An expensive spin..

alpina

Next year I finally reach 'Classic Car Status' where road tax is concerned.
At the moment my tax for the year would be approx. €1, 200 & next year will be €48. After spending just under €5k on tax since I got the car('04), I decided not to tax her this time for the year but will do six months(€668) come april, weather may be better etc etc.
[I insure it regardless whether taxed or not just to keep it covered & is very reasonable through Ir. Vintage, so anyhow car has current ins. & current nct]
So looking forward to getting back on the road I have been doing any odd jobs, service required. Today I did an oil change, ATF change & a full coolant flush & as was so dry/sunny & after a few hours work decided to go as far as nearest r'about & back (4 miles in total, return) for a quick spin. Yes you guessed it, in less than five minutes had my window down, being told I was being given an on the spot fine of €60 & quote "You are very lucky that I don't confiscate the car" Ya I know by the letter of the law I am totally in the wrong, but ouch that's one kick in the liathroidi..:(:(

galwaytt

ouch: out of curiousity: how long was it out ?

alpina

My tax ran out september 30th '09. I never drive it in the rain/crap etc. as no need anyhow, solely a fair weather motor, kind of like the bikes really:o, so just park up until February/March regardless & then go to local garda station for a stamp prior to taxing in order to avoid back tax. Should have gone in for a coffee when I finished working on her rather than taking out for a spin...I think there is something about if it's out longer than two months it's more serious, but under the circumstances he just gave an on the spot. He asked how come not taxed since last year & I explained, not my daily driver, is €1200 this year & €48 next year. He thought that was "shocking", still had the heart to summons me though:rolleyes:

unkel

I feel your pain

What's next? Do you just have to pay the fine for not having motor tax and for not displaying motor tax? I guess you will have to back tax it for the full period you did not tax the car for ?

rugbyman

Not at all. if the Garda has not insisted you tax it, and he seemed ok, i would not tax it now, but if he is insisting on it or if you feel it neccessary just add that month as arrears when you next tax it.

regards Rugbyman

rugbyman

"I guess you will have to back tax it for the full period you did not tax the car for ? "

my last post was in regard to Unkle s comment. forgot to paste.
Rugbyman

corktina

well i guess we all got carried away like that and did an illegal spin down the road... youa culpa to misquote the latin... sorry bud...:(

Dades

You live and learn!

What a pain in the ass.

antodeco

So is that going to be a day out in court?

spooky donkey

Well im just gona do 3 months tax on my car and drive it for the summber months till she hits vintage.
Its real bad luck getting hit like that and on such a short spin.
I did 500 miles in my car last weekend with no tax and only got stoped onece and got away with it too

alpina

antodeco wrote: »

So is that going to be a day out in court?

No...no court as an on the spot €60 fine. Pretty lucky I guess, nothing about non display, nothing bout having to back date, & nothing about having to tax it immed. Nostation visit required thank God as will be calling out to the station to get my form stamped to tax it for the summer.

Reckon he got the fact that it was not my primary car & understood I only tax it for summer. Still pretty annoying though, after an ATF change was just really curious that change ups were still smooth & everthing else was A ok, hence the quick spin:( Guess I should have just driven around the drive in circles:rolleyes:

No point complaining/ranting on etc. my fault, totally in the wrong, understood...however:D if I was to get 5 min. of a rant would be that I wish there was something along the lines of a sliding scale from 25 years on, 80%~60%~.... it's just so extreme, €1204 all the way & bang €48. Roll on May '11

Grimreaper666

Sorry to be the bearer of more bad news but the Green party are pushing for all classic cars to pay full whack road tax very soon no matter how old they are, cars over 30 will only be NCT exempt but will be liable for road tax as if it were any other 3.5 litre as is your case. One more reason to leave this sh!thole country in my book anyway. Sorry for your trouble OP, i've never yet met a classic car sympathetic cop and probably never will. It has to be said though if they go ahead with this i'd like to see taxes brought in on hurling, golf, football and all other sports too just for good measure.

Kevin_Herron

Grimreaper666 wrote: »

Sorry to be the bearer of more bad news but the Green party are pushing for all classic cars to pay full whack road tax very soon no matter how old they are, cars over 30 will only be NCT exempt but will be liable for road tax as if it were any other 3.5 litre as is your case. One more reason to leave this sh!thole country in my book anyway. Sorry for your trouble OP, i've never yet met a classic car sympathetic cop and probably never will. It has to be said though if they go ahead with this i'd like to see taxes brought in on hurling, golf, football and all other sports too just for good measure.

Where have you heard this?

carchaeologist

Grimreaper666 wrote: »

Sorry to be the bearer of more bad news but the Green party are pushing for all classic cars to pay full whack road tax very soon no matter how old they are,.

The green party should all be put in a wicker man and to hell with the pollution!!:rolleyes::p

hi5

You will have to pay the back tax Im afraid.
In order to re-tax the car in the future you'll need a 'Declaration Of Non Use' stamp from the Gardai on a form.
Before he stamps this he'll check his computer and your reg number will be on it.

Grimreaper666 wrote: »

Sorry to be the bearer of more bad news but the Green party are pushing for all classic cars to pay full whack road tax very soon no matter how old they are, cars over 30 will only be NCT exempt but will be liable for road tax as if it were any other 3.5 litre as is your case. One more reason to leave this sh!thole country in my book anyway. Sorry for your trouble OP, i've never yet met a classic car sympathetic cop and probably never will. It has to be said though if they go ahead with this i'd like to see taxes brought in on hurling, golf, football and all other sports too just for good measure.

Do you have a link to this information?

