Once you have settled in and have the time to focus on making your car legal, you will need the following to show that the car was not bought specifically for importing into Ireland.
· Vehicle Registration Certificate / Export Certificate
· Evidence of vehicle’s insurance cover abroad for previous 6 months
· Current Drivers Licence
· Invoice relating to the purchase of the vehicle
· Sailing ticket or other relevant document
· Evidence of the sale of property abroad
· Evidence of a property rental / tenancy agreement abroad
· Evidence of payment of taxes abroad (P45, P60, poll tax etc.)
· Evidence of day-to-day living abroad (e.g. household bills, medical records, work contracts etc.)
Now, the above list, at first glance, seems relatively unassuming. Be warned , the revenue see it as their job to go through all your documents with a fine tooth comb. When they say they want to see evidence of day to day living abroad, they mean they want to see day to day, for at least the previous 6 months that you say you owned the car. It will not do to send them credit card statements for a few of those months, coupled with phone bills for a few others. They expect to see at least 2 utility bills along with other bills like bank statements, credit cards etc. If you have a job that takes you to other countries, or if you visit Ireland frequently and have transactions on you bank or credit card statements, expect to be questioned like someone on the FBI wanted list.