Importing a car from Great Britain

Since 1 January 2021 a car bought in England, Scotland or Wales is a third-country import. That means a customs declaration, potentially 10% duty, and import VAT at 23% before Vehicle Registration Tax is even considered. The single question that decides most of the bill is where the car was built.

Northern Ireland is a different case entirely and is covered separately. Everything below concerns Great Britain.

The origin rule is the whole game

Under the trade agreement between the EU and the UK, goods that originate in the UK move into Ireland without tariff. Cars are goods. So a car of UK origin enters at 0% duty, and a car of any other origin enters at 10%.

Origin means where the car was manufactured under the agreement's rules, not where it was registered, not where you collected it, and not the nationality of the badge. This is where the money goes. A large share of the cars on British forecourts — German saloons, Japanese hybrids, Korean SUVs, anything assembled outside the UK — do not have UK origin and attract the full 10% no matter how long they sat in Britain.

Nor can you assert origin yourself. The claim rests on a statement on origin from the seller, made on the invoice or another commercial document. Plenty of British dealers selling into Ireland will provide one without being asked; plenty of private sellers have never heard of it. That question belongs in the first conversation, not the last.

What the difference actually costs

Both cars then face identical VRT, because VRT is worked out on Revenue's valuation of the car in Ireland and takes no interest in what you paid or what route it travelled.

The declaration, and why it is not optional

A vehicle coming from Great Britain needs a customs declaration completed and any duty and VAT paid before it can be registered. Not afterwards, and not at the same appointment.

Filing it yourself means an EORI number and access to Revenue's import system. Most private buyers use a customs agent, or buy from someone who does it as part of the sale. Either is fine. What is not fine is arriving at an NCTS centre without it, because the registration cannot proceed.

At that appointment you will need the V5C, a copy of the declaration showing its Master Reference Number, and documentation that identifies the specific vehicle. Bring the CO2 and NOx figures too. A missing NOx figure means Revenue charges the maximum for the fuel type, which on a diesel is €4,850.

One relief worth knowing about

If the car was originally exported from the EU and is now coming back — a car built in Germany, sold new in Ireland or another member state, later sold into Britain, and now returning — Returned Goods Relief may remove the duty. It is conditional, it needs evidence of the original export, and it has time limits. It does not apply to most cars. It applies often enough to be worth asking about before assuming the 10%.

What the Great Britain route is good at

The choice is enormous

Britain is a right-hand drive market many times the size of Ireland's. For a specific colour, a specific engine, an unusual trim or a model that was never sold here in numbers, it is often the only realistic place to look.

You can go and see it

A flight, a train and an afternoon buys you a physical inspection and a test drive. On a car where condition is uncertain or the value is high, that is worth a great deal.

The history is open

The UK MOT history is publicly searchable by registration and free to check. Recorded mileage at every test, advisories, failures. There is no equivalent single source in most markets, and reading it will tell you more about a car than the advertisement ever will.

It is quick

Days rather than months. If you need a car in three weeks, this is the route that can do it.

What the Great Britain route is bad at

Most cars carry the full 10%

The duty-free case is the exception, not the rule. Anyone budgeting on 0% because the car is being bought in the UK has misunderstood the agreement, and the correction arrives at the border.

VAT applies to every car, at 23%

There is no used-car exemption on a third-country import. A €20,000 car carries roughly €4,700 of VAT before duty is even considered, and duty increases it further.

Mileage runs high

British cars cover much the same annual distance as Irish ones. Compared with Japanese stock, you are generally buying more miles for the money, which is a straightforward trade rather than a flaw.

The paperwork bites hard when it goes wrong

An incomplete declaration does not produce a letter and a penalty. It produces a car that cannot be registered and can be seized. This is the route where getting the administration right matters most.

What we do

Great Britain is one of the markets we source from. We find the car, check the origin position before it is bought rather than after, handle the declaration, duty and VAT, and take it through VRT and Irish registration.

The origin question is the one worth raising with us early, because it is answerable before you commit and it moves the number by thousands. If it turns out the car you want is a Japanese-built model, it is usually worth comparing the same car coming directly from Japan, where the duty is currently zero.

Common questions

Do I pay customs duty on a car imported from Great Britain?

It depends on where the car was manufactured, not where you bought it. Under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and the UK, a car of UK origin can enter Ireland at 0% duty when the seller provides a valid statement on origin. A car built outside the UK and merely sold in Great Britain does not qualify and attracts the standard rate of 10% of the customs value. Because most cars on British forecourts were built elsewhere, the 10% is the more common outcome.

Is a Japanese car bought in England duty free?

No. The EU-Japan agreement that removed duty on Japanese-built cars applies to vehicles imported from Japan. A Japanese-built car that was first sold in Great Britain and is now being exported to Ireland is a UK export, assessed under the EU-UK agreement, and it does not have UK origin. It attracts the 10% rate. The same logic applies to a German or Korean car bought in Britain.

Do I have to make a customs declaration myself?

A customs declaration must be completed and any duty and VAT paid before the car can be registered in Ireland. You can file it yourself, which requires an EORI number and access to Revenue's import system, or have a customs agent or the dealer handling the import do it for you. What is not optional is the declaration itself: without it the vehicle cannot be registered, and a vehicle that is neither declared nor registered within thirty days of arrival is liable to seizure.

What documents does the NCTS centre need for a car from Great Britain?

The UK registration document, the V5C, along with a copy of the customs declaration showing the Master Reference Number, and any other supporting documentation. The paperwork has to identify the specific vehicle being registered. It is also worth arriving with the CO2 and NOx figures documented, because a missing NOx figure means Revenue applies the maximum levy for the fuel type rather than the figure your car actually achieves.

Is importing from Great Britain still worth it after Brexit?

Sometimes, and it depends almost entirely on the individual car. The British market is far larger than the Irish one, so scarce specifications and unusual models can be found there and nowhere else, and the transit is measured in days. Against that, most cars carry 10% duty and every car carries 23% import VAT, which together add roughly a third to the landed cost before VRT is considered. A UK-built car with a valid statement on origin skips the duty and changes the arithmetic considerably.