I cant believe they would even suggest this:eek:

Looks like we could all be getting together and taking a road run to Kildare Street soon.

COB MGV8

Grimreaper666 wrote: »

Sorry to be the bearer of more bad news but the Green party are pushing for all classic cars to pay full whack road tax very soon no matter how old they are, cars over 30 will only be NCT exempt but will be liable for road tax as if it were any other 3.5 litre as is your case. One more reason to leave this sh!thole country in my book anyway. Sorry for your trouble OP, i've never yet met a classic car sympathetic cop and probably never will. It has to be said though if they go ahead with this i'd like to see taxes brought in on hurling, golf, football and all other sports too just for good measure.

Have seen no ref. to this anywhere else.....the more we speculate on these things the more likely it is that one of them picks up on it and uses it as one of their bright ideas.

unkel

hi5 wrote: »

You will have to pay the back tax Im afraid.
In order to re-tax the car in the future you'll need a 'Declaration Of Non Use' stamp from the Gardai on a form.
Before he stamps this he'll check his computer and your reg number will be on it.

That's what I was thinking. The Gardai don't always check it against pulse, but if they do you're in big trouble if you've just declared your car off the road and it shows up you were stopped on a public road and fined for no tax. Not worth the risk in my book...

@Grimreaper666 - where'd you hear this? I wouldn't worry too much about what the greens can convince FF to do this term of government tbh

Kevin_Herron

COB MGV8 wrote: »

Have seen no ref. to this anywhere else.....the more we speculate on these things the more likely it is that one of them picks up on it and uses it as one of their bright ideas.

I would completely agree. I feel its very dangerous to speculate about these things on the internet.

rugbyman

re both pieces of advice on back tax.

if ones car has been off the road and not taxed for some time, one goes to the Garda a station(unless a new system has come in in the last month) where one gets a Garda to VERIFY YOUR SIGNITURE, where YOU declare the car was off the road for a certain time.

if for example the car was off the road since oct 09, and you had taken it for a spin on feb28 th.

On June 1st,say, when you want to tax it for the summer,and if you want to be completely legal then you declare one months use,i.e. February. there is no other way to tax for one month only. There are no circumstances where you have to back tax to last tax expiry date.

Regards Rugbyman

unkel

rugbyman wrote: »

if for example the car was off the road since oct 09, and you had taken it for a spin on feb28 th.

On June 1st,say, when you want to tax it for the summer,and if you want to be completely legal then you declare one months use,i.e. February.

I don't think there is any way to tax your car for 1 month. In your example the cheapest option is to tax your car for 3 months as soon as you're caught, declaring the car off the road until the end of the month before you drove it. In this case, tax the car from 1st February till end of April. Then if you want to drive it from the 1st June, declare it off the road for the month of May and tax it again for 3 months (jun/jul/aug)

You could also tax your car for 3 months from 1st June paying 4 months back tax (feb/mar/apr/may). More convenient, but much more expensive if you have a big engined car.

hi5

rugbyman wrote: »

re both pieces of advice on back tax.

if ones car has been off the road and not taxed for some time, one goes to the Garda a station(unless a new system has come in in the last month) where one gets a Garda to VERIFY YOUR SIGNITURE, where YOU declare the car was off the road for a certain time.

if for example the car was off the road since oct 09, and you had taken it for a spin on feb28 th.

On June 1st,say, when you want to tax it for the summer,and if you want to be completely legal then you declare one months use,i.e. February. there is no other way to tax for one month only. There are no circumstances where you have to back tax to last tax expiry date.

Regards Rugbyman

The form only allows for 1 period of 'Declaration of non use'.
Could he present 2 forms at the tax office,omiting the month he was caught???
https://www.motortax.ie/OMT/pdf/RF100A_en.pdf
Things could get very complicated.
My understanding was if you got caught driving without tax then the game was up and all monies were due.
The presumption being that you were continuously driving without tax and just had not being caught.

unkel

hi5 wrote: »

My understanding was if you got caught driving without tax then the game was up and all monies were due.
The presumption being that you were continuously driving without tax and just had not being caught.

I can see where you're coming from with your understanding of it, but my interpretation is not as narrow as that. If you honestly have had the car off the road until the day you were caught, you really only owe motor tax from the first day of the month you were caught. So in the above example, tax it for 3 months (feb-apr) and all should be well.

rugbyman

its not worth debating back tax for ever, but I have a car that has been on and off the road for some periods. .
the only way to tax for one specific month is to declare that month when re taxing.
In my case it was some months later and no summons had been issued. Actually it was a no tax displayed fine from our local authority.
They are quite reasonable on this and will tear it up if tax is produced. Largely because thats what the judge would do.

Hi5 re your comment on only one line on the form, i was in that spot ,wanting to declare two seperate months, the clerk suggested I made it two consequetive months and I agreed,
not what i had intended but,..
Rugbyman

Silvera

I'd say that cop was a 'classic friendly' cop!!

He could have -

A. seized the car (as the tax was over two months out of date), or
B. summonsed you to court for 'non display' and 'use'

OR BOTH!

I'd advise you to back-tax it for this month whenever you tax it again.


I'm often surprised how many ZV-reg (etc) vehicles I see at shows with no tax on display? It's only €48 and some ppl still wont tax their vehicles??! People like that will cause problems for other classic owners who do keep everything in order!

Dades

unkel wrote: »

@Grimreaper666 - where'd you hear this? I wouldn't worry too much about what the greens can convince FF to do this term of government tbh

I concur - the Greens aren't a position to be demanding stuff anymore! And certainly won't after the next election.