Irish Reply

[rose]

Well hallo boys and girls and your'e all very welcome to visit our lovely little country.
My first recommendation to see Ireland is to rent a helicopter and not a car. The traffic is so messed up over here at the moment your'e in for a real treat.
Somebody told me recently that there are less than three hundred porsches in the country at the moment and the reason is TAX or more commonly known over here as VRT. This is a discuised name for extorsion. Example ! I am selling my car on ebay at the moment for one reason only and that is because the import tax I have been asked to pay on a 26 year 930 is $ 15,511.00. Now you all know why you don't see porsches every day on our national roads.

PS. If anyone wants to buy a really nice 930 have a look on ebay item no 4604959663

[glenncal1]

Rose-while I won't be bidding on what looks to be a very nice car, I will tip a little Tullamore Dew in your honor (might even chase it with a little Guiness). Is that a one time registration tax or a yearly fee.

[rose]

Hi Jim, Its a one time import tax but the annual road tax is $1500 for cars under 30 years. We live in penal times.
Regards
Tony

[911AtLast]

That's sounds far too high - I brought in a '76 Carrera 3.0 two years ago and paid €3250 in VRT.

Yes I could have waited until this year (30+ cars are exempt) but why do so?

As for prospective visitors, don't believe all the doom and gloom - plenty of good roads in Ireland!

Just don't drive in the cities! (true of most places I'd say)

Warren

[911AtLast]

(after visiting ebay)

Ah yes - I spotted this car on ebay this week!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4604959663&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebay.co.uk%3A80%2F%2Fsearch %2Fsearch.dll%3Ffrom%3DR40%26satitle%3D4604959663% 26fvi%3D1

Pretty fancy original flatnose turbo

Maybe you should remove that giant wing before presenting the car to the VRT people!

BTW, cars over 30 years old just pay ~€50 road tax per year.

Warren

[stevepaa]

So explain this import tax to me. My wife and I have considered Ireland as second home for retirement. Thanks

[POKDUB]

Vehicle Registration Tax is payable on all cars brought into the country unless they are over 30 years old, ie deemed classic.

The rate varies slightly, but it approximates to 30% of market value for over 2ltr cars.

The 930 has a high market value therefore the quote Rose got is not unexpected. I got a high VRT quote for 930, one year the wrong side of 30yrs.

I brought in a 1969 911e from UK and due to its classic age/rating I only had to pay 45euro VRT once-off, and only pay 42euro road tax per annum, plus insurance is at lower classic rate.

So buying a classic 911 in the way to good enjoyable driving in Dublin, I drive the car most days.

BTW Funny story, you are right about removing the wing before submitting to VRT office. The inspector told me that I would have to pay extra VRT for a crummy CD player that was in the car when I imported it, as they didn't have CD players in 1969, and this was deemed to be a value add-on. I told her that I would prefer to take the CD player out and bin it, as I would only listen to it, enjoy it, when there was something wrong with my 911 engine.

[rose]

OK. The VRT ( vehicle registration tax) is just a legal way to extract more tax from us hard working folk who decide to purchase cars etc from other countries outside of Ireland mainly because some of these cars ( porsche and other exotica ) are not available on the home market. In my case it has been explained to me that because my car is over 3 Ltr it attracts the higher rate which is 30% of the market value in Ireland. It is they who decides what the market is and so be it.
With the regards to people who come to live or retire in the country ,they can bring their cars with them and have them re-registered free from VRT. That is providing they have owned the car for a period of six months and a day within a calander year.
Thats basically it.

[k9handler]

a LH drive car is not that big of an issue...it's actually nice being on the edge of the road as a driver instead of the center lane. =o)

[POKDUB]

Rose, when did you buy the car, is it LH drive, you should be able to get European interest.

[cashflyer]

Keep in mind that the insurance is also based largely on displacement there.

[stevepaa]

I don't know about parking. It seems they park any which way they want outside of the big cities. And the rural roads don't really have any lane markings.



Thanks for the info.

[rose]

@ Peter
Got it about 3 years ago, have dozens of mails at moment and one very interested gent in Singapore and also a rather curious one from Stuttgart ?

[POKDUB]

Rose, assuming you lived abroad for all or part of the 3 years, and are now looking to bring the car in to Ireland, then you may have a case for legal import without VRT provided you were resident outside the state for more than one year ??

[rose]

Never left the turf ! hence the problem. The recent problems with the VRT is that some prick is wising them up the actual value of collectibles. In my case they know that the car is not a normal 930 and they produced documentation of a similar type car for sale in Germany at €65K, so you can see we have no realistic chance to pursue our little passion in life ! There's still rumblings of a challenge to the VRT in the european court, but I m not holding my breath.
I'm thinking hard about keeping the car for the next four years in dry dock and beat them that way.

[Sean_irl]

Keep the car! Or else try and register it with someone in another country..get yourself down as a named driver and use while on holidays in Ireland (if you get my drift). A bit messy...but it works. Just look at all the Eastern European cars driven around here now.

As for driving a left hooker here and the roads been bad. Don't agree at all.

Yeh, the main roads are crap..always jammed up. But a Porsche is made for the back roads and thats where the fun is...and while there..it doesn't matter if your RHD or LHD.

Hope you get to keep the car.

Sean

[svandamme]

where did you move from???

outside the EU or inside?

inside the EU , they cannot impose taxes if you move, that violates the first directive, freedom to live and work where you want...anything you bought and owned before you moved, should be allowed in without extra taxation...

crap , missed that part of never left the turf


other idea

import the chassis , seperately from the engine
the chassis on it's own won't be worth much in the books

so you'll save money
then import the engine , engine parts, no need to go through customs or anything in the EU... and slap it in your car

how much is a 930 chassis worth without an engine? definately not 65K , 10 at most

[wholberg]

Rose,

For far less than $15,000, you can ship the car here to North Carolina, where I will keep it in good running condition for you for the next 4 years, until it is 30 years old.

I'm just trying to help :-)

Walt

[POKDUB]

Sean, good to see you are still in touch, still pine'ng after your old run about .

Mine is back on the road after a spell with Jim Avis, got it back in Nov. Long story, will PM.

Rose, when I imported my 911 it did not look anything like a 1969 model, it had a mid 80's makeover, however the inspector did not bat an eyelid. Just wanted to check serial number on chassis and engine match UK registration, and had a go at me over the crummy CD unit.

Once you import the car I am sure you could do all sorts of upgrades, so...........

[Sean_irl]

Peter can you mail me to seanthedub@gmail.com My hotmail ac was closed by MS so i've lost your address.
Look forward to catching up....

As for pineing for my S...it never stopped. Still the futures bright...loads of ideas