Paying motor tax in lumps - thieving gits

Voodoomelon

I got my motor tax renewal form in the post today and i've been in a foul mood all evening, its drives me mad they way I have to pay so much extra to make my payment more manageable.

Total tax €1204.

For the "privilege" of paying in two 6 month installments, it costs me an extra €132 a year.

Pay in four installments and it costs me an extra €156 a year.

€156 a year. Thats the cost of taxing a single low emissions car by itself! By the way, my car emits less than twice that band!

I pay online every single time, what the hell extra am I costing my local office other than an extra sheet of paper for each renewal!?

I'm torn between paying half or the full whack now, coming up to Christmas and all, i'm leaning towards the half rate but it makes me sick paying these bástards any more than I already do.

:mad::mad:

Tragedy

I had to pay for just 3months of mine in October(flat out broke) which means come new years I need to stump up just over €900. Brilliant timing

Voodoomelon

Yeh, both my tax and insurance used to be in January, nightmare!

colm_mcm

3 months on, 1 month off...

spyderski

I'm amazed this incredible scam hasn't got more publicity in the times we're in.

The government warn us about credit card interest charges, but are nearly as bad themselves if you need to pay your road tax in installments.

I can see road tax becoming very difficult for the government to collect (like a lot of other taxes will) if things stay as they are.

Voodoomelon

It was highlighted on Matt Cooper a few months back; they were saying that it harked back to the days where paying more often costed them more in administration, but even after the online payment method came in, the excess fees remained. It's absolute theft.

gally

Yeah annoying.But why do an awful lot of complainers on motoring matters drive such big engined yokes?

ABajaninCork

I feel your pain.

Road tax in the UK for my 1.4 Peugeot was £100 p.a. the last time I paid it. Brought the car over, and I find that tax for the same car with the same emissions is E310 p.a.:eek::eek::eek::eek: I nearly fell over with the shock. I have a Fiesta 1.25 which is the same to tax yearly.

On doing a little research, I find that road tax is charged by engine size until July 08, when the tax will then be charged by emissions for cars registered after this date.

Why this should be when road tax in the UK been charged by emissions for the last 10 years? The cars would be pretty well identical except for the lack of extras in Irish models, but hey ho!

I can only surmise that this thieving bunch of gangsters in Government are looking after their friends again. THEY can afford to get nice new cars, so THEY pay less tax. The ordinary guy in the street gets screwed again:mad:

Sorry, but I think the road tax charged here is outrageous. It's not even as if the taxes raised go to maintain the roads....

In a nutshell, if you can pay the tax yearly. Cheaper that way! Don't give the theiving gits any more dosh than you have to!!

Rant over.

spyderski

gally wrote: »

Yeah annoying.But why do an awful lot of complainers on motoring matters drive such big engined yokes?

Thats irrelevant to this debate. Its not about the level of road tax, but the punitive charges for paying quarterly or Bi-annually. If you drive a noddy car you still pay a huge percentage premium for not paying 12 months at a time.

GoalsGoneWild

I'd pay the year now if u can afford it. Might as well try to get as long as possible out of the current tax rates. Something tells me they'll be jumping in the December budget...

Voodoomelon

Good point, that slipped my mind.

galwaytt

Voodoomelon wrote: »

Good point, that slipped my mind.

or, not, don't: total random theory: they'll do away with road tax and put it on the fuel.

Wouldn't that be fun if you'd just bought 12mths worth ?

Voodoomelon

Good one! I'll eat my hat if they do that in the next 2 years. I just paid the €1204.

galwaytt

Voodoomelon wrote: »

Good one! I'll eat my hat if they do that in the next 2 years. I just paid the €1204.

OMG !

Don't forget: we handed the keys to this outfit to the Germans yesterday - maybe they'll see the light ?

GoalsGoneWild

galwaytt wrote: »

or, not, don't: total random theory: they'll do away with road tax and put it on the fuel.

Wouldn't that be fun if you'd just bought 12mths worth ?

Taxation on the motorist that's equitable as it's based on actual usage? Bit of a jump to be fair!

I'm personally more concerned that they'll follow the emissions model that's in place for VRT for calculating road tax. Great if you have a small diesel, less so if you're driving any sort of decent performing petrol engine. Still think the OP is best served paying the year up front - but could definitely be proved wrong. All depends on how the lads from the IMF feel anyway!!

Voodoomelon

You're forgetting something, I don't have a hat!

galwaytt

...and Dec 7th is soooooooo far away...........

loads of time to buy a hat

Cookie_Monster

1 Pay it now as rates will go up in the budget and at least in you have a full year from now to put off the hike.

2 It cost more cos they are losing out on money now and the interest on it, everyone does it. Aviva charge 7% to pay by instalments. Look at it like you getting a discount for paying it all up front

inforfun

1200 just before christmas is too much you say.
Cant you pay for 3 or 6 months now so it brings you to a more favourable time of the year to pay for a full year?

wyndham

colm_mcm wrote: »

3 months on, 1 month off...

