pull and no tax >BUT?<

JAMES VTI S

i got pulled (after i made a quick decision to dodge a road side check - but got seen and they followed) and my tax is out scence the 10th but they said noting about it

my tax was out and they looked at the disks TWICE! then told me drive away (after a few questions why i skidded making a turn and looking inside the car)

TestTransmission

What's the question?

JAMES VTI S

why did they tell me drive away after seeing twice that my tax was out ?

Yawns

Well they could have fined you for non-display of tax but they didn't. What's the problem. Most guards are actually sound and know that things are tough financially for many people at present. If they think you're saving to pay you tax next week, they may or may not bother mentioning it.

JAMES VTI S

why did they not say get tax soon so

Stheno

JAMES VTI S wrote: »

why did they not say get tax soon so

Because you were only ten days out, most cops are fairly ok unless you are more than a month out.

Just be happy they waved you off, they could have seized your car

Yawns

Because they didn't want to nor did they think you needed to. I went through a checkpoint on a Sunday during a bank holiday weekend. Tax was out on the Saturday and I didn't have a pin to renew online. The guard just waved me on without a word. If he had asked I would have told him I was going to go to the tax office on Tuesday, which was the plan and it was done, but he didn't bother.

Yawns

Stheno wrote: »

Because you were only ten days out, most cops are fairly ok unless you are more than a month out.

Just be happy they waved you off, they could have seized your car

Only seize if it's 2 months or more out. Anything before is a fine for non display of tax offence.

JAMES VTI S

waits for someone to confirm that there is a 10 day cooling off period .....

Yawns

2 weeks tho is generally not commented upon or maybe a your tax is out sorta comment. Over 2 weeks would prob get a question or two maybe a fine.

TestTransmission

JAMES VTI S wrote: »

why did they tell me drive away after seeing twice that my tax was out ?

I would imagine they were more concerned with why you were trying to avoid the checkpoint,as in something criminal. It wasn't a very smart thing to do.

Yawns

JAMES VTI S wrote: »

waits for someone to confirm that there is a 10 day cooling off period .....

No grace period or cooling off period. Just guards being nice about it. They could give you a fine for 1 day out if they wanted. It would be harsh tho.

Stheno

Yawns wrote: »

Only seize if it's 2 months or more out. Anything before is a fine for non display of tax offence.

I didn't think that was the case, my understanding is that driving without tax full stop is an offence where your car can be seized even if it's five minutes out, but garda practice is to tend to be lenient if less than a month?

Yawns

TestTransmission wrote: »

I would imagine they were more concerned with why you were trying to avoid the checkpoint,as in something criminal. It wasn't a very smart thing to do.

That and if you were say 4 weeks out of tax, I reckon they'd have fined you for it. The thinking would be you had no intention of taxing the car that month and were trying to avoid them.

Yawns

Stheno wrote: »

I didn't think that was the case, my understanding is that driving without tax full stop is an offence where your car can be seized even if it's five minutes out, but garda practice is to tend to be lenient if less than a month?

Fairly sure it's 2 months before they can seize the car. It used to be 3 months. This is one reason why people actually thought there was an official grace period. It's not a grace period at all. You can be fined if it's 5 minutes out but not seized.

Stheno

Found that detail on citizens information, never knew that before!

Motor tax and insurance

Motorists in Ireland are obliged to display evidence that they have paid their motor tax and have current motor insurance on the windscreen of their vehicles. If a vehicle is found by the Gardaí not to have a current motor insurance policy they have the power to impound the vehicle until such time as an insurance certificate is produced by the owner which insures the use of the vehicle. The owner of the vehicle will be liable to all charges or costs incurred by the Gardaí in the removal and storage of the vehicle. The Road Traffic Act 2006 extended this power to include the power to impound vehicles registered outside of Ireland.

Similarly, the Gardaí are empowered to impound any vehicle which has not been taxed for a period of two months or more. In reality this means that if you are stopped by the Gardaí while driving a vehicle and the road tax for that vehicle is out of date by two months or more, the Gardaí can seize that vehicle and impound it until such time as the owner can show proof that the motor tax has been paid for that vehicle to include the date on which it was impounded (i.e. paying the arrears due on the vehicle). Again, the owner of the vehicle will be liable for all charges and costs incurred by the Gardaí in the removal and storage of the vehicle.

