The Irish Revenue Commissioners have announced the introduction of new procedures for the importing of used vehicles into the State. From the first day of September pre-registration examinations will be carried out by the National Car Testing Service (NCTS).
An appointment with an NCTS office must be made within seven days of the vehicle entering Ireland. In total, 30 days are allowed for the whole registration process to be completed. This improves on the current requirement of 24 hours, which is largely ignored.
The person importing the vehicle must bring it, and its associated documentation, to the NCTS for examination. If satisfactory, the details will then be forwarded to Revenue, who will determine the required VRT (Vehicle Registration Tax). Payment is made directly to the NCTS.
Revenue will assign a registration number to the vehicle, and send it to the NCTS Centre. The registered owner will then receive the vehicle registration certificate in the post directly from the Driver and Vehicle Computer Services Division of the Department of Transport, based in Shannon.
The new procedures attract no additional costs. While there is a charge paid to the NCTS for each vehicle examined, this is offset against the VRT bill.
Appointments can be made on the phone, through the post or online at www.ncts.ie/vrt.