3 months on, 3 months off

As I am in the habit of changing the car frequently enough I never have more than two months tax on it, I generally tax it coming up to the end of the month after it has expired for 3 months. Just in case I decide to get rif I'd never want a decent lash of tax on a car as you rarely if ever get the value of it back. Was caught once though, taxed the Coupe and the gearbox went the following day :rolleyes: Should have stuck to my theory and waited another week.

mullingar

wyndham wrote: »

3 months on, 3 months off

Safer with 3 months on, 2 months off

I believe a car can be confiscated if its 3 or more months out of date, so 2 months and 1 week later: out comes that form

Cookie_Monster

mullingar wrote: »

Safer with 3 months on, 2 months off

do you not have to back tax it anyway

CiniO

ABajaninCork wrote: »

I feel your pain.

Road tax in the UK for my 1.4 Peugeot was £100 p.a. the last time I paid it.

I felt the pain even more when I moved here.
Back in Poland for my 1.6 Fiat Bravo, I paid 150 euros insurance annually (fully comp) and no road tax, as there in no such thing. Plus 25 euros once a year for a car test. That's all the costs involved in keeping the car legal on the road.
Road tax used to be there in middle of 90's but was abolished then, and it's cost was put into petrol price. It doesn't really makes too much difference, as at the moment petrol is a little bit cheaper then in Ireland.

And now in Ireland I pay 551 euros tax every year, and 500 euros insurance, for my 1.8 Primera. +50 euros once every 2 years for NCT.

CiniO

CiniO wrote: »

I felt the pain even more when I moved here.
Back in Poland ......................

And you earn 3 or 4 times here what you would in Poland, and no doubt save a good few quid too, so it's not all that bad here really compared to Poland is it

CiniO

RoverJames wrote: »

And you earn 3 or 4 times here what you would in Poland, and no doubt save a good few quid too, so it's not all that bad here really compared to Poland is it

I never said it was that bad here

But you are probably right. I can earn about 3 times more here then in Poland.
And as I said - paying for my car there was about 175 euros per year.
Here I pay over a 1000 and it's still cheap comparing to what other people my age (28) and especially younger have to pay.
Motoring cost in Ireland is one of the most expensive in Europe.

But I absolutely agree - when you take under consideration average salaries, it's not that bad.

Twin-go

You should get an emmisions cert when you do the NCT after which you should be allowed to move to the CO2 tax bands.

This will:

1. Allow people to hold onto older less poluting cars
2. Make a better second hand market for pre 08 cars
3. Be more equatable in so far as the rich don't pay less motor tax because the can afford a new car
4. Reduce the amount of older low emmiting cars been recycled before their time.

Last I checked NCT did not check CO2 emissions, which is not so surprising as they would need to to a full euro cycle on rollers, collect all the emissions in a bag and then analyze the contents of said bag.

I think it costs thousands to do the test so people would probably complain (if the cost of NCT went from 50 -> 1550).

kasper

in 1981 car tax under 2012cc engine was free , an electrically propelled motor vehicle was 22 punts annualy , 12 punts for 6 months and 6 punts quarterly . and yes this was in ireland

seamus

Who needs a 2.7L engine anyway?

They could argue that the less you pay now, the more "risky" your income is. That is, they make it cheaper to pay for a whole year because that's guaranteed income that they have for that year, up front. If you pay quarterly, then they're only getting the income in dribs and drabs and there's the chance that you'll delay on paying it or not pay it at all; higher risk, so they take more off you.

samih

samih wrote: »

Last I checked NCT did not check CO2 emissions, which is not so surprising as they would need to to a full euro cycle on rollers, collect all the emissions in a bag and then analyze the contents of said bag.

I think it costs thousands to do the test so people would probably complain (if the cost of NCT went from 50 -> 1550).

they claim they do but there is no CO2 on the results :pac:
http://www.ncts.ie/pdf/nctvehicleinspectionreportexplanatorynotes.pdf

Piri

Voodoomelon wrote: »

It was highlighted on Matt Cooper a few months back; they were saying that it harked back to the days where paying more often costed them more in administration, but even after the online payment method came in, the excess fees remained. It's absolute theft.

More administration???
Is it so difficult to print one A4 paper for 300 quid?
WTF

ABajaninCork

ABajaninCork wrote: »

Sorry, but I think the road tax charged here is outrageous. It's not even as if the taxes raised go to maintain the roads....

