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THERE ARE AROUND 2.5 million cars on Irish roads, clocking up millions of miles of travel, but a further 94,000 don’t get driven at all.
Figures shown to the Dáil before the summer recess show that 94,242 private vehicles are listed as being off the road. Over 38,000 of those declarations came in the first six months of this year.
Cars are declared off the road in order to exempt them from motor tax while they are not being used. A vehicle can be declared off the road for up to a year.
Environment Minister Alan Kelly told the Dáil that the new system of advance notification had drastically cut down on the number of declarations. Under the previous system, a car could be retroactively declared off the road, a system which was anecdotally widely abused.
An analysis of retrospectively-made Garda-witnessed vehicle licence exemptions in the 12-month period up to the end of July 2012 showed that the total number of retrospective declarations made during that time was over 429,000.
“Given that private vehicles make up 77% of the overall fleet, and assuming that declarations are made on a pro-rata basis across vehicle categories, the estimated equivalent figure for private vehicles under the old system would be 330,330 declarations in a 12 month period, and 165,165 in a 6 month period.”
Under the new rules, arrears cannot be avoided by making a declaration that a car is off the road.
Gardaí are entitled to impound any vehicle that is out of tax by two months.
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I always have a quick look at the tax disc on pre Jul 08 cars and have to wonder how people can afford them with road taxes of 1600. Older cars are supplementing the newer ones so it won’t be long till the older cars are all off the road and the new road tax system will increase in price (again)
The government will come up with a brainwave to why it shouldn’t be based on emissions. What I don’t get is why a taxi driver pays €99 tax and your ordinary joe soap pays €1200 upwards for a similar older big car.
I think the answer might be in that photo, 1,600 euro for road tax. Most people buy you dinner and a movie first not the revenue commissioners.
or instead of blaming those doing thier job, blame the people who voted for the Green Party.
It has been relatively that price since about 1995, so somebody with a 2000 BMW540i if they bought it from new would have paid 24,000 in road tax, that’s just mental
Yes but we’ve got outstanding roads. There hasn’t been a pothole in Ireland since 2011. The ditches are cut immaculately on all country’s roads and beautiful rose beds blooming on every corner. All that doesn’t come cheap you know. Sometimes I drive into a field to feel a bump. I’m sentimental that way.
Seen a middle age man and woman put out on the road with their shopping last week the car went off on the back of a tow truck the gards drove off left them on the side of the road, All for a tax disc. Sizing cars is a sport for some gards.
That’s right Enda…perish the thought we actually enforce laws around here.
Yea, the N.A.M.A boys must be quaking in their gucci loafers.
enforce laws that’s a joke
Has Alan Kelly not upset enough people with his water charges now he is stirring up another hornets nest by tackling all the non used cars around the Country . This guy loves annoying people
#EIRCODE Will be used to track down Irish Water non payers. That’s why Rabbitte & White changed the code so that every house got a unique code… Eircode is a property reference number NOT a postcode..
Bit paranoid are we ! Or something to hide
They should rename it the hard labour party because they are determined that’s what we should all serve Alan Kelly is determined to annoy as many people as possible before he leaves office
As someone who doesn’t drive I’ve often wondered how anyone can afford to run a car, it seems very expensive. Plus living in Dublin, the city doesn’t seem very car friendly. Looks a bad deal all round to me.
If you live in the countryside you need a car ! Isolated people have no choice, no busses, can’t have taxis and no uber .
No checkpoints either so…
100,000 cars not paying tax! Where will irish water get their money from now!
The whole system is flawed and there seems to be a mindset that there is tens of thousands of vehicles driving around without tax, while there is obviously some the estimates are exaggerated.
People involved in classic vehicles often have projects sitting around in boxes or having never seen the light of day in decades have to declare them off the road if they don’t want to be liable for back tax, as do vehicle collectors and a farmer with an old tractor down the field.
I have some myself that haven’t been on the road in 15 years but I’ve still to declare.
A motor tax refund system like in the U.K. would do more to avoid payment in my view.
Abolishing road tax and increasing the price of fuel makes so much sense, it’s unbelievable it hasn’t been done by any government. Or is it?
they do the latter well, but not the former..
Road tax was abolished in the early 20th century, everyone who owns a car pays Motor Tax, or now Emissions based tax.
Adding to fuel price would be the logical thing to do. Ludicrous that if you drive 50km a week in a small old banger you pay more tax than someone who drives 1000km a week in a big but new car. Should be based purely on fuel use which would cover both emissions and vehicle usage. But why do things the simple, logical way?
No Car Tax in France since 2001.
Old cars pay low annual tax and new cars rightly pay high annual tax in modern democracies …. Turkey etc. Its called progressive tax system … based on ability to pay. UK MPs refused to pass this odious law in their Parliament in 2004.
Irish Political Parties are just financial predators ripping off the poorest in society who cannot afford new cars.
