Moving to the UK from the USA with your car

Plenty of people bringing a car over from America are moving here with it: Brits coming home after years in the States, Americans relocating for work, families moving for good. The car is often the one thing they did not want to sell, and with the right paperwork in place it can come over without the 10% import duty and 20% VAT that a car bought to import would pay.

The relief is called Transfer of Residence, and HMRC sets the rules. They are not complicated, but they are strict, and the one that catches people out most is timing.

Transfer of Residence in plain English

Transfer of Residence (ToR) relief lets you bring your personal belongings into the UK free of import duty and VAT when you move your main home here. Private cars, motorbikes and their trailers count as personal belongings. It is a relief on a move, not on a purchase: buying a car shortly before relocating so it can come in tax-free will not work.

To qualify, HMRC’s guidance says you must meet all of these:

You have lived outside the UK for at least 12 consecutive months before the date you move here.
You have had the car for at least 6 months before you move. In practice that means owning it and using it as your own car, not having it bought and stored ready to ship.
You are making the UK your normal place of residence. A holiday home or a second home does not count, and the relief is for individuals, not companies.
You will use it here for the same purpose you used it for before. A private car stays a private car; commercial vehicles are excluded.
You import it within 12 months of coming to live in the UK.

Where circumstances genuinely beyond your control mean you cannot meet a condition, HMRC may consider waiving it, but that is their decision on the evidence, case by case. Do not plan a move around the hope of a waiver.

Apply before the car arrives

Relief is not something you claim at the port. You have to get approval from HMRC first, by completing the ToR1 application on GOV.UK (it is sometimes listed as ToR01). HMRC’s advice is to apply for your reference number before your goods are shipped.

For the vehicle, the application asks for:

year of manufacture, make and model
the VIN
its current registration number, and when and where that registration was issued
the date you bought it

You also give a list of the other belongings you are bringing, your passport photo page, proof of your US address and proof of where you will live in the UK. If you do not have a UK address yet, HMRC accepts evidence such as a statement from the person you will be staying with or a temporary accommodation booking.

If the application is approved you get a unique reference number. That number goes on the import declaration when the car lands, and it is what lets the car through without duty and VAT. We use it when we clear the car through customs.

Do not leave it late

If the car lands and there is no valid reference number to quote, HMRC says you may be billed for duty and charges. You can still apply afterwards and reclaim them, but that is a slower and more awkward route than getting approval before the car ships.

The 12-month rule once it is here

A car imported under Transfer of Residence cannot be lent, used as security, hired out or transferred to another person within 12 months of the date you moved. Selling it, signing it over to a family member or putting it out on hire in that first year can make the duty and VAT payable after all. Keep it, drive it, and once the year is up it is simply your car.

What still applies, even with relief

Transfer of Residence deals with tax. It does not change anything about making the car legal on UK roads, so a relocated car goes through exactly the same steps as any other American import:

Shipping. Collection, haulage to an east or west coast port and the crossing itself, typically 4 to 6 weeks at sea. See our shipping page.
Customs and NOVA. The car still needs an import declaration and a NOVA notification to HMRC; relief just means nothing is owed on it. The DVLA will not register a car without NOVA.
Conversion work. US lighting does not meet UK requirements, so headlight beam pattern, a rear fog lamp and side repeaters are the usual changes. See converting a US car.
IVA or MOT. Under ten years old, the car needs Individual Vehicle Approval, which we carry out in our own lane at Castle Donington. Ten and over, it needs an MOT. See IVA or MOT?
DVLA registration. A V5C in your name and UK plates. See our registration page.

So relief takes out the duty and VAT, but you still pay for shipping, the conversion, testing and registration. Our costs page breaks those down.

Coming back with a car that was UK-registered

If the car was originally registered in the UK and went to the States with you, returned-goods relief may apply instead, provided it is coming back in the same state it left. It has its own conditions, so tell us the car’s history and we will check which relief fits.

Timing it around the move

The whole job typically takes 8 to 16 weeks from collection in the US to UK registration, so you and the car will arrive on very different timetables. A sensible order is:

Check you meet the residence and 6-month conditions on your own dates.
Get a quote, so you know what the shipping, conversion and registration will cost.
Apply for Transfer of Residence relief and get your reference number.
Have the car collected, ideally not long before you leave, so you are not without it for too long at either end.
Arrange UK insurance ready for when it is registered.

Our guide to how long it takes goes through the stages in detail.

Belongings in the car

It is tempting to fill the boot. Loose items inside a vehicle are treated as a separate import, have to be declared, and are a common cause of delays and inspections at both ends. Talk to us before packing anything in the car.

Your driving licence

What you can drive on, and for how long, depends on your licence and your residence status, and the rules are DVLA’s to set. Check the current position on GOV.UK’s driving in Great Britain on a non-GB licence page well before you need to drive.

Bringing your car over

Send us the car’s details and your moving dates. We will tell you whether it takes the IVA or MOT route, what conversion work it needs and what the whole job costs, so the only number left to worry about is the one HMRC’s relief takes away.

Get a quote

Quick answers

Do I pay import duty and VAT if I move to the UK with my American car?

Not if you qualify for Transfer of Residence relief. Broadly, you need to have lived outside the UK for at least 12 consecutive months, have had the car for at least 6 months before you move, and be making the UK your main home. HMRC has to approve the claim before the car is imported.

I am a British citizen coming home from the US. Does Transfer of Residence apply to me?

It can. The relief is about where you have been living, not your nationality. If you have been resident outside the UK for at least 12 consecutive months and are making the UK your home again, you apply in the same way as anyone else.

Can I sell the car once it is here?

Not straight away. A vehicle imported under the relief cannot be lent, used as security, hired out or transferred to anyone else within 12 months of the date you moved. If it is, the duty and VAT can become payable.

Does relief mean the car does not need an IVA or MOT?

No. Transfer of Residence only deals with duty and VAT. The car still needs NOVA, an IVA test if it is under ten years old or an MOT if it is older, any conversion work to pass, and DVLA registration before it can be driven here.

Moving to the UK with your car