Can tax commencement be post dated?

T-Maxx

Today I bought tax on a car that I'm intending to use as from 1st May. The car was off the road for some time, and I have a Garda certified affidavit for the applicable period up to 30th April.

Now, I was under the impression that the tax would only commence on 1st May, as stated on the application form, but instead it seems that it runs from the date that it is paid, ie today 13th April.

Since you always pay for the month during which it's taken out, and I don't intend using the car during April, I've now effectively taxed the car for a full month of non-use.

Am I being done in or is this how the system works?

colm_mcm

you have to tax it after the end date of the off-road period.

Garda not supposed to stamp it into a date in the future.

drunkmonkey

that's how the system works, you should have held off taxing until the 1st of may

Yawns

This is how the system works. You now taxed from the 1st of April and not the 13th btw. It only goes from start of the month to last day of month for a period of 3 months. Your now taxed until last day of June.

If you were planning on not driving then you would have had to leave it in your drive and declare a period of nonuse on the 1st of May

T-Maxx

Ridiculous if you ask me.

Instead of getting everything sorted out in advance, you're now forced to do it on the specific commencement date, in my case meaning driving without tax to the taxation office on a date that doesn't suit me.

R.O.R

T-Maxx wrote: »

Ridiculous if you ask me.

Instead of getting everything sorted out in advance, you're now forced to do it on the specific commencement date, in my case meaning driving without tax to the taxation office on a date that doesn't suit me.

How often do you think people will declare that the car is going to be off the road for the next 2 weeks - honest officer?

As the tax disc only displays when the disc is valid until, it would be a hard job to check whether the tax on a car has started yet.

Yawns

T-Maxx wrote: »

Ridiculous if you ask me.

Instead of getting everything sorted out in advance, you're now forced to do it on the specific commencement date, in my case meaning driving without tax to the taxation office on a date that doesn't suit me.

When you recieve your renewal pin you can do it online

Or post it.

mickdw

If you own the car now, you tax it for this month unless it happens to be off the road. If it off the road you dont need to tax it. Whenever you decide to go on the road, you must tax it to the start of that month & declare (witnessed by garda) that it was of the road.

Esel

T-Maxx wrote: »

I have a Garda certified affidavit for the applicable period up to 30th April.

Garda made a bit of a boo-boo.

T-Maxx wrote: »

...in my case meaning driving without tax to the taxation office on a date that doesn't suit me.

You don't have to bring the car to the tax office. You don't even have to go there in person.

If it consoles you even if you had waited until 30th to call to the station you would have been out of luck.

Last year I put my car back on road on 1st May after mechanical repairs. I walked to the local garda station to get the form stamped on the night of 30th and then drove to the tax office on the following day (1st of May). Had to pay the tax starting 1st of April as the form was dated 30th of April, i.e. during April.

Seth Brundle

T-Maxx wrote: »

Ridiculous if you ask me.

Instead of getting everything sorted out in advance, you're now forced to do it on the specific commencement date, in my case meaning driving without tax to the taxation office on a date that doesn't suit me.

You will have to wait until you receive the ownership cert/logbook before oyu can tax it. Once you have this, you should (it may involve a phone call requesting a PIN) be able to tax it online.

Anyhow, presumably the car is now at your house? How did it get there? Should you be lying (which I assume you aren't!), are you sure that it wasn't picked up any unmarked cars?

esel wrote: »

Garda made a bit of a boo-boo.

No they didn't.
The garda just is a witness to the signature - they are not verifying that it was off the road during the period stated.

Yawns

samih wrote: »

If it consoles you even if you had waited until 30th to call to the station you would have been out of luck.

Last year I put my car back on road on 1st May after mechanical repairs. I walked to the local garda station to get the form stamped on the night of 30th and then drove to the tax office on the following day (1st of May). Had to pay the tax starting 1st of April as the form was dated 30th of April, i.e. during April.

Or you could have waited to get the form stamped on the 1st, then proceeded to the tax office and taxed it from the 1st of May

Yeah, but what I meant was that even if the OP would have got the form stamped on 30th, which is the date he mentions, he would have been liable for motor tax for the month of April.

T-Maxx

R.O.R wrote: »

How often do you think people will declare that the car is going to be off the road for the next 2 weeks - honest officer?

As the tax disc only displays when the disc is valid until, it would be a hard job to check whether the tax on a car has started yet.

The date on which the tax was purchased is actually printed on the disc as well.

T-Maxx

Yawns wrote: »

When you recieve your renewal pin you can do it online

Or post it.

Online renewals can only be done if there hasn't been any period of non-use for which you don't want to pay.

T-Maxx

mickdw wrote: »

If you own the car now, you tax it for this month unless it happens to be off the road. If it off the road you dont need to tax it. Whenever you decide to go on the road, you must tax it to the start of that month & declare (witnessed by garda) that it was of the road.

Exactly what I was trying to do - get all the legal issues sorted now and be on the road come 1st May.

Esel

esel wrote: »

Garda made a bit of a boo-boo.

kbannon wrote: »

No they didn't.
The garda just is a witness to the signature - they are not verifying that it was off the road during the period stated.

The garda was definitely wrong to sign the form when the period of stated non-use included the current month (i.e. covering a period which had not yet elapsed). The fact that he/she was just witnessing the OP's signature is beside the point.