Motor Tax discount gone?

PrzemoF

There used to be a small discount for paying road tax for 6 months or for 12 months, but when I check the rates on motortax.ie it's now simply monthly rate multiplied by 3, 6 or 12.
Is the discount gone??

George Dalton

I just checked and it is the same as it always was, for example my car:

2901 - 3000cc
Full year €1494
Six months €829
Three months €422

PrzemoF

Opps, my fault. Thanks!

unkel

What car do you have, George?

/sorry for off topic

My car: 2.2l €951 / 2* €527 / 4*€268

So premium for paying per 6 months is 11% and premium for paying per 3 months is also 11%

It makes no sense to tax your car for 6 months. Never did. I don't know why people keep doing it though...

George Dalton

I have a W211 E280 CDI, 2006 model, the tax is out at the end of September

jprboy

unkel wrote: »

What car do you have, George?

/sorry for off topic

My car: 2.2l €951 / 2* €527 / 4*€268

So premium for paying per 6 months is 11% and premium for paying per 3 months is also 11%

It makes no sense to tax your car for 6 months. Never did. I don't know why people keep doing it though...

They may be planning on selling it within 6 months?

Mycroft H

unkel wrote: »

What car do you have, George?

/sorry for off topic

My car: 2.2l €951 / 2* €527 / 4*€268

So premium for paying per 6 months is 11% and premium for paying per 3 months is also 11%

It makes no sense to tax your car for 6 months. Never did. I don't know why people keep doing it though...

I don't have the wedge of cash on hand to tax for 12 usually.

Usually just the 3 and 6 for me depending on how much money I have.

blastman

jprboy wrote: »

They may be planning on selling it within 6 months?

Then tax it for three months twice.

Supergurrier

Tears in my eyes as I hand over my lovely 365 euros every 3 months

MetzgerMeister

George Dalton wrote: »

I have a W211 E280 CDI, 2006 model, the tax is out at the end of September

What happened the S4??? :eek:

George Dalton

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

What happened the S4??? :eek:

I still have the S4 as well, it's not on the road at the moment though.

jprboy

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

What happened the S4??? :eek:

Stolen in Aug 12 but got it back

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=80280194

MetzgerMeister

jprboy wrote: »

Stolen in Aug 12 but got it back

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=80280194

Yes, I'm aware of that! I've been around these parts for a few years now :P

Faith+1

Supergurrier wrote: »

Tears in my eyes as I hand over my lovely 365 euros every 3 months

Mother of god! I'm piss*d when I have to pay 358e for the year! :eek:

blastman

OSI wrote: »

Would cost you more:

As per George's example:

Full year €1494
Six months €829
Three months €422

So 2 x 3 months would be €844 vs €829 for the straight up 6.

Yeah, but you have to whack out 829 in one go against 422 for the sake of saving 15 quid (and that's a more generous saving than most people will have, for a 2.2L as unkel's example the saving is only 9 quid, on a 1.6 it's a tenner).

If you want to save money, tax for 12 months otherwise three months means you have to outlay the smallest amount of cash in one go. For the sake of less than a tenner savings in most cases, six months makes no sense.

MetzgerMeister

In my own circumstances, I'm saving €194 by taxing my car for a year instead of every 3 months.

unkel

blastman wrote: »

For the sake of less than a tenner savings in most cases, six months makes no sense.

If you take the opportunity costs of money into account, you're actually losing money not saving a tenner

@George - is that the facelift model you have? I believe MB fully had their act together at that stage. It's the most reliable car in its class. I was considering it myself but it was far outside my budget. Maybe next time

Renegade Mechanic

unkel wrote: »

It makes no sense to tax your car for 6 months. Never did. I don't know why people keep doing it though...

You shoud try writing off a 3.0 ltr a month after taxing it:(

Celly Smunt

George Dalton wrote: »

I just checked and it is the same as it always was, for example my car:

2901 - 3000cc
Full year €1494
Six months €829
Three months €422

That's a horrific tax band,i presume it's a sexy car though.

