Hi all i am moving to france in the near future and have a few classic cars to bring with me for restoration and probable return to ireland and 1 to the uk after completion of work… any advice on proceedures, taxes/duty etc would be helpfull if anyone has done this in the past… thanks
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You might find some useful info on this thread Importing UK car now practically impossible? - #97 by David_M_Matthews
I have brought a car and two vans to FR from UK. None were classic/restoration vehicles but the same formalities may apply, to some extent.
One van was never registered here. I returned it to the UK dealer as a dud and was refunded.
However, on advice so to do I went straight to Douanes when I came ashore at St Malo and paid the import duty.
When I returned it to UK, still a UK reg vehicle, my application for a refund of import duties was turned down because I should have declared it as re-exported first. So watch out for that if you’ve paid but are returning a vehicle to UK/IE
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Long term projects or could you finish them in 3 or 4 months? In which case bring them over one at a time so you don’t need to import them
Where are they currently registered and what makes and models are they “Robin”. If registered in the Republic then no import, temporary or otherwise, problems. However unless French classic cars I’m not sure France is the best location for the work.
Great to see your return John, @Scully was missed!
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I assume Eire registred and not NI? What are the cars? Are they on rolling chassis?
In a nutshell, You should be able to bring them in without duty or tax. They need to be registered here though. There is an organisation, FFVE, who will get you a certificate that the registration authority requires, BUT FFVE will insist that the cars have not been modified. You can take them back to Eire, but the one to the UK will be subject to duty and VAT.
You’re very kind Mark.
Should only be used if you are writing in the Irish language Adam, otherwise considered pejorative. Not a lot of people know that 
The name of the Country is Ireland.
Guy thanks for all the replies !! I am impressed with how quickly you all responded and good info… so just to clarify the vehicles are all VW vans/ campers… 1 is IRISH registered and other are UK reg although 1 of u the UK reg vans was originally reg in Germany and was imported by myself back in 2017 before brexit… I have been a professional vehicle restorer in the distant past and they are now my own vehicles that i just want to restore to original spec .the IRISH reg may go back to Ireland and the others will i think become french registered if needs be. The youngest of them is 1990 and oldest is 1968. If that makes any difference. Once again thank you all for your help …
Does that not apply to NI vehicles to, thanks to Johnson’s agreement?
I would not think so as NI cars are infact uk cars and registered in uk via DVLA swansea…
ffs, south of the bleeding border then.
The German one - if you have papers proving origin and TVA has been paid, then it can come in duty free. The Irish one - providing VAT has been paid also can come in free. the UK regd ones you need to declare to customs, or bring them in as part of a re-location. They will all need registering in France to be legal regardless of them being exported again. For this you need help from FFVE. I suggest you contact them first.
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I’m not sure that the administration of the registration numbers plays any part in the assessment of customs duties. You can certainly import cars from the EU into NI without paying VAT* and duty so I’m not sure why the opposite shouldn’t apply.
- I looked into this when I was trying to sell my RHD car.
Interesting ! Do you have any links for further reading please?
The import info is here and it’s basically the same as it was for imports to the UK before Brexit i.e. more that 6 months old and 6000 km to be free of VAT and duty. I don’t have a reference but I’d expect it to be the same in the other direction.
If they are ‘coach-built’/made by a recognised builder of camper vans - recognised by the FR authorities, that is - French registration should be do-able.
However, if they are not - if DIY/self-build, the rules changed in recent years and those vehicles will not pass the C.T., which is req’d for registration.
A member of this forum described the immense difficulty she had in getting a VW van, converted by UK professionals, accepted for registration. As I recall she described how every jot and tittle, in parts and labour, had to be supported by an invoice showing VAT. The whole process took many months.