Commercial Tax/Gardai/GoSafe

yourpics

I notice the Gardai are stopping commercial vehicles with commercial tax if on the road after 6pm. Bit silly because alot of people work evenings/nights!

I was wondering do the Garda Paddy Wagons and GoSafe Vans have commercial tax and if so will they be off the road at 6pm also?

After all, there is no point in having a law that is for some people and not others!!

homer90

Good point actually - Although, im sure the laws are amended to suit themselves.

Anan1

Given that the Gardaí are paid for by the State, what possible sense would it make for them to pay motor tax?

charlie1966

This has to be one of the most ridiculous waste of Garda time I have heard of in a while. There are loads of businesses that do not stop working at 6pm. I'm self employed and I regularly work late. Mind you I have never been stopped by the Garda for that reason. I would like to know, has anyone?

yourpics

Anan1 wrote: »

Given that the Gardaí are paid for by the State, what possible sense would it make for them to pay motor tax?

All Garda vehicles pay motor tax.

but they do not pay insurance, the government pays out if there is an accident and they were at fault

Eric Cartman

charlie1966 wrote: »

This has to be one of the most ridiculous waste of Garda time I have heard of in a while. There are loads of businesses that do not stop working at 6pm. I'm self employed and I regularly work late. Mind you I have never been stopped by the Garda for that reason. I would like to know, has anyone?

35,000km of 60/40 night/day driving arount dublin, kildare and wicklow since this enforcement came in and havent been stopped once for it, never even get asked what im up to at checkpoints, regularly driving through checkpoints at 10pm-2am

edit : thought this thread was going to be about ANPR taking pics of commercial vehicles from the gatso vans.... im glad they dont do that

yourpics

charlie1966 wrote: »

This has to be one of the most ridiculous waste of Garda time I have heard of in a while. There are loads of businesses that do not stop working at 6pm. I'm self employed and I regularly work late. Mind you I have never been stopped by the Garda for that reason. I would like to know, has anyone?

Alot of people are getting stopped by traffic corp this last month.

I agree it is ridiculous. Where will it stop? Soon they will be telling us what clothes to wear!

Where I live, there are a huge amount of UK cars owned by people permanently resident in ROI. It would be better if they clamped down on this!!

Anyway, it would be interesting to know what way the GoSafe vans are taxed...

-Chris-

yourpics wrote: »

All Garda vehicles pay motor tax.

but they do not pay insurance, the government pays out if there is an accident and they were at fault

State vehicle don't pay motor tax, they're tax exempt.

They have to apply for a disk like the rest of us, but there's no cost associated with it.

CiniO

yourpics wrote: »

I notice the Gardai are stopping commercial vehicles with commercial tax if on the road after 6pm. Bit silly because alot of people work evenings/nights!

I was wondering do the Garda Paddy Wagons and GoSafe Vans have commercial tax and if so will they be off the road at 6pm also?

After all, there is no point in having a law that is for some people and not others!!

What law are you talking about?

Because so far, no one here was able to quote a law which would forbid to use a commercially taxed vehicle in the evenings even if it's the use for private purpose.

coylemj

-Chris- wrote: »

State vehicle don't pay motor tax, they're tax exempt.

They have to apply for a disk like the rest of us, but there's no cost associated with it.

Correct, the surefire way to tell if a Merc. was a minister's car was to look at the tax disc, if it said 'exempt' you knew it was.

yourpics

-Chris- wrote: »

State vehicle don't pay motor tax, they're tax exempt.

They have to apply for a disk like the rest of us, but there's no cost associated with it.

Ah right, I just assumed they paid it due to the presence of the disc on the windscreen!
But obviously GoSafe will have motor tax as they are a private company

yourpics

CiniO wrote: »

What law are you talking about?

Because so far, no one here was able to quote a law which would forbid to use a commercially taxed vehicle in the evenings even if it's the use for private purpose.

I agree there is no such law but the traffic corp have other ideas!!

Irish Fire

There is no such law, if you pay your vehicle tax you have no restriction on when you can use the vehicle. Curfews on vehicles?? I think not....

Stinicker

Irish Fire wrote: »

There is no such law, if you pay your vehicle tax you have no restriction on when you can use the vehicle. Curfews on vehicles?? I think not....

Well commercially taxed vehicles would be supposed to be used for commercial use and by stopping after 5pm they might think they are going to find it easier to catch people.

A friend of mine was stopped recently at around 3am and interrogated as to what he was doing, he also had no Motor Tax on the van and they told him to leave the van there and get it off the road, he said grand and reached into the back of the van for a calving jack, gloves and all manner of various contraptions which would not be very clean to say the least, "now guard he says, I'm not too worried about the tax but I hope you've room in that squad car because I've a cow due to calve tonight and since ye won't let me drive ye'll be dropping me down there, hows that car for driving across fields?" My friend was pretty dirty at the time with muck and cow sh1t and the guard got cross and told him to "go off home and don't let me catch that heap of scrap on the road again!"

