Importing van from U.K.

hi
considering importing a van or 4 wheel drive from uk
as long as the vehicle doesnt have a second row ie back seats it only has small vrt
my question _this must be well worth doing even for a cheap ford fiesta van
what is the tax and registering procedure
has anyone experience ie done it
maybe other threads have it covered
lets say i buy a ford transit in uk ,import it.inform the vehicle tax _vrt about 100e reregistered with irish plates
im talking about a 2nd hand vehicle
maybe other threads have covered this idea

Costs 50 euro to register with VRT office.There is a rule that from the back of the drivers seat to the back doors closed you must have 2 meters of space.If less than 2 meters does not qualify for 50 euro rate.Transit would be okay,Fiesta van woulkd not qualify.

is that 2m in length or 2m sq
is that the only requirement to qualify for 50 e vrt
and what about 4x4 and pick ups

Needs to be 2 meters in lenght.4x4 and pickups have been taken out of the 50 euro bracket.To many coming into republic and revenue saw the chance to fleece us some more.

It needs to be more than 2 cubic metres of space, have a Wheelbase of more than 2.5m and have a Gross vehicle weight of more than 2.5 tonnes laden.

I've looked into Mondeo estates etc which have the 2 cubic mtrs, and the wheelbase, but doesn't have the GVW which is the stickler - for the €50 rate.

Otherwise the rate's 13.3% for small vans & pickups.

I have a question on behalf of bf.

He wants to buy a jeep in the UK, but he can't find a commercial one in the model he wants. (He want's it for commercial use and doesn't want back seats) If he brings it into Ireland is there a different rate of VRT for commercial and non-commercail jeeps? If so can he take out the back seats and pay VRT at the commercial rate?

I hope I've explained myself properly. Cheers.

Hi,
There is a difference in the VRT (a big difference...also cheaper tax on commercial and no need for MOT) ...he is better off holing out until he sees the model he wants. No you cannot take out the back seats as you suggested - you will still be done for private car VRT.

Thanks for that Brian

i think brian is totally wrong there.
almost every commercial jeep you see in this country started out as a passenger model. in a lot of cases the seats/glass gets ripped out by the importers. although it sounds crazy, the commercial jeep idea seems to be a purely irish phenomenon and the relatively small volumes would make it uneconomical for the likes of toyota, nissan etc to bother with it at their factories.
the vrt will be charged based on how the vehicle is presented to the tax office.
afaik, you must remove the seats , block out the windows, put a plate over the footwells and weld up the seatbelt anchor points.
if you subsequently undo these modifications you would be liable to pay the vrt difference although im not sure who checks this.
there used to be a loophole where people used to tax passenger jeeps commercially but this has been done away with as you cant get a doe if the welding mods i mentioned above have not been done.

Does anyone know a website where I can check this out for definite? I have searched to no avail.

Ask the Revenue. They don't (usually) bite.

I rang Revenue. I was told that the jeep would be considered as a Category B (ie VRT of 13.3% on OMSP) if the ammendments were made.