Charged Twice for Motor Tax

Yawns

So where to begin. It's a bit long but I guess I'll try get it down and keep it short.

We'll call this Car A. My car needed repairs at around Christmas time and with the holidays, kids and my partner suffering a long term illness, I didn't have the cash to repair it right away. So I declared it off the road for 12 months until I could get it repaired. That car to this day is still declared off the road and is without tax, insurance and NCT currently. It has been repaired a couple of weeks now but not driven as I have not had a date yet for the NCT. I am waiting on a date from them within 4 weeks. So this car is working but not being driven. So no problem there. The repair process was delayed a few times due to availability of parts and mechanic.

In the meantime I have the use of another car, we'll call it Car B. It has NCT, Insurance and tax. Tax was due to expire at the end of May and seeing as I had gotten the parts and was in the process of repairing the other car, I decided I would only need the 1 car. So I would rather have my repaired car as I needed the larger boot space and preferred it.

So in the beginning of May, I declare Car B off the road for 12 months. All good so far. However now I may need to have a use for both Car A & Car B during the summer months. No problems there I thought. Car will be taxed and NCT'd and insured as soon as I can arrange and won't be driven until all in order. Car B is already NCT'd and Insured at this point. All I need to do is tax it for 3 months and I'll be sorted until end of August. So on the 30th May, I paid online for 3 months tax. This was all I needed to do, I was informed. Just tax it, when you want it back on the road.

So being a bank holiday weekend, post arrived Tuesday morning and lo and behold, a tax disc arrives but has an expiry of end of July. So somehow despite my car not being liable for tax until the start of June, the system has managed to tax me for the month of May as I had paid in May. The fact that my car was tax for the month of May seems to have been overlooked.

I have tried to call Shannon but cannot get hold of anyone there. I was driving to Dublin from Athy yesterday so popped into my 'local' tax office which is Naas. After queuing for a while and explaining and showing them proof, they were stumped as to how it could happen also. The lady tried to call Shannon but could not get through. Seeing as I had paid online, they could not change anything in Naas. They did try ringing Shannon but got no answer either.

Having run out of credit, I've sent them an e-mail with attachment picture and am going to top up phone to spend some more hours looking to call them.

Why am I posting it here? Just in case someone stumbles across it and has had someone recently do something similar. Declare a car off the road and change mind during month and tax it for future. Check your disc and ensure you have not been charged twice. It would be easy to miss if you just receive a disc and just put it in your window.



TL:Dr:

Charged twice for May for motor tax, have proof. Declaration of non use system has a flaw it seems.

corktina

to cut a long story short, you declared car B SORD whilst still taxed, thus from it was SORD from 1st June. You subsequently decided to tax it anyway and they charged you the tax in error from 1 may instead of 1 June....Have I got that right?

We can't help, you need to talk to the Motor Tax people, they have made an error (all the SORD bit is not relevant....simply it was taxed to end of may and new disc should have been 3 months to end of August

Yawns

Yes Corktina, that's right.

This was more a rant and a warning to other people to check if they are in a similar position. This should not happen as the car is not liable for tax until June.

corktina

Nothing to do with the SORD though, you'll only confuse them if you mention that...just show them the two discs, they are all the evidence you need.

kona

Tax runs from the beginning of the month, you basically back taxed your car for may. You should have waited till June 1.

Good luck getting it back, system is ****e.

Yawns

kona wrote: »

Tax runs from the beginning of the month, you basically back taxed your car for may. You should have waited till June 1.

Good luck getting it back, system is ****e.

Yes but tax wasn't due on the car until June. The car was taxed for the entire month of May. I shouldn't have had to wait at all.

Yawns

corktina wrote: »

Nothing to do with the SORD though, you'll only confuse them if you mention that...just show them the two discs, they are all the evidence you need.

But it's very relevant. If it was not SORD, then it might not have been a problem. I need to mention it and have as they need to fix the problem before other people get caught out.

corktina

Yawns wrote: »

But it's very relevant. If it was not SORD, then it might not have been a problem. I need to mention it and have as they need to fix the problem before other people get caught out.

I doubt it, for one thing, you can't unSORD a car online, so your car hadn't been recorded as SORD yet , didn't become SORD til 1 june

kona

Yawns wrote: »

Yes but tax wasn't due on the car until June. The car was taxed for the entire month of May. I shouldn't have had to wait at all.

So you sorn carB which had a months tax to run still, then decided you changed your mind and want it on the road, so you tax it and seen as the sorn car still has tax till end of may , another 3 months is August.
Makes sense.

Now in Lala land because you sorn'd a taxed car they basically just took a month off you in tax?

listermint

corktina wrote: »

I doubt it, for one thing, you can't unSORD a car online, so your car hadn't been recorded as SORD yet , didn't become SORD til 1 june

Which is a complete crock of sh** tbh. Driving efficiencies my arse. Poxy postal nonsense.

Yawns

corktina wrote: »

I doubt it, for one thing, you can't unSORD a car online, so your car hadn't been recorded as SORD yet , didn't become SORD til 1 june

But with the system as it is I have to SORD a car off the road in advance. I thought I wouldn't be using the car from June onwards so I HAD to declare it off road in advance. If I had waited until June, I would be unable to declare it off the road and would be liable for tax for that month. Seeing as you can only pay for tax in blocks of 3,6 and 12 months I would have had to tax it for 3 months. Under the new system I have to declare it off the road during the month of may in order not to be liable for tax for June.