JAMES VTI S

how much is the not tax fine

Yawns

€60 I think. Not sure if you can get penalty points for it. Don't think you can.

Yawns

Doesn't seem to be a penalty point offence, just a fixed charge of €60 which can rise to €90 if not paid within 28 days.

CiniO

Yawns wrote: »

€60 I think. Not sure if you can get penalty points for it. Don't think you can.

Yawns wrote: »

Doesn't seem to be a penalty point offence, just a fixed charge of €60 which can rise to €90 if not paid within 28 days.

That's a fine for situation where you actually have tax, but just don't display it.
For driving without tax fines should be way bigger (probably end up in court) but gards doesn't seem to bother doing this unless tax is out by some ridiculous period of few years or something.

JAMES VTI S

thanks for the help guys :cool:

CiniO

CiniO wrote: »

For driving without tax fines should be way bigger (probably end up in court) but gards doesn't seem to bother doing this unless tax is out by some ridiculous period of few years or something.

Why? Its a trivial offense that nobody with a bit of cop on cares about.

Yawns

CiniO wrote: »

That's a fine for situation where you actually have tax, but just don't display it.
For driving without tax fines should be way bigger (probably end up in court) but gards doesn't seem to bother doing this unless tax is out by some ridiculous period of few years or something.

Can you grab a link to that. Cannot find a link showing a fine of €160 for having no tax.

Afaik you get a fine for non-display. You would need to also get the tax arrears paid. You will be on pulse as having received a fine for non-display of tax so you can't declare it off the road for taxing in future. So when you pay the arrears, you have paid the tax and the fine for non-display.

If you don't pay the fine, it rises the next month and if you still refuse to pay then it can end up in court.

ColmH81

JAMES VTI S wrote: »

why did they not say get tax soon so

They tend to give you a months grace..unless you get a horrible thundering cnuts...

Stheno

Yawns wrote: »

Can you grab a link to that. Cannot find a link showing a fine of €160 for having no tax.

Afaik you get a fine for non-display. You would need to also get the tax arrears paid. You will be on pulse as having received a fine for non-display of tax so you can't declare it off the road for taxing in future. So when you pay the arrears, you have paid the tax and the fine for non-display.

If you don't pay the fine, it rises the next month and if you still refuse to pay then it can end up in court.

There was a post here couple of weeks ago, the arrears are no longer loaded:)

Yawns

Oh really? Did not know that.

Yawns

You don't have a link to that post or thread do ya? All I can find recently about motor tax changes is this one below but it's about a reduction in the cost of arrears. Nothing about not being required to be paid when you get a fine but it does kind of make a mockery of making it cheaper to tax a car in arrears than pay it on time. Based on paying in quarters.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=81517274

TheNog

JAMES VTI S wrote: »

i got pulled (after i made a quick decision to dodge a road side check - but got seen and they followed) and my tax is out scence the 10th but they said noting about it

my tax was out and they looked at the disks TWICE! then told me drive away (after a few questions why i skidded making a turn and looking inside the car)

It was a really silly thing to do to turn away from a checkpoint for no tax. Most checkpoints are for driving offences as well for catching/monitoring criminals. So you turn away from checkpoint and the guards have to go after you to see why.

Everyone is screwed financially so decent people are given some leniency. Just don't take the piss

Stheno

Yawns wrote: »

You don't have a link to that post or thread do ya? All I can find recently about motor tax changes is this one below but it's about a reduction in the cost of arrears. Nothing about not being required to be paid when you get a fine but it does kind of make a mockery of making it cheaper to tax a car in arrears than pay it on time. Based on paying in quarters.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=81517274

That's the one I meant, they are now the same as paying in quarters.

Yawns

Ah right. I thought you meant that you didn't have to pay the arrears at all, just the fine.

Stheno

Yawns wrote: »

Ah right. I thought you meant that you didn't have to pay the arrears at all, just the fine.

Sorry no. Just there is no longer any difference paying in quarters than in arrears.

I'd a situation where I bought a car on the last day of the month, and when I went to tax it, the one behind the counter told me to get the cops to sign it off the road and save myself a months tax!