Paying motor tax online

Trampas

Do people feel there should be some kind of discount for doing your motor tax online.

I am sure they could knock off 5% for people doing it online as the whole proccess can be done without human contact apart from the postman.

What do people think??

optiplexgx270

not going to happen but i agree

colm_mcm

I dunno, it's a convenience for you to be able to do it online, don't see why they should charge less or more

optiplexgx270

paying online saves on admin costs at their end thus saving them money in staff hours thats why it should be cheaper than the office plus it would act as an incentive.

mike65

Nice idea, but if it happened it would be a flat rate saving not a %!

Mike.

Tipsy Mac

It's a great service compared to going in and filling out lots of unnecessary forms and having to bascially prove you own the car which doesn't make sense as you are hardly going to go in and pay the tax on someone elses car.

Off the point completely but road tax is a completely unfair system of paying for the roads. Someone could be driving 20k miles in a 1 litre Micra and he's paying €151 a year road tax, another guy could be paying €1343 on a 3.2 litre car that he only does 5k miles with. Don't even get me started on Taxis, they can drive any powered car and pay €72 a year and probably do 70 or 80k miles up in a year. Most fair system would be to either have no road tax and instead put 10c a litre on petrol, then he who drives pays, this will also "catch" our overseas visitors for a contribution.

Savman

Tipsy Mac wrote:

Off the point

:rolleyes:

I get penalised with hefty taxes quite enough thank you and I, for one, will drive my vehicle as often as I see fit.

Also, Taxi Drivers are driving for a living and carry fare paying passengers yet you think its a contribution to some grander problem? You do know they use Bus Lanes don't you? You'll never see them stuck in Traffic for long and I'm sure most of them will tell you they don't enjoy doing 60,000 miles a year but its their job and they do it out of necessity.

Perhaps when spouting off rubbish you should take into consideration the limp public transport system and use that as a starting point. :rolleyes:

unkel

Tipsy Mac wrote:

road tax is a completely unfair system of paying for the roads. Someone could be driving 20k miles in a 1 litre Micra and he's paying €151 a year road tax, another guy could be paying €1343 on a 3.2 litre car that he only does 5k miles with

Agreed. Sold my last car to a dude that owned about half a dozen performance cars. He did about 10k miles per year between the lot of them. The government expects him to cough up €10,000 in tax per year? Preposterous.

Tipsy Mac wrote:

Most fair system would be to either have no road tax and instead put 10c a litre on petrol, then he who drives pays, this will also "catch" our overseas visitors for a contribution.

Again I fully agree with you. To replace the motor tax with an additional excise on fuel would up the price by something more like €0.25 per liter, but that's fine seeing we still have one of the lowest fuel prices in Europe

Tipsy Mac

Savman wrote:

:rolleyes:

Perhaps when spouting off rubbish you should take into consideration the limp public transport system and use that as a starting point. :rolleyes:

I think someone making commercial gain from the road should be paying more than a private motorist. What you are saying is like if a publican was getting his waste collected for €3 a wheelie bin when the public are paying over €5 and his argument is because he is paying high tax on everything he shouldn't be paying for services like everyone else.

Savman

Tipsy Mac wrote:

I think someone making commercial gain from the road should be paying more than a private motorist.

:eek:

So Freight and Delivery Companies should be charged more? Good idea, that means everything would increase in price from Tesco to Stamps :rolleyes:

I just don't agree that the all-in-one solution to less cars on the road is higher taxes or any kind of financial penalty. You couldn't get me back onto a Dublin Bus unless it was at gun point and until the DART or LUAS is providing me with a quality service (or in fact, ANY kind of service) I will drive everywhere I need to go.

Unless you can offer me a better solution to get around? Too cold for the bike.

Lump Basher

Tipsy Mac wrote:

It's a great service compared to going in and filling out lots of unnecessary forms and having to bascially prove you own the car which doesn't make sense as you are hardly going to go in and pay the tax on someone elses car.

Really? Strange, that never happens to me. I usually just receive a Tax renewal notice (already filled in for me) in the mail once a year and pay it using Q4U. What are the "lots" of unnecessary forms they make you fill out? I only fill in one (which is my Renewal Form, oddly enough!), and it's usually just my insurance details, then I tick a box with the duration of tax I want, and then I sign it.

paying online saves on admin costs at their end thus saving them money in staff hours thats why it should be cheaper than the office plus it would act as an incentive.

But I bet they still employ the same amount of staff (eh, who do you think processes and sends out all the online payments? Do you think 'The Internet' does it?), and all the online payment system does at the moment is slightly reduce queues in the Motor Tax office. The counter staff aren't exactly sitting around twiddling their thumbs since the introduction of the online system.

This is TAX, people - TAX! It's not negotiable, and its not eligible for discounts - it's a set amount - this ain't Irish Ferries, with 5% off for booking online. You're not haggling with a street vendor here.
I personally don't think they should give a discount for paying online - it makes it MORE convenient, so I haven't got a problem with it. I can now renew my motor tax in 5 minutes, as oppossed to either spending half a day going into town, parking and queuing in the crappy tax office, or going to Q4U and paying a fee for them to do it! So why should I be entitled to a discount when someone just took an extra hassle out of my life?

mike65

So why should I be entitled to a discount when someone just took an extra hassle out of my life?

Thats true of course! As unkel and Tipsy Mac note what we need is the fund to be incorporated into the price of fuel, you pay for what you use that way.

Mike.

colm_mcm

agreed, it seems like a lot of hassle to use the current system. a bit like TV licenses, should just be included in PAYE

Savman

mike65 wrote:

what we need is the fund to be incorporated into the price of fuel, you pay for what you use that way.

So then, in theory, a 1L Micra pays the same rate of tax as the 3L Performance Car?

Sorry but I don't subscribe to that view in any form and people will really have to generate a better argument than "that's what they do in France/Germany/UK/Whatever" - people can always move there if they're that fantastic but last time I checked we're an independent state and don't follow our neighbours like sheep.

bah :rolleyes:

mike65

Eh? A 1.0 Micra has far better fuel economy than a big German barge or sports car so they pay less!

Mike.

colm_mcm

Savman wrote:

S"that's what they do in France/Germany/UK/Whatever" - people can always move there if they're that fantastic but last time I checked we're an independent state and don't follow our neighbours like sheep.

bah :rolleyes:

it's nothing to do with copying the French or Germans, it just makes sense.

cormie

1 years tax on my 1.1L Fiesta is €250 compared to my 1l Micra of €150, that's so not fair. Why an extra €100 for an extra 100ml?:mad:

colm_mcm

just to encourage people to buy 1.0's!

Tipsy Mac

colm_mcm wrote:

just to encourage people to buy 1.0's!

1 litre car may be more polluting than a 1.2 car. If they want to take it from a pollution point of view they could rate them for fuel efficiency like electrical products where they grade them A,B,C,D,E,F and tax accordingly.

mike65

In the UK thats what they do, cars are rated by CO2 output. Of course this takes no account of how well a car is maintained. Todays clean machine is tomorrows ol' smokey.

http://www.dvla.gov.uk/vehicles/taxation.htm#Private

Mike.

colm_mcm

like in the uk. base it on CO2 emmissions. or as was said earlier, put an additional tax on fuel, so that the more you use (and therefore the more CO2 you produce) the more you pay!

cormie

I'm sure they aren't doing it the more sensible way because it probably works out better for them. Approx 1/4 of the population live in a 40 mile radius of the capital. Now I'm not too sure about stats or anything, but I'd imagine if they could make more money off it, they would.

colm_mcm

well from their point of view, they could regularly increase the levy on petrol a lot easier than restructuring the motor tax charges.