Nothing came of the expired Motor tax however he did subsequently scrap the van and recycled it into a home for his dog who now resides in the back of it! The guards couldn't let him at the side of the road and when they saw the cut of him it was enough for them!

BronsonTB

OP...Have you fact on this? ie Somebody being stopped & taken to court/fined over it). Seems to be lots of stories on commercial tax but very little hard fact...In reality any check point I have gone through has been fine with any gaurd. (Nice & grumpy ones)
Commercial vehicle (Van - No back seats) / Commercial Insurance / Commercial Tax & vaild DOE. No problem no matter what time day or night when I've been stopped.

Fact I only finish work at 6pm & then have to drive 2hr home would make stopping me a complete waste of their time. Find it very hard to believe this would be force policy to be stopping for this issue in particular unless looking for people with invalid documentation, then that would be acceptable. I'm sure it's not a time issue....checking after 6 pm...lol..Most brakedown trucks work 24 hours....will they have to be stopped??

BronsonTB

Stinicker wrote: »

Well commercially taxed vehicles would be supposed to be used for commercial use and by stopping after 5pm they might think they are going to find it easier to catch people.

A friend of mine was stopped recently at around 3am and interrogated as to what he was doing, he also had no Motor Tax on the van and they told him to leave the van there and get it off the road, he said grand and reached into the back of the van for a calving jack, gloves and all manner of various contraptions which would not be very clean to say the least, "now guard he says, I'm not too worried about the tax but I hope you've room in that squad car because I've a cow due to calve tonight and since ye won't let me drive ye'll be dropping me down there, hows that car for driving across fields?" My friend was pretty dirty at the time with muck and cow sh1t and the guard got cross and told him to "go off home and don't let me catch that heap of scrap on the road again!"

Nothing came of the expired Motor tax however he did subsequently scrap the van and recycled it into a home for his dog who now resides in the back of it! The guards couldn't let him at the side of the road and when they saw the cut of him it was enough for them!

If he had no tax displayed, they had every right to interrogate him. Esp when the rest of us are paying our dues! And if it's been scrapped since, how roadworthy was it??? Shame they didn't follow it up.....

stevenmu

I don't think they're actually doing people for being on the road after 6pm, they're just targetting their checks for that time.

It makes sense, in the same way that most drink driving checkpoints are targetted for weekend nights and mornings after, rather than 2pm on a tuesday.

Stinicker

BronsonTB wrote: »

If he had no tax displayed, they had every right to interrogate him. Esp when the rest of us are paying our dues! And if it's been scrapped since, how roadworthy was it??? Shame they didn't follow it up.....

I was posting it as an example of gardai hypocrisy and to show how poor a spend of taxpayers money they as a service they are. They would rather be catching people for small things like motor tax avoidance and speeding all of which I believe are a waste of tax payers money, when the funds should be used by the gardai should be fighting real crime like drugdealers etc. and bring the people who committed treason against this country by deliberately destroying the economy and bankrupting the states finances to justice.

Serving justice should come before revenue generation IMO and revenue generation should be left to the officers of the Customs and Excise and let the gardai catch real criminals. Where is the Justice in taxing the ordinary people off the roads yet bailing out the corrupt bankers who destroyed this country? Social injustice thats what it is.

My friend's van was not roadworthy and due to the archaic system of Motor taxation he could not tax it as a result. He put the van off the road and picked up another cheap identical one (Transit) from the Done Deal and was able to cannibalise the old van for parts, the money he saved from not having the DOE, Motor Tax paid for the replacement van and he got it road worthy himself as an amateur mechanic.

People like him can save a few euro by doing these things, the rest of us..... well it is us who are the fools for tolerating such oppressive levels of motor taxation in relation to the terrible roads and black hole of an economy where every penny is spent to bailout the corrupt gamblers.

yourpics

BronsonTB wrote: »

OP...Have you fact on this? ie Somebody being stopped & taken to court/fined over it). Seems to be lots of stories on commercial tax but very little hard fact...In reality any check point I have gone through has been fine with any gaurd. (Nice & grumpy ones)
Commercial vehicle (Van - No back seats) / Commercial Insurance / Commercial Tax & vaild DOE. No problem no matter what time day or night when I've been stopped.

Fact I only finish work at 6pm & then have to drive 2hr home would make stopping me a complete waste of their time. Find it very hard to believe this would be force policy to be stopping for this issue in particular unless looking for people with invalid documentation, then that would be acceptable. I'm sure it's not a time issue....checking after 6 pm...lol..Most brakedown trucks work 24 hours....will they have to be stopped??

Yeah I know a few people who have been told not to be out after 6pm!!