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Hi Declan,

That’s right — the NOx tax will only apply to Category A vehicles, i.e. private passenger cars. Vans are in Category B and are exempt. 

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Hi Aidan,

No, the new NOx tax is only applied to Category A vehicles — which means private passenger cars — from Jan 1st onwards. 

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Hi Jamie,

There are three main charges to consider when importing a car from Japan. Of course, there’s VRT, which you can try to calculate using the online resources supplied by Revenue, but often it’s a matter of guesswork until the car is actually physically inspected here. Secondly there’s the shipping (which would normally be in and around €1,000 to get a car freighted to Dublin). Finally, there’s VAT and customs duty — these will usually only be a minor charge if the car is relatively old, but if it’s a recent model, the VAT especially could be rather significant.

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Hi John,

Nope, it wouldn’t. Working off the base model prices — £38,500 in the UK and €48,900 here, a quick conversion at today’s rates shows that the equivalent Euro price of a new Tesla Model 3 would be €45,069. A saving? No — although the VRT would cost you nothing at the point of import (thanks to the €5,000 rebate) you would have to pay VAT on entry, as it’s a new car, and so the price would go up by €10,350.

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Hi Simon,

It depends on the engine, as to tax a Sprinter as a private vehicle, you’d have to go back on to the old engine capacity taxation system. So for a Sprinter with the 2.1-litre diesel, you’d have to pay €906 per year, and for one with the 3.0-litre V6 engine, you’d be looking at €1,494 per year.

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Hi Clare,

A Hilux has a 2.4-litre engine (well, the current one does, but remember that older versions had 3.0-litre units) so if you want to tax it as a private vehicle that’s going to be €1,034 per year for motor tax. I’m pretty sure you can’t register and tax a horse lorry for private use as it’s over the 3,500kg limit for private cars. The tax therefore would be the commercial rate of €333 per year. As for insurance, that’s probably more down to you and your own driving record than it is to the vehicle, but the good news is that there are specialist horse lorry insurers, such as Wexford Insurance, who would probably be able to give you a good quote. 

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Hi Tracy,

Do you mean VRT? VAT, Value Added Tax, is only charged on a new vehicle, or on an import that’s younger than six months old, or has less than 6,000km on the clock. At the current 23 per cent VAT rate, you’d pay around €6,000 on a brand new Nissan X-Trail in VAT.

If you do mean VRT, or Vehicle Registration Tax, then for a 2018-registered X-Trail with the 1.6 dCi diesel engine, you’re looking at around €5,000 for VRT. If you’re importing after January 1st, then there’ll be the extra NOx levy to pay, which, with the basic X-Trail’s 40mg/km NOx rating, means an extra €200 on top of the VRT.

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Hi Kieran,

Because you go back to the old engine capacity tax system when you tax a commercial vehicle as a private car (no, we don’t know why either) it’s going to be €413 a year to tax a Courier with a 1.5-litre engine.

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Hi Gerry,

Yes, you can absolutely insure it as a private car, especially when you have taxed it as such. Just ring up your insurer and let them know of the change. There shouldn’t be any increase in cost, or at least only a small one.

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Hi Tristan,

If you’re taxing a van or commercial vehicle as a private car, you go back to the old by-engine-capacity system, and for a 1.6-litre engine that’s €514 per year.