car tax

AprilPhilips

If car tax is out can you be prosecuted immediately or are you allowed a grace time. Out end Jan can you be prosecuted mid Feb?

Can a car be seized for this?

slimjimmc

Penalties for no tax only apply if you were using the car on a public road after the tax has expired. "Using" includes leaving the car parked.
If you keep off the public road (e.g. store it in your driveway) for the entire time while the tax is expired then there is no offence.

If caught using without tax you can be fined immediately, there is no grace period which allows you drive around without tax. In practice many Gardaí tend to use their discretion and only give you a warning if your tax is only expired by a few weeks, but they don't have to. A traffic warden can also issue fines for no tax and may not have such discretion.
The car can be seized if the tax has expired by more than 2 months.

Arbiter of Good Taste

Don't you have a period of grace of a month? So if the car tax expired in Jan, provided you renewed it during the month of Feb, you should be alright.

Someone more knowledgable than I might be able to confirm that.

Which reminds me, my tax is up this month, and I've received no renewal notice yet.....

VandC

Arbiter of Good Taste wrote:

Which reminds me, my tax is up this month, and I've received no renewal notice yet.....

Did you check your email? Last few times I have only gotten email notice and nothing by post.

Losty Dublin

slimjimmc wrote: »

Penalties for no tax only apply if you were using the car on a public road after the tax has expired. "Using" includes leaving the car parked.
If you keep off the public road (e.g. store it in your driveway) for the entire time while the tax is expired then there is no offence.

If your car is kept off public roads without tax it needs to be declared up front as being kept off road.

Arbiter of Good Taste

VandC wrote: »

Did you check your email? Last few times I have only gotten email notice and nothing by post.

Yep, I did. Nada.

Will ring them on Monday.

monkeysnapper

If I read correctly , the only reason you can drive a car without tax is if your driving to a nct centre .

January

Arbiter of Good Taste wrote: »

Yep, I did. Nada.

Will ring them on Monday.

You can go straight to the website and click forgot password and get your password sent to you... then you can log in.

slimjimmc

Arbiter of Good Taste wrote: »

Don't you have a period of grace of a month? So if the car tax expired in Jan, provided you renewed it during the month of Feb, you should be alright.

Someone more knowledgable than I might be able to confirm that.

Which reminds me, my tax is up this month, and I've received no renewal notice yet.....

This is a common misconception stemming from the fact that you can renew your tax anytime in the month following expiry without incurring arrears but that does not permit you to continue merrily driving around with expired tax during that time.

Losty Dublin wrote: »

If your car is kept off public roads without tax it needs to be declared up front as being kept off road.

Only if you want to avoid being charged arrears should you ever decide to put it back on the road again. It is not an offence to keep a car off the road and not declare it but it is an offence to declare a car off the road and continue using it on a pubic road after the tax has expired.

CiniO

monkeysnapper wrote: »

If I read correctly , the only reason you can drive a car without tax is if your driving to a nct centre .

Only IF car has been declared off the road. IF it was just untaxed then you can't legally do it

CiniO

Losty Dublin wrote: »

If your car is kept off public roads without tax it needs to be declared up front as being kept off road.

No. It doesn't need to be declared. Nothing illegal about just letting tax expire.
Only advantage of declaring it off the road is that if you decide to tax it at any point in the future and it wasn't declared off the road you'll need to pay arrears for that period.
But if you never plan on taxing this vehicle yourself (f.e. you only intend to scrap it or sell it or export it) then there's no point in declaring it off the road.

Arbiter of Good Taste

slimjimmc wrote: »

This is a common misconception stemming from the fact that you can renew your tax anytime in the month following expiry without incurring arrears but that does not permit you to continue merrily driving around with expired tax during that time.

Thanks for clarifying that. They really should make that clear, because I doubt a lot of people would appreciate that nuance (myself included)

Losty Dublin

slimjimmc wrote: »

Only if you want to avoid being charged arrears should you ever decide to put it back on the road again. It is not an offence to keep a car off the road and not declare it but it is an offence to declare a car off the road and continue using it on a pubic road after the tax has expired.

That is true; a car may be taken off the road and not be taxed and it's okay. That said, it is in your interest to declare an off road as being off the road for obvious reasons.

BattleCorp

Arrears have to paid on a car where the car is parked up and the tax has expired, if you want to put it back on the road that is.

What happens if you have your car in the driveway for five years without tax and then decide to sell it? I assume that neither you or the buyer has to pay the back tax. Is that correct?

dublin runner

Nothing stopping you changing the name over and changing it back again, right? Have heard people do it and not paying any arrears.

BattleCorp

dublin runner wrote: »

Nothing stopping you changing the name over and changing it back again, right? Have heard people do it and not paying any arrears.

That's what I was wondering.

3DataModem

They've stopped the name change trick pretty recently. No real way to avoid back tax now other than exporting the car.

CiniO

3DataModem wrote: »

They've stopped the name change trick pretty recently. No real way to avoid back tax now other than exporting the car.

Could you point to the law which changed that?
Nothing new about it in statuebook.

dublin runner

CiniO wrote:

Could you point to the law which changed that? Nothing new about it in statuebook.

Agreed.

Nothing as far as I know. Big possible loophole in fairness.

plstudent

BattleCorp wrote: »

Arrears have to paid on a car where the car is parked up and the tax has expired, if you want to put it back on the road that is.

What happens if you have your car in the driveway for five years without tax and then decide to sell it? I assume that neither you or the buyer has to pay the back tax. Is that correct?

This is a good question: what if you buy a car that's not paid its taxes? Is there a way of checking if a car is debt free?

GavRedKing

You dont pay back tax on a car that you're buying off someone.

It doesnt matter if its parked up out of tax for 2 months or 2 years.

You're only eligible to pay for the tax as soon as you become the registered owner of the vehicle and your vehicle registration cert is issued.

plstudent

I still don't understand why car taxes in Ireland are over twice the amount you would have to pay here in Sweden. And this country is known for having high taxes.

RustyNut

plstudent wrote: »

I still don't understand why car taxes in Ireland are over twice the amount you would have to pay here in Sweden. And this country is known for having high taxes.

Its needed to pay for Irish Water.