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Hi Damien,

OK, as you don’t have a VAT number, you’ll have to pay the VAT on the Hilux at the time of purchase. But the good news is that, as you’re bringing it in from Northern Ireland, there won’t be any extra charges (no import duty and no Irish VAT) on top of the usual VRT payment. VRT will charged at 13.3 per cent of the Irish market value. That value should (emphasis on the should) be around €29,000, so VRT will be in the region of €3,900.

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Hi Matt,

Assuming you mean VAT on importing from the North, then the answer is no for the most part. The exception is on cars that are less than six months old or with fewer than 6,000km on the clock, as they are treated as new.

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Hi Pamela,

Assuming you mean electrically folded mirrors, those were standard from Comfort Plus up.

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Hi Brian,

You will have to pay the VAT I’m afraid. In fact, you’d have to pay it as a commercial buyer as well, but you could of course reclaim it then subsequently. As a private buyer, you just have to pay it, unfortunately. For using a commercial as a private car, you have to let your local motor tax office know that you’re doing so, and you’ll then pay tax based on the size of the engine, not the CO₂ emissions figure. Getting private insurance for a commercial vehicle can be tricky, so shop around carefully or get in touch with a good broker before you commit.

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Hi Sean,

You should be fine, but I’d check with Revenue beforehand just to be certain. Revenue has previously told us that they will be carefully watching the papertrail of cars being imported from Northern Ireland to make sure that they’re not just being temporarily housed there to avoid the new taxes. If you’re buying from a dealer, though, it shouldn’t be an issue — after all, if you’ve bought from a dealer, then you’re just buying from their stock, and have no control over how long the car has been in the North. Just make sure that the papertrail for the purchase is clear and complete and you shouldn’t be liable for either the ten per cent import charge, nor the 21 per cent VAT (assuming the car is older than six months). 

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Hi Alan,

Yes, you’ll have to pay import duty, which will be ten per cent of the price of the car, plus transportation costs. You’ll also have to pay VAT twice — once to the UK authorities and again when you complete the import process here. If you’re VAT-registered you should be able to claim back the VAT at this end, but claiming it back  from the UK will be much trickier.

In theory, the Brexit trade agreement allows for such things, but the paperwork’s a mess at the moment, and no-one really seems to know what’s going on. You could make things a little easier for yourself by buying from a dealer in Northern Ireland — you’ll not have to pay the ten per cent import duty and, although you’ll be stung for the VAT, the NI authorities are a little more switched on as there are reciprocal cross-border tax arrangements. 

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Hi Danielle,

Yes, you can fill out a TR1 or TR2 form with Revenue to apply for VAT (depending on whether you’re applying as an individual, a sole trader, or a limited company) and you can find full details on that here. If you’re using the van privately (ie for anything other than journeys solely connected to business), then you’ll have to tax it as a private car, which puts you onto the old by-engine-capacity tax system. You’ll need to notify your local motor tax office that you’re doing this, and your insurer too.

We’ve heard tales from some readers that getting private insurance for a van can be tricky, so shop around, and maybe get in touch with a good broker, first.

In the meantime, have a read of our Buying a commercial vehicle for private use feature.

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Hi Eoin,

If you are, yourself, VAT registered, or if your company is and you’re buying the car through the company, then that may well be possible, but I would check with your accountant just to be certain before taking any leaps. Also, don't forget about the NOx levy and customs duty that will be due regardless. Read our Guide to Importing Cars from the UK feature for full details.

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Hi John,

You've asked solely about VRT, so we're assuming you're importing the car from the North, not England, Wales or Scotland. If it's not from the North, you'll have to pay VAT and customs duty as well as VRT and the NOx levy.

So, the price it is listed at means effectively nothing. Revenue will come up with its own OMSP (Open Market Selling Price), which it reckons it would sell for in Ireland at the time of the registration changeover. It's not easy to estimate what that would be. We'd guess €26,000.

A quick search shows that car's WLTP CO₂ rating at 147g/km (depends on which specific version of that car you are looking at), which means a VRT rate of 21 per cent. At an OMSP of €26,000, that means VRT of €5,460. The NOx levy will be on top of that.

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Hi Gerard,

Yes, the final Brexit-exit has indeed caused some changes. According to Revenue, if you’re importing a car from the UK, you will now have to complete an electronic customs declaration form BEFORE going to collect the vehicle (you can find them here) and you’ll then be liable for three potential costs — customs duty, VRT (as before, including the NOx charge) and VAT, currently at 21 per cent. That VAT charge, previously only applied to vehicles that are either new or less than six months old (or with fewer than 6,000km on the clock) now applies to all imports.

Except it doesn’t — if you import a car from Northern Ireland, thanks to NI’s new special status as per the Brexit withdrawal agreement, then the VAT will only be charged on new vehicles, and you won’t have to pay any customs duty (sometimes referred to as import duty).

Incidentally, that customs duty (which is charged at 10 per cent of the total value of the car, plus carriage costs) will NOT be applied if the car was built in the UK, or in an EU country. That’s a potential minefield as you’d be surprised how many cars that you assume to be British or European are actually made in, say, South Africa or the US. It obviously affects Japanese and Korean-built cars, but again, you’d be surprised how many of those that we buy are actually built in the UK, France, Slovakia or elsewhere in Europe.