George Dalton

unkel wrote: »

@George - is that the facelift model you have? I believe MB fully had their act together at that stage. It's the most reliable car in its class. I was considering it myself but it was far outside my budget. Maybe next time

Mine is the pre facelift as in it has the older style cosmetic bits but it does have the newer V6 engine and the 7 speed auto box which is a much better drivetrain than the older setup.

There is still plenty to go wrong with them though, they are a complex machine at the end of the day. I certainly wouldn't say they are anything special in terms of reliablility, I wouldn't consider one more reliable than a 530D for example.

Tragedy

unkel wrote: »

If you take the opportunity costs of money into account, you're actually losing money not saving a tenner

@George - is that the facelift model you have? I believe MB fully had their act together at that stage. It's the most reliable car in its class. I was considering it myself but it was far outside my budget. Maybe next time

I'm not sure you understand opportunity costs, as paying 260 every 3 months vs paying 520 every 6 months have the same opportunity costs, just at different times. Either way, after 3 months, you have 520 less.

I don't think <0.5% interest earned is worth mentioning either, it's always going to be less than the discount for buying 6 months.

The only logical reasons not to tax for 6 (and 12) months to avail of the discounts are
A) You can't afford to
You don't plan to have the car that long
C) You wish to defraud the system by doing 3 on / 1 off.

Max Power1

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

In my own circumstances, I'm saving €194 by taxing my car for a year instead of every 3 months.

Yeah me too
I think if I paid it every three months instead, I would have a >3.0 car, as the savings pretty much move you up nearly into that band anyway.

Like my car - 1494 p/a in one go, but every three months is 1658. The next band is 1809 p/a.

blastman

Tragedy wrote: »

I'm not sure you understand opportunity costs, as paying 260 every 3 months vs paying 520 every 6 months have the same opportunity costs, just at different times. Either way, after 6 months, you have 520 less.

I don't think <0.5% interest earned is worth mentioning either, it's always going to be less than the discount for buying 6 months.

The only logical reasons not to tax for 6 (and 12) months to avail of the discounts are
A) You can't afford to
You don't plan to have the car that long
C) You wish to defraud the system by doing 3 on / 1 off.

Just to FYP....

If you want to avail of the discount, tax for 12, if you can't shell out all at once, then tax for 3. To me, 6 months has the downside of both of the other available periods without either significant advantage that they offer (low(er) outlay/decent saving). I still don't see the sense.

And C) isn't an option any more....

Tragedy

blastman wrote: »

Just to FYP....

If you want to avail of the discount, tax for 12, if you can't shell out all at once, then tax for 3. To me, 6 months has the downside of both of the other available periods without either significant advantage that they offer (low(er) outlay/decent saving). I still don't see the sense.

And C) isn't an option any more....

6 has a discount versus 3, 12 has a discount versus 6. You can't argue for taxing for 12 and then also arguing that taxing for 6 over 3 is pointless

blastman

I'm arguing the difference in discount between 6 and 3 months' tax is so small that it renders paying out the extra money pointless. Either get the decent discount or keep the installments as painless as possible.

lomb

Its just a bill at the end of the day like any other . Of course the politics behind it are total ****e which is why we are complaining. Unfortunately unless rich where money is meaningless then it is very difficult to enjoy cars in this country unless they are classics which mostly seem to be rust buckets. I had a look at an old 500 SL to try and circumvent the problems of the tax system(you can read the classics post to see how that worked out).

Scortho

unkel wrote: »

What car do you have, George?

/sorry for off topic

My car: 2.2l €951 / 2* €527 / 4*€268

So premium for paying per 6 months is 11% and premium for paying per 3 months is also 11%

It makes no sense to tax your car for 6 months. Never did. I don't know why people keep doing it though...

I've an alfa.
It makes perfect sense....

unkel

Tragedy wrote: »

I'm not sure you understand opportunity costs, as paying 260 every 3 months vs paying 520 every 6 months have the same opportunity costs, just at different times.