Bring your brains to the polling booths.
It does my nut in road tax. Lets force those who cant afford a massively expensive new car to pay huge tax fees and the one who have the money to buy a new car to pay Virtually nothing, makes complete sense.
Also lets complain that people spend above there means while forcing them to buy a post 08 car which they prob dont need cos of the massive road tax that theyd be forced to pay on a pre 08
God i hate this government and Im glad I was also forced out of this country.
Marty
The present system you pay for the type of car and engine. If the car tax were to be put on fuel how would this be sorted as to engine size ?
@Daniel..old car new car…what’s the diff…you can buy an old small engine car an day relatively little motor tax. You are comparing pre 08 and post 08 larger engine cars. Surely the ‘poor’ wont be owning such cars.
@Alan, If the tax were on fuel then it wold be a fair usage tax. The more you use the more tax you pay. More usage would partially depend on the engine size as larger engine cars burn more fuel per KM than smaller engines. Damn physics.
Fozz
That’s a fair point but considering that newer larger engines are more economical that a lot of the older smaller engine’s on the road it’s not everyone who can upgrade to a new car so on this point I would think it a bit unfair on these owners
Road tax didn’t exist in the early 20th century.
The man is nothing more than a CeeYouNextTuesday. More so than Phil hogan, another despot.
Gardai are not entitled to seize a car that is out of tax for more than two months based on a district court judge who declared that to seize a vehicle for monetary value less than the vehicle is worth is illegal, drivers should demand a summons to court at the side of the road rather than having their vehicle seized, this judge was somewhere on the west coast, Galway or Sligo and possibly donegal, Gardai like to think they are judge and jury at the road side, fact is there is a thing called due process and a right to a fair trial embedded into our constitution which supersedes man made Acts ( advanced corporation taxes)
or just pay the motor owed, on time, and drive legally.
Not every1 can pay tax on time. My tax for a year is more then the value of the car crazy prices.
Freeman nonsense. Stop using public roads if you don’t want to consent to our laws governing them buddy.
There are people who will spend a lot of money on a big car just to be seen but will do everything in their power not to pay their car tax I have no sympathy for that person the car be seized until the tax is paid
Harry
Pease read my post below I don’t need to repeat.
Absolutely. I sold a ’00 Merc last year and the tax was 200% of what I sold it for. It’s crazy and it has to change. I don’t know how it doesn’t raise as much discussion as property tax or water charges, as it’s a very unfair and poorly structured system.
Probably because the influential people in this country all drive new cars with low tax or have their vehicles provided by the state FOC. Nobody who makes the rules has to fork out €1600 per year on motor tax, just the poor saps who can’t afford a post 2008 car.
I’d like to know how many cars are currently on the road that have transferred ownership over the last number of months, with back tax owed. If your car owes a number of months tax, all you have to do is transfer the car to your spouse/partner/family member pay the current tax and then repeat the process a few months down the line and have the car transferred back to you. Any tax owed is wiped when a new owner takes over, regardless of how much is owed. The only deterrent appears to be the amount of owners one car would have, but if its an old car anyway…….I’d love to know how much revenue to the state (a portion of which has been paying for our water over the last number of years) we have lost through this perfectly legal loophole………..
But you will end up with a car with lots of previous owners and will also have to change the insurance as it needs to be in the owners name
Or maybe just pay the road tax !
Oh believe me, we do pay the tax without transferring ownership, but as i briefly mentioned above if its an old car anyway who cares the amount of owners it has had…..there are various public forums online where people have been advising of this loophole for last number of years….I know plenty who avail of this also………
It appears that’s being made more difficult recently.
I know of a few vehicles that have been bought without being declared of road so being liable for back tax, but when revenue change the owner details they then issue an RF100 to the new owner instead of the VRC until it’s taxed, when it’s attempted to be declared off the road online you’ll be told it’s ineligible.
There is a way around it, though I’m sure a lot of people are paying the tax on something that could be genuinely off the road just to get the paperwork for the vehicle.
I agree absolutely that the Tax is too high. Thank you Green party for this and the extra 20c on a litre of Petrol.
Part of the reason a newer car is cheaper is because manufacturers have responded to the Market. “Cleaner” cars are cheaper to tax because of reduced emmissions.
It is difficult to pay for a lot of people and others simply can’t pay. However it does not excuse the amount of “won’t pay” chancers out there. Just have a look at @gardatraffic on twitter any day. There should be a month arrears allowed, then it’s into the Fixed Penalty Chage, Points and eventually seizure.
100,000 with an average tax of 200 = 20 Million a year.
The Declared off the road change means less people are cheating the system (i.e. the taxpayers). The whole system needs a unified needs to be re-processed for the 21st century.
nearly €1,000,000,000 in road tax accumulated last year and almost €500,000,000 in V.R.T. Wouldnt it make you sick… !
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