Maybe because it's not actually road tax

Piri

kasper wrote: »

in 1981 car tax under 2012cc engine was free , an electrically propelled motor vehicle was 22 punts annualy , 12 punts for 6 months and 6 punts quarterly . and yes this was in ireland

If you have a car now from 1981 you will pay EUR 80 from next year

bluewolf

bluewolf wrote: »

Maybe because it's not actually road tax

+1, anyway, if you have a genuine issue with paying it drive a 1.3 or smaller, €300ish/annum isn't out of the way for a family car really.

kasper

Piri wrote: »

If you have a car now from 1981 you will pay EUR 80 from next year

actually it is 48 euro , but by the time the budget is over it could be 70 , and it cant be paid quarterly

RoverJames

RoverJames wrote: »

they claim they do but there is no CO2 on the results :pac:
http://www.ncts.ie/pdf/nctvehicleinspectionreportexplanatorynotes.pdf

Yeah, it's easy to measure the volume of CO2 in exhaust but that doesn't translate into a meaningful g/km figure :-) Also, the car emission control systems do not have any way to reduce the CO2 on exhaust gas, it's directly proportional of liters of fuel burned (and diesel contains more carbon per liter and petrol).

Anyway, sorry for OT, quickly sidestepping back to the subject. I agree with the OP. It sucks to be ripped off buying with installments. I have been toying with the idea of having a dedicated "motor" account where I'd make payment of like 150 per month and then use that for insurance and tax. Maybe I'll do for next year. Just paid effin 860 for a year (while secretly hoping the rates won't go up in budget).

Dades

Twin-go wrote: »

You should get an emmisions cert when you do the NCT after which you should be allowed to move to the CO2 tax bands.

Is this an option, or has it even been suggested to happen?

Piri wrote: »

If you have a car now from 1981 you will pay EUR 80 from next year

I have an '83 and I don't fancy my chances the 30 year exemption will still be about in the same form in 3 years.

Twin-go

Dades wrote: »

Is this an option, or has it even been suggested to happen?

Not an option Dades, unfortunately.

If it was I could save over €300 on Motor tax on my 2 cars.

Bruthal

colm_mcm wrote: »

3 months on, 1 month off...

The only way.

Bruthal

Voodoomelon wrote: »

I got my motor tax renewal form in the post today and i've been in a foul mood all evening, its drives me mad they way I have to pay so much extra to make my payment more manageable.

Total tax €1204.

For the "privilege" of paying in two 6 month installments, it costs me an extra €132 a year.

Pay in four installments and it costs me an extra €156 a year.

€156 a year. Thats the cost of taxing a single low emissions car by itself! By the way, my car emits less than twice that band!

I pay online every single time, what the hell extra am I costing my local office other than an extra sheet of paper for each renewal!?

I'm torn between paying half or the full whack now, coming up to Christmas and all, i'm leaning towards the half rate but it makes me sick paying these bástards any more than I already do.

:mad::mad:

It could be said that €1360 is the real rate and you get a discount for paying the year. Before i get a few negative posts im on your side, all the car tax prices are mad, but for example say it was €301 per quarter, or €1204 for full year, then they introduce a discount €100 for paying a full year, then it would be 301 a quarter or 1101 a year, then people would say why am i paying extra 100 doing it quarterly.

But it is a rip off anyway, should just be the same for quarterly, 6 monthly and yearly, its ireland though, so its rip off at every posibility.

daRobot

gally wrote: »

Yeah annoying.But why do an awful lot of complainers on motoring matters drive such big engined yokes?

Yeah, you really would wonder why drivers of cars with the biggest engines and therefore pay the most tax, would complain the most?

The mind boggles...

Piri

kasper wrote: »

actually it is 48 euro , but by the time the budget is over it could be 70 , and it cant be paid quarterly

Sorry
I mixed with camper tax

Bruthal

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

do you not have to back tax it anyway

No comment:rolleyes:

Horse1920

Also no comment ....

junkyarddog

I always try and save up enough to tax my car for the full year,
no point in giving them more than you have to.

mullingar

mullingar wrote: »

Safer with 3 months on, 2 months off

I believe a car can be confiscated if its 3 or more months out of date, so 2 months and 1 week later: out comes that form

Spot on, stay within the two months and your only risking a small fine.

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

do you not have to back tax it anyway

"Technically" yes.........

Guy:Incognito

ABajaninCork wrote: »

Why this should be when road tax in the UK been charged by emissions for the last 10 years?
.

Why is the tax in the UK not the same as France?

Anan1

colm_mcm wrote: »

3 months on, 1 month off...

wyndham wrote: »

3 months on, 3 months off

mullingar wrote: »

Safer with 3 months on, 2 months off

I believe a car can be confiscated if its 3 or more months out of date, so 2 months and 1 week later: out comes that form

Advocating tax evasion is against the charter, please don't.