Seems you're the one not understanding the concept

Opportunity costs means that there are costs involved in having (or not having) the money. Either you have the money, or more likely these days, you do not have the money and you need a loan / overdraft

Say you only have 260 at the start of every quarter

Scenario 1: you pay per quarter. Total paid 4 * 260 = 1040

Scenario 2: you pay per 6 months . This means if you want to tax the car for 6 months, you need to borrow 260 for the first quarter. And you need to borrow 260 for the 3rd quarter. Total spent: 1040. With interest on your loan / overdraft at say 14%, you pay an additional 20 interest. That 20 is the opportunity cost of money

_Kaiser_

I can vouch for George's Merc.. nice comfy bus that

I can also vouch for his pain.. my A6 is the same per quarter and I don't have €1500 in one lump right after Christmas so I just have to suck it up.

It does sicken me when I'm on UK Audi/VAG forums and hear them bitching about £280 per year bills for the same cars

ofcork

The SL65 AMG on the cannonball had a tax disc for 480 pounds!

Rowley Birkin QC

How early can you tax the car?

Mine isn't due until end of December but if I can pay in advance and avoid any budgetary increases from €710, I'd be cool with it.

Max Power1

Rowley Birkin QC wrote: »

How early can you tax the car?

Mine isn't due until end of December but if I can pay in advance and avoid any budgetary increases from €710, I'd be cool with it.

If the tax disc says 12-13 , think it cant be renewed till the preceding month, so from December 1st
Open to correction

Valetta

Rowley Birkin QC wrote: »

How early can you tax the car?

Mine isn't due until end of December but if I can pay in advance and avoid any budgetary increases from €710, I'd be cool with it.

Budget is in October this year so I think you'll get stung with the inevitable increase.

bazz26

Normally motor tax increases come into effect at the start of the calendar year but since the budget is early this year, who knows when they will rise it.

Dord

Renegade Mechanic wrote: »

You shoud try writing off a 3.0 ltr a month after taxing it:(

Can you not reclaim the tax on it?

_Kaiser_

Dord wrote: »

Can you not reclaim the tax on it?

Not if it was only taxed for the quarter as far as I'm aware, but open to correction?

Renegade Mechanic

Dord wrote: »

Can you not reclaim the tax on it?

Only In england upon a write off, he told me. You can reclaim tax here but only if your exporting I think (but open for correction) and the rigmaroll is meant to be almost prohibitive. (If susi is anything to go by, I just wouldnt bother).

Cee-Jay-Cee

PrzemoF wrote: »

There used to be a small discount for paying road tax for 6 months or for 12 months, but when I check the rates on motortax.ie it's now simply monthly rate multiplied by 3, 6 or 12.
Is the discount gone??

I think your reading it wrong. It wasnt a discount. The rate was €xxx and if you chose to pay for 3 or 6 months you were actually charged more (than a third or half of the actual rate) possibly to incentivise people into paying for 12 months tax at a time.

sean1141

You can claim back the tax here once you have an end of life cert (after being crashed) but you need to have at least 3 full months tax left.

More detailed info here
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/travel_and_recreation/motoring_1/motor_tax_and_insurance/motor_tax_rates.html

Personally I tax mine for 6 months at a time as I cant afford to pay for 12 months and I find if I only do 3 months the reminder seems to come only after paying it!!

Renegade Mechanic

sean1141 wrote: »

You can claim back the tax here once you have an end of life cert (after being crashed) but you need to have at least 3 full months tax left.

More detailed info here
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/travel_and_recreation/motoring_1/motor_tax_and_insurance/motor_tax_rates.html

Personally I tax mine for 6 months at a time as I cant afford to pay for 12 months and I find if I only do 3 months the reminder seems to come only after paying it!!

Very interesting. Time to dig up some old dirt with a lying git:D

Rowley Birkin QC

Valetta wrote: »

Budget is in October this year so I think you'll get stung with the inevitable increase.

Arse.