Question re pickups and motor tax

Vixter

My husband is looking to buy a double cab pickup e.g. Toyota Hilux for work and family use. However, he has now been told you cannot tax a pick up in Ireland privately, even if it has seats in the back, isofix points etc. Can anyone advice on if this is the case?

Thanks

darg

No problem taxing them privately. It can get a bit tricky taxing them commercially at the lower rate

colm_mcm

Taxing privately = paying 2.5/3.0 tax.

Vixter

Thank you both for your responses, much appreciated.

The vast vast majority of people tax them commercially regardless of use. Why pay massive private tax when you can have cheap commercial tax, you would be mad.

colm_mcm

Or just don't pay any tax. That's cheaper again.

colm_mcm

colm_mcm wrote: »

Or just don't pay any tax. That's cheaper again.

Not when you get stopped at a checkpoint and fined. Guards don't care about commercial tax and even if they did it's very hard to prove what is and isn't commercial use on the side of the road.

I know well into the double figures of people who use commercially taxed vehicles for either partially private or fully private use and never did I hear a single one even come close to having any problems.

jca

Callum Quick Storefront wrote: »

Not when you get stopped at a checkpoint and fined. Guards don't care about commercial tax and even if they did it's very hard to prove what is and isn't commercial use on the side of the road.

I know well into the double figures of people who use commercially taxed vehicles for either partially private or fully private use and never did I hear a single one even come close to having any problems.

Here in Co. Wexford the guards are hauling off commercially taxed vehicles being used on the weekends for sport. The motor tax office aren't handing out commercial tax discs that readily either.

road_high

jca wrote: »

Here in Co. Wexford the guards are hauling off commercially taxed vehicles being used on the weekends for sport. The motor tax office aren't handing out commercial tax discs that readily either.

There's the kind of bs that drives me insane about this country. Screw easy hard working targets for petty non sense like this- is it really anyone's business how a commercial vehicle is used if that includes work and leisure. How is this even inforcible? God we really do live in a nanny state if what you're describing is true.

colm_mcm

€1000 a year tax dodge on a 3.0 is hardly petty nonsense.

allthedoyles

And these commercial vehicles parking in loading/unloading bays and they not even loading / unloading goods

jca

road_high wrote: »

There's the kind of bs that drives me insane about this country. Screw easy hard working