VRT applicable on Vintage vehicles?

Hi all,

My Dad (vintage car enthusiast) is turning 60 soon and we have decided to try and locate a certain car for him. Spotted it in the UK, good price, but I'm wondering if VRT is applicable on vintage cars?

All help appreciated - thanks

older then 30 years? no VRT i think

There is, and it can be an issue if the Revenue decide it's a valuable vehicle. You should call the Revenue with details of the car to check before buying. (It could as easily be cheap, however their idea of what's valuable and what's not don't seem to be publicly available, and it has cost some people an absolute fortune.)

Thanks guys, older than 30 years yes but no harm to ring revenue I guess. Thanks a mill as ever.. will be back if I have more queries ;0)

dahamsta said:

There is, and it can be an issue if the Revenue decide it's a valuable vehicle. You should call the Revenue with details of the car to check before buying. (It could as easily be cheap, however their idea of what's valuable and what's not don't seem to be publicly available, and it has cost some people an absolute fortune.)

Click to expand...

How do you mean "if the Revenue decide it's a valuable vehicle"?

I was under the impression that it was a blanket €50 VRT for anything older than the rolling 30 year cut off.

Nope, I've seen people on the Classics forum on Boards and on other forums who presented prestige vintage cars - Merc coupés and Porsches, for example - to the Revenue for VRT and were in turn presented with hefty bills. This may have changed since the VRT billing was handed over to the NCT centres, but I'd have my doubts.

Either way, it's always worth calling the Revenue first to check, because: a) the figure quoted on the Revenue website is not gospel, for example options on a car can add to the VRT; and b) the NCT centres have proved very hit and miss on implementation.

There was an increase in the last budget to the VRT payable by the category of vehicles that classic cars comes under - it goes up to 200 euro from May, I think?

The guys and gals in the Classic Car forum on Boards will have lots of information on it.

If the car is over 30 years old when imported then the VRT payable is flat rate of €50 at the moment, high value vehicles don't pay any more or low value vehicles any less. If the vehicle is imported form outside the EU then other taxes such as duty may be payable also, only the Revenue Commissioners can quote you a figure on this I'm afraid.

There has been no change is the VRT payable since the NCTS took over dealing with vehicle imports from the Revenue Commissioners. The rules about registering within a certain time and having a certificate of roadworthiness have changed though. Oh, and you will get very uninformed answers if you ask the NCTS!

The €50 charge is due to rise to €200 in May, although there seems to some debate about this applying to classic cars, I'm in the camp of thinking that it does.

On another note, there may be no need to import a classic car. There are plenty vintage & classic cars been offered in the market at present due to the econmic slowdown. In fact I know persons who took their classics to the UK a few weeks ago to sell. Plus I received a list of classics in yesterdays post with well priced cars and very willing sellers.

Any cars over 30 years old would normally only pay €50 in VRT, if imported from outside the EU, there could be be Vat and Customs charges applicable on the overall transaction including purchase price and shipping etc.