Hi Donal,

Kind of. From the moment the car arrives in Ireland, you have seven days to inform Revenue of its arrival and to book an inspection at your nearest NCT centre. You then have 30 days to complete the inspection process and pay the VRT. Theoretically, you could sell the car during that period and pass the responsibility of paying the VRT over to the buyer, but you’re strictly speaking not supposed to do that. If you’ve brought the car in, it’s really your responsibility to register it and pay the fee, on top of which not many people will feel happy buying a car that hasn’t legally been imported yet.