Hi,
I recently purchased a Ford Transit with the intention of converting it to a campervan. However, as I am under 25 this doesn't seem to be possible. Likewise it seems to be next to impossible to find private insurance. I was wondering what are the requirements for insuring a van as a commercial. I.e. what falls under "commercial" use? For example, my girlfriend runs a small unofficial jewellery business. Could this justify the van as a commercial or must you have an officially registered business?
Should we manage to insure the van commercially, could we then tax it as a regular vehicle since we don't actually have a VAT number or anything?
I hope you can help, thank you for your time.
Kind regards,
Tom
Filed under camper tax private - Asked by Tom (Kildare) - Fri, 21 Jan, 2022
Answered by: Neil Briscoe - Complete Van Advisor -
@neilmbriscoe
Hi Tom,
In theory, there’s no rule that you can’t get commercial vehicle insurance when you’re under 25, but as ever, Irish insurers are difficult in the extreme to deal with, and expensive too.
The idea of using your van for your girlfriend’s business is not a bad one, but you’ll run up against some problems with it. First of all, the van would have to be in her name, and second she would need a VAT number to be able to register it as a commercial vehicle. That would then affect the insurance too, as you can’t have a vehicle registered and taxed as a commercial but then insure it as a private vehicle. The best advice would be to get the camper conversion done as soon as possible, as that would make things much more straightforward than dealing with a van.
