About time?

Sizzler

Courtesy of todays Indo.

THOUSANDS of car-owners with foreign number plates have been caught in a nationwide tax evasion swoop.

They were nabbed red-handed in an undercover blitz by the Revenue Commissioners.

A quarter of the 12,000 owners of cars, mainly with foreign registrations, had to fork out unpaid Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT) or had their vehicles seized or scrapped.

The probe has uncovered widescale tax evasion. And an Irish Independent investigation has also learned that the taxmen are targetting illegal traders selling unregistered vehicles at the roadside.

The clampdown comes amid mounting concern over the ability of drivers of foreign-registered cars to avoid penalty points for speeding and other offences.

They also are not liable for NCT roadworthiness checks or car tax because they are not registered here.

There is also major concerns about the condition of many of these vehicles.

The action centres on the legal requirement for anyone in permanent employment and living in the State to declare their vehicles for registration and pay VRT.

A driver is only exempt from registering their car and VRT if they can prove their main residence is outside the State.

There has been a massive increase in the number of foreign-registered cars on our roads. Between January and October this year, a total of 10,214 of these cars were challenged by the Revenue Commissioners to see if VRT had been paid.

A total of 2,192 (25pc) were deemed to be suspicious and were probed. Most owners, a total of 1,823, decided to register their cars to avoid prosecution or confiscation of their cars and coughed up the vehicle tax.

However 55 cars were seized, 54 were scrapped, while 66 cases are still pending.

In one recent ten-day operation between October 24 and November 4 a further 2,200 foreign registered cars challenged.

Half were found to be dodgy and needed to be legally registered here. It emerged:

* More than 215 cars were seized.

* 700 owners were told they faced prosecution unless they registered and paid tax.

* Another 86 cars were discovered with illegal number plates.

Inspectors have been carrying out checks on imported second-hand vehicles based on a number of risk-based criteria, relating essentially to the age and to the value of the car.

The Revenue Commissioners yesterday expressed concerns about roadside trading of cars, a growing phenomenon along main roads.

Apart from breaches of planning regulations, there are major road safety issues, according to the tax authority.

Unless the car-owner is an authorised dealer, the vehicle must be registered within 24 hours of bringing it into the State.

"Clearly, if roadside traders are not authorised then the sale of foreign registered vehicles is prohibited and liable to seizure by Revenue," says the Revenue Commissioners.

---

Have to say I aint seen as many LT/LV/PL sh1itboxes floating around the last few months as there had been previously.

s8n

This is great news.

kdevitt

Good news alright, I only hope that they're targeting all foreign reg plated cars, and not just those on UK plates.

unkel

About time is right

Was right in the middle of the ar$ehole of nowhere in the midlands the other day and there was a dealer selling dozens of mercs, beamers and audis almost all on UK plates. Nothing illegal with that, just wondering how many of these would end up on Irish plates after being sold. Probably not too many...

Sizzler

unkel wrote:

About time is right

Was right in the middle of the ar$ehole of nowhere in the midlands the other day and there was a dealer selling dozens of mercs, beamers and audis almost all on UK plates. Nothing illegal with that, just wondering how many of these would end up on Irish plates after being sold. Probably not too many...

The stroke there is if challenged they would tell the Rev Comms that its not commercially in their interest to re-reg a UK Car till they have a buyer, this is the generally accepted rule, plenty of garages around Dublin doing it.

I think the article is much further reaching than UK / NI reg'd cars though, I think its fair to say there was a fair proportion of Polish/Latvian/Lithuanian dirtboxes in most towns & cities around Ireland that were not subject to Irish law, NCT, tax, road traffic legislation but the key factor (as is the norm ) for the govt to act was they copped on they were losing out on the VRT!

furtzy

Fantastic news. Lets hope we see no more of these uninsured un taxed crap boxes on our roads.

unkel

Sizzler wrote:

I think its fair to say there was a fair proportion of Polish/Latvian/Lithuanian dirtboxes in most towns & cities around Ireland that were not subject to Irish law, NCT, tax, road traffic legislation but the key factor (as is the norm ) for the govt to act was they copped on they were losing out on the VRT!

Cuts two ways though. There is a big cash cow in getting VRT from UK plated cars, but there are many Eastern European big engined cars around that might be VRT-lite but could bring in a sizeable amount of motor tax

A Latvian neighbour (21) got worried about this time last year, drove his LHD LV plated Mafia-spec Audi A8 petrol back home to Latvia and sold it. After his holidays he bought an Irish reg A4 diesel back here. He now pays tax and insurance here too

Larry David

Is there any phone number or e-mail address I can rat these evaders out to if I feel it's happening?

Fratton Fred

This worries me. I still have my car (And my wife's) on UK plates as I am on temporary contract over here which could last a year, it could become permanent.

The last thing we want is any hassle, but I don't want to go through the expense of re-registering our cars if we are moving back to England in a few months. My wife's car is worth about 20k and we have only had it two months so it would cost a furtune to register it over here and then register it again in the UK in a few months time.

I spoke to the revenue and they didn't know what to do so I have left it for now but my wife is concerned she will get pulled over.

If my job becomes permanent then I will change both cars straight away, but in the meantime we are in a kind of no mans land.

Kojak

Its about time that something like this has been done. For far too long now there have been foreign cars on our roads and the drivers getting away without having to pay the VAT while the rest of us have to pay it whern we but irish plated cars.

It was definatly time for this, IMO.

unkel

Fratton Fred wrote:

I still have my car (And my wife's) on UK plates as I am on temporary contract over here which could last a year, it could become permanent

You might be ok. If your temporary contract is for less than a year, you are ok on the UK plates. What about your wife, is she on a temporary contract for less than a year too? Should you stay for longer than a year, you'd have to re-register the car immediately. If you've owned the car for less than 6 months prior to moving over here, you must pay VRT before you can re-register the car

From here:

The period of time that the vehicle is in the State does not exceed 12 months.
The 12 months time limit will not apply where a person is on a task of definite duration in the State.

Sizzler

Larry David wrote:

Is there any phone number or e-mail address I can rat these evaders out to if I feel it's happening?

Id say if you horsed off an email to info@revenue.ie they would let you know what to do, would be handy

Seth Brundle

http://www.revenue.ie/doc/vro_contacts.doc

zilog_jones

What's going to happen to all these LHD cars that get seized or ones not deemed worth it by the owners to get registered/taxed here? It must be near impossible to sell a LHD car (unless it's something unusual or never available in RHD) in this country, and scrapping them (if roadworthy) is not very sustainable

dubtom

Sizzler wrote:

The stroke there is if challenged they would tell the Rev Comms that its not commercially in their interest to re-reg a UK Car till they have a buyer, this is the generally accepted rule, plenty of garages around Dublin doing it.

When I bought a jap import from a dealer He registered the car and paid the vrt on the price I paid for it,ie, 6K + vrt = total price.As far as I know thats the way it is supposed to be done.Why should a car have to be registered before it's found a buyer and is not being used.

Sizzler

dubtom wrote:

When I bought a jap import from a dealer He registered the car and paid the vrt on the price I paid for it,ie, 6K + vrt = total price.As far as I know thats the way it is supposed to be done.Why should a car have to be registered before it's found a buyer and is not being used.

You're right chief, it shouldnt be the case but there are plenty of second hand car dealers around the country who dont play the game, Im not going to post any of them though even though I know of 3 within 6 miles of where I live :eek: