Backdating a sale date - any issues?

[developer]

Asking for a friend.

Buyer Fred wants to buy my pal's car and plans to take it back to his EU country soon, where he's going back to live, but there's a "less than 6 month ownership" import tax implication for Fred.

If my pal sells his car to Fred in June, but on the V5 he dates the sale as say January this year, are there any implications for him?

If buyer Fred was caught out, would my pal be in trouble too?

Clearly it's designed to get round Fred's 6 month import tax scenario.

Thoughts please.

[sherman]

Fraud if caught and both will be fined and prosecuted if caught.

Edited by sherman on Wednesday 9th June 13:43

[Electro1980]

Yes. Tax authorities take a dim view of fraud. Penalties, whatever they are, will be harsh, tending towards punitive.

[Camelot1971]

Yes, it's committing fraud. While it's unlikely you they would get caught, the penalties could be quite severe, as (I'm happy to be corrected here) it's tax evasion.

[InitialDave]

The V5C date would be change of keeper, wouldn't it?

The date on the receipt would be date of sale, and could include a note that mate was going to remain the keeper of Fred's car until it's convenient for him to collect it, perhaps.

Which country is it?

[oakdale]

If you tell them it was sold in January, the vehicle will effectively have not been taxed during the months since then.

[Sir Bagalot]

InitialDave said:

Which country is it?

I'd take a guess at Ireland.

I know people who have bought a car in UK, driven back to Ireland and simply parked it up in a friends barn for 6 months, and then registered it in Ireland.

[samoht]

developer said:

If my pal sells his car to Fred in June, but on the V5 he dates the sale as say January this year, are there any implications for him?

I'm a bit confused here. If your friend puts 9th January 2021 as the Sale Date on the V5 and sends it off to the DVLA, wouldn't they raise an eyebrow? After all, the instructions state that you have to inform the DVLA immediately when you sell a car.

I really doubt the DVLA would just accept a V5 transfer with such an old date, it could be used to get out of eg speeding fines.

Unless I'm misunderstanding something?


Separately, I would advise your friend that it's currently a seller's market for cars, so he could probably find another buyer who would pay the same as Fred without needing him to be party to fraud.