it's not going to come back over night.

Buy quality cars that are rare over here.
 
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