Second-hand cars: Northern Ireland

The unusual status of Northern Ireland (NI) in the post-Brexit world has been highlighted by one example, namely the treatment of second-hand car dealers. As Northern Ireland is within the EU Single Market, goods moved to Northern Ireland from GB are deemed to be imported to Northern Ireland.

This creates a problem for the second hand scheme (which works by taxing the margin, not the full sale value), in that the act of importing goods which do not fall into the reduced rate regime (such as for works of art) takes those goods out of the margin scheme.