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Hi Ciaran,

Benefit in kind is, unfortunately, not a fixed figure and depends as much on your personal circumstances as it does the particular car. Have a look on the Revenue website to learn more, but you’re going to need an accountant.

As for tax on the vehicle itself, the VRT payable is 13.3 per cent of the purchase price and, taxed as a commercial, it’s €333 a year, but if you’re using it for any sort of social, domestic or pleasure driving then you’ll have to tax it as a private car, and that means €1,200 per year.

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Hi Dan,

Yes, UK cars often have higher spec levels than Irish models (although base spec is essentially the same), but you will of course pay extra at VRT time for any toys. Beware the N47 diesel engine timing chain issues though  — don’t buy a car that hasn’t got a full BMW service history.

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Hi Andrew,

Whether it's a case of giving us the poor mouth or not I'm not sure but Irish dealers by and large operate on a margin of between 8 and 12 per cent. That can vary wildly between brands, of course. Dacia dealers for instance will probably tell you they work on a margin closer to five per cent, so don't go asking for discounts. Premium brand dealers will obviously have broader margins so there is a little more scope for discounting there. 

The UK market has a number of advantages over us when it comes to seeking out bargains. For a start, there's no VRT to pay, whereas anything from 30 to 50 per cent of every Irish dealer's sale goes straight into the tax man's pocket. Competition in the UK is also much more cut-throat and the big dealers have to compete with the likes of car supermarkets, so they're keener to offer discounts.

If you're looking for bargains at the moment in Ireland, the best thing to do is watch for pre-registrations. To meet their market share targets, many importers are pressuring their dealers to register cars that will then be sold as 'nearly new' or 'demo model' at a significant price cut. The best thing to do is shop at the start of the month, as most pre-registering will be done on the last working day of the previous month and dealers will be keen to off-load pre-registered stock.

Hope all that helps

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Hi Robert,

Not even slightly. There was a fad of buying bi-fuel cars about five years ago, thanks partly to an experimental push on E85 bio-ethanol from fuel supplier Maxol, but mostly because such cars got a €2,500 VRT rebate due to their supposedly 'green' credentials. That all fell apart once (a) the new CO₂-based tax system came in and (b) people realised that there simply isn't enough arable farmland to grow enough crops to make E85 for all of us, and still be able to feed ourselves. As far as we know, there are not even any E85 filling stations still running, so you're effectively just buying a standard 1.8 petrol, and not benefiting from the original VRT rebate.

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Hi Karen,

You’ll need to, within seven days of arriving in the country, inform the Revenue Commissioners that the car is here, and book an appointment at your nearest NCT (equivalent of MOT) centre for an inspection. If you’ve owned the car for more than six months, and can provide proof of both previous tax and insurance, and change of address, then you will only have to pay a nominal administration fee to re-register the car here, and not the dreaded VRT import tax.

Read our guide to importing a car from the UK

Expert answer

Hi Ann Marie,

You’ll only have to pay VAT if the car is younger than six months, or has less than 6,000km on the clock. If you have to pay VAT, you’ll be told the amount during the VRT inspection process.

Read our guide to importing a car from the UK

Expert answer

Hi Ken,

OK, having combed the Revenue information booklets, as far as we can tell, the age of the vehicle in question means that it is not liable for VAT, but will, of course, be liable for VRT. It wouldn't hurt to double check with your local tax office to confirm this, though. Revenue tend to actually be very helpful with such inquiries, just be up front with them.

Let us know how you get on

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Hi Ben,

The only way to look at this like-for-like at the moment is the compare the Superb (pre-facelift that goes on sale next month) and the new Octavia, both with 2.0 TDI 140 engines. The DSG option costs €4,865 in the Superb and just €2,300 in the Octavia and it should be the same six-speed unit in each.

However, adding a DSG transmission to that Superb moves it from tax Band B1 to Band C, or, more pertinently, from a situation where the car is subject to 18 per cent VRT to one where it attracts 23 per cent VRT. In comparison, the Octavia moves from Band A3 to A4, adding a single per cent increase in VRT (rising from 17- to 18 per cent).

Nonetheless, we did a quick calculation to get the prices before VRT of each car and subtract the manual price from the DSG and it still works out that Skoda charges considerably more for the DSG transmission.

We contacted Skoda Ireland and it agreed and has changed this in the new Superb. Here's the official response:

"The Superb DSG premium on average was €4,300; this will be reduced to €3,000 with the introduction of the Superb facelift in July. This represents a customer saving of €1,300 compared to the outgoing model. This is a slightly higher premium than the Octavia model; however, it is not as simple as pricing the transmission as a single unit and then applying it to the various models. There are many factors taken into consideration when pricing vehicles as a whole. Previously the Superb DSG was a big seller for Skoda. With improved prices we are confident we will see even more customer moving to DSG from manual transmission."

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Hi Dave,

First off, we are massively jealous of you getting a Challenger. We drove an SRT8 version in San Diego back before Christmas and it's just a glorious lump of retro-styled Americana. Good enough to (literally at one point) stop traffic in downtown. Bringing one into Ireland of course means you're going to get hit for a lot of tax in the form of VRT - and potentially VAT.

You'll be paying the top whack rate of 36% VRT because of the car's emissions. Now, that's not 36% of the price you've paid, but 36% of what Revenue decides the car is worth. Fair? No, not even slightly but them's the rules. You'll have to pay VAT as well if the car is either less than six months old or has less than 6,000km on the clock. Within seven days of the car's arrival in Ireland, you have to make your appointment with the NCT people to have the car inspected and valued. Revenue has a very helpful FAQ page on VRT here: http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/vrt/faqs-vrt.html

Let us know how you get on - and if you need help testing it...

Expert answer

Hi Philip,

You need to tread very carefully here. Theoretically a vehicle must be inspected, registered and have its VRT paid within a maximum of 30 days of entry into the state. The Revenue Commissioners can, retrospectively, apply a penalty charge if they believe that the vehicle was late being registered. If your dealer has not had the car inspected and registered, you need to ask why.

And if they are unwilling to pay the VRT, you also need to be asking questions. Anyone can pay VRT and have a vehicle registered; you don't need any special licence from a business point of view. It could well be that the dealer in question knows that the likely cost of VRT will outweigh any potential profit from the car and so is trying to pass the cost on to you. I'd be very suspicious and ask some hard questions before proceeding with this deal.

Let us know how you get on