Motor Tax can be easily avoided if the owner declares that their vehicle was off the road . When the car tax renewal is due – if a car was not in use the owner can avoid paying any arrears by declaring that the car was off the road. All they have to do is get the form signed by a Garda .
An analysis of non-use declarations relating to motor tax to the year ending August 2012 showed that there were a total of over 538,000 such declarations during that time, 110,000 of which related to a change of vehicle ownership. The total value of the tax exemptions was €110m.
The government suspect that there is widespread abuse and it is estimated that the abolition of such abuse would generate income of some €55m annually.
The Government are planning to bring in new laws to replace the current retrospective system of making declarations of non-use with a system whereby declarations must be made in advance of the vehicle being taken off the road. This change was mentioned in May 2012 – but there has been no sign of it in the Dail yet !
Hi,
As a motorist who only taxes his car from May 1 each year for 6 months because during the winter we have other vehicles in the yard that are taxed and I use 1 of them.
I would have no problem declaring my vehicle off road in advance and paying a modest fee .
Hoping that this system would reduce the number of vehicles that are being used untaxed.
Thanking you,
Richard Martin.