Which I did. I then changed my mind and needed to tax it. The tax was not liable until June, however they sent me a tax disc that would be liable from May til the end of July. Should have been sent a disc that expires in August.

Yawns

corktina wrote: »

Nothing to do with the SORD though,.

The reason I think it's to do with SORD is because when you go to put a car back on the road, you don't declare it back on the road. You simply just tax it. It seems that the system doesn't check if the car is liable for tax, but just assumes it's liable for tax for the month you pay.

listermint

Yawns wrote: »

The reason I think it's to do with SORD is because when you go to put a car back on the road, you don't declare it back on the road. You simply just tax it. It seems that the system doesn't check if the car is liable for tax, but just assumes it's liable for tax for the month you pay.

Well technically you are declaring it back on the road (in their eyes) But its a nonsense work flow anyway designed by unions no doubt.

corktina

Yawns wrote: »

The reason I think it's to do with SORD is because when you go to put a car back on the road, you don't declare it back on the road. You simply just tax it. It seems that the system doesn't check if the car is liable for tax, but just assumes it's liable for tax for the month you pay.

your SORD will run from June (if you hadn't taxed it) By co-incidence I SORDed my car at the beginning of May with the tax running out at the end of May....SORD receipt runs from 1 june as I expected. They've just made an error.....take it back to them and they'll put it right.

Yawns

I understand the SORD receipt runs from 1 June. However the car isn't liable for tax until the 1st June as it has been paid for May. So far, the response has been solely we are aware of the problem and are looking into it.

I was hoping I could just pop into the tax office, hand back the disc and get a new one that expires at end of August but no such luck. As it stands, I may have to send the disc to Shannon before they send me a new one. Which means if I drive and park in a public place, I'll be without a valid disc through no fault of my own and I somehow don't think a guard would believe my story if I run into a check point. Unlikely situations but not 100% unavoidable as I do need to travel with my car.

This through no fault of my own. It's the system that messed up.

Yawns

Just got a phone call a few minutes ago from Shannon. It was indeed a problem with the new SORN system and 5 people including me were caught in it. It was to do with declaring and then taxing for the next period within the same month. So it was relevant to say it to them, as it is now being looked into.

With regards to the solution I will have to send them the disc back but I did suggest that I wait until I receive the new disc first. He couldn't confirm that would happen but agreed it was more practical as I would need something while in public, tho he did keep re-iterating that I would be fine as I was taxed until the end of August.

wonski

Yawns wrote: »

With regards to the solution I will have to send them the disc back but I did suggest that I wait until I receive the new disc first. He couldn't confirm that would happen but agreed it was more practical as I would need something while in public, tho he did keep re-iterating that I would be fine as I was taxed until the end of August.

You would be fine from their point of view. Not so fine when parked in a city centre or stopped at a checkpoint.

Nice to see they are working on it.

Yawns

Yeah I would be fine for them, it's he trying to explain to a guard at a checkpoint. As it hasn't happened before, I couldn't blame them for not believing my story. It's great to see that they are working on it and hopefully they will have it rectified soon. If I can send the disc back after I receive the new disc, then there will be no problems and I can go about as I please.

wonski

Yawns wrote: »

Yeah I would be fine for them, it's he trying to explain to a guard at a checkpoint. As it hasn't happened before, I couldn't blame them for not believing my story. It's great to see that they are working on it and hopefully they will have it rectified soon. If I can send the disc back after I receive the new disc, then there will be no problems and I can go about as I please.

You should have told him about a penalty for a non-display. Especially when you can be done by a council when you are away from a car.

You paid your tax in a good faith and you shouldn't be left without a disc.

Yawns

Quick update. had a phone call today from Naas and I went in to meet up with the nice lady who tried to help me on Tuesday. She took the disc and went in to phone Shannon to get them to cancel it and sort it on their end. Then about 10 mins later she came out with my proper 3 month disc. To be fair to her, she never had to experience this before and hopefully won't have to but overall I was very happy with how they treated the situation.

Hopefully, the flaw in the system is fixed and won't cause anyone else any bother.

CiniO

corktina wrote: »

your SORD will run from June (if you hadn't taxed it) By co-incidence I SORDed my car at the beginning of May with the tax running out at the end of May....SORD receipt runs from 1 june as I expected. They've just made an error.....take it back to them and they'll put it right.

I think the issue here is not that they have made an error.
It's not a person who deals with it.
It's a software.
And this software clearly is buggy.

I can bet anyone else who declares car off the road from 1st of next month, and then decides to tax it from 1st of that month (still in previous month) will face exact the same problem.
Just buggy software, and OP was probably first person to discover it.

corktina

CiniO wrote: »

I think the issue here is not that they have made an error.
It's not a person who deals with it.
It's a software.
And this software clearly is buggy.

I can bet anyone else who declares car off the road from 1st of next month, and then decides to tax it from 1st of that month (still in previous month) will face exact the same problem.
Just buggy software, and OP was probably first person to discover it.

they made an error writing the software..so what's the difference?

guil

corktina wrote: »

they made an error writing the software..so what's the difference?

Some mule in the tax office didn't write the program. What does it matter anyway?