recent reddit post
thanx to bowbez
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..................to Ireland and I have decided to document the whole process since there was very little resources online providing all the information. Hopefully this may help someone in the future going through the same process.
I went to Glasgow by van on the ferry from Belfast to Cairnryan (Stenaline) to collect the bike.
Ahead of the trip I wasn’t sure if I needed any paperwork for the ferry for customs. There was some
sites that stated I would need a customs declaration in advance, but I did not want to do this since I wasn’t 100% sure I would be getting the bike until I got there (I was buying it privately and my first time viewing it was the day I was picking it up). So hearing advice from other people’s experience, I didn’t prepare this in advance and thankfully did not need it.
Documents to get from the seller:
- V5C document (registration cert. For exporting, the seller cuts out the small red section 5 and gives you the rest of the document)
- Receipt/proof of purchase containing the date of sale, price, bike details, seller/buying details, signatures. (I just asked the seller to print out something we signed)
- Certificate of Conformity for the bike from the manufacturer (if available - not needed in my case for VRT but it is for wanting to sit test on category A bike)
On the ferry over and back, when going through security, they asked purpose of my journey. I stated I was picking up a motorbike. They did not ask for any paperwork. Make sure to keep your ferry tickets as you will need this for the VRT appointment.
After I got the bike home, I had 7 days to book a VRT appointment and 30 days to complete it.
The first thing I did was contact a customs agent to complete the customs declaration. I used this website:
https://customsdeclaration.ie/
This costs €120 (€110 with the 10 euro discount they have on their site for first time declarations). This cost is only to request the declaration. They will email you shortly after requesting details from you along with copies of documents: sales invoice, V5C, proof of payment, ferry ticket. For the proof of payment I provided a copy of the online bank transfer I sent for a deposit. The rest I paid in cash, so I also sent them the receipts I got from the currency exchange and post office when getting the cash out.
Within a day, I the declaration was complete and I had to pay a total of €2616.15. This includes customs and VAT (23%)
To give a breakdown of that, the cost of my second hand bike was £6800.
The customs agent gets the exchange rate from the
revenue site to convert to euro -> €8097.84
They then take the cost of the transport into the country (ferry in my case) which in my case was €513.58
Add these together 8097.84 + 513.58 = 8611.42
Then they apply the customs charge on this of 6% which is 516.68 (Customs amount)
Then they add that 8611.42 + 516.68 = 9128.11 (VAT Base)
And that (9128.11) is the value they apply the VAT of 23% to, which is 2099.46 (VAT amount)
So the final amount they charge you is the VAT 2099.46 plus the Customs Amount 516.68 which is €2616.15.
Some notes on the above. You may save money if you don’t go by van. The ferry costs significantly more if you go by van. Which you also have to then pay tax on. I originally planned to drive the motorbike back home, but since I only had a learner permit for that category of bike and even though my insurance stated I was covered in the UK, someone advised me a vehicle could be ceased if you drive on a leaner permit in another country. So thought I would be safe and go by van.
There is also mixed information online on whether you need to pay VAT on an imported vehicle. Some people and sites advised that you only need to pay VAT on new vehicles. And “new” according to the
Revenue means if it’s registered in less than 6 months OR if it has less that 6000km on the clock. I heard of some places in the UK where you can send your clock to and they can send you a replacement clock with increased milage to avoid this and then afterwards they send the original back to your lower mileage (I am not condoning this illegal behaviour…). HOWEVER, this “new” vehicle condition only applies if you are importing the vehicle within the EU. Since the UK is no longer in the EU, VAT is required to be paid on all imported vehicles, new or old. So you can disregard this information when importing to Ireland from the UK. You will have to pay VAT regardless.
Once you pay the customs declaration amount and sign some forms for them to consent them to contact the revenue on your behalf, they will then send you the customs form that you need for your VRT appointment. They send you a pdf copy via email which I printed out to bring with me.
Documents needed for VRT appointment:
- V5C document
- Ferry tickets (I brought printed out email booking as well as physical tickets received when boarding ferry)
- Receipt/proof of purchase I got from the seller
- Customs form I got from the customs agent above
- Proof of address (utility bill or bank statement)
- Proof of PPS number (any letter from revenue)
- Completed VRT form (https://www.revenue.ie/en/vrt/documents/vrt/form-vrtvpd2.pdf in my case since it was private sale - if purchasing from dealer, it would be VRTVPD1)
- Driver’s license
- Certificate of Conformity (optional - may be useful at this point to provide this here if you have it so proof of the power outage can be provided if needed for test)
Some notes on the VRT appointment.. It’s good to know in advance where your VIN/Chassis number is located as you will have to show this to the inspector.
Some resources online also state that you need proof of NOx and CO2 emissions. This can be included on the V5 document, but it was blank on mine. So I panicked trying to get the Certificate of Conformity ahead of my VRT appointment for this which proved to be incredibly difficult. The seller did not have this. It is something you have to request from the manufacturer. Which was Honda in my case. Since the bike was registered in the UK, Honda Ireland were not able to assist (well they could if I paid the €100 to request the COC from Japan) and they advised I needed to contact Honda UK since the bike was registered there. Honda UK have a
site to request the COC which is free if it has not already been requested for your bike. However you can’t order from this site with an Irish address.. I tried putting in my address anyway and I emailed them after, but they said they were cancelling my request since they can’t issue it to Ireland. Went around in circles with this for ages, until I eventually just got the seller who is in the UK to request the COC from Honda UK and then post it to me.
Which I did not have in time for my VRT, but in the end it wasn’t even needed. So totally stressed over that whole thing for nothing.
It says on the VRT site “Where evidence of CO2 and NOx emissions of the vehicle at the time of manufacture is not available at registration, VRT will be charged at the highest applicable rates”. So I thought I might be charged more. But I ended up being charged the amount I expected when I entered my CC and date or registration into the VRT online calculator (
https://www.ros.ie/evrt-enquiry/vrtenquiry.html?execution=e1s2).
Which was €799.
They give you your new reg number then and there at the VRT appointment.
It can take 24 hours for the bike to be entered into the system, so the following day I was able to tax the bike on
motortax.ie using the new reg and the VIN (last 6 digits) as the pin.
I was also able to order my new reg plate online which you can from various custom reg plate sites. I used
https://printpoint.ie/signs/irish-motorbike-plates as it was the cheapest legal plate site. I will get myself a fancy one after passing my test.
After you pay your motor tax, you then your VRC (Vehicle Registration Certificate / logbook) in the post a few days later.
That pretty much sums up the whole importing a vehicle from the UK process..
There is one other element to it if you plan on sitting an A category driving test on your bike which I do.
When I got my logbook, there was no value entered into the “Engine Max. Net Power (kw)” section P.2.
To use a bike for an A category test, you need proof of Reg number, CC and power outage (may be similar for other bike category tests). For imported vehicles, it’s typical that the max power is not entered. And on the day of your test you will need proof of this. Otherwise they can’t grade you for that category.
The RSA
site says they will accept “written proof on headed notepaper from a relevant dealer or official importer showing the particular make of motorcycle and it’s registration number”.
I contacted Honda Ireland to see if they would provide this, which they can, but with a cost of €100.
So instead, since I was able to get the COC from the seller who got it from Honda UK, I was able to request for my logbook to be updated.
This has to be done through the Revenue
site (RSA, Department of Transport in Shannon and Motortax office can’t help here).
What you need to do is log into Revenue, log a ticket in MyEnquiries with “Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT)” option.
Explain you need your VRC updated to include the power outage. I attached photos of the COC here too.
She replied with a freepost address I need to send the logbook to so that they can request the update from the department of transport.
She did state that since the vehicle is already taxed, I need to send the VRC to them, so perhaps this step can be done before you tax the vehicle so that the first logbook you receive contains the power outage. This is the address I needed to post to:
Freepost
Registration Section
National VRT Service
Office of the Revenue Commissioners
Anne Street
Wexford
Y35E29K
After she received it, using the copy of the COC I attached to the enquiry, she then requested the logbook to be updated from the DOT which I then received in the post a week later and I am now good to sit my test on my imported bike.
The whole process was an absolute nightmare to be honest. I would not recommend it at all. I really wanted the bike I got which was unavailable in Ireland so I was willing to jump through some hoops, but I was too far into it when I realised how much it was going to cost and all the other shite I had to do.
For a £6800 (~€8100) bike, I paid an extra €4038.72 in total extra (513.58 ferry, 2099.46 VAT, 110 customs agent, 516.68 customs, 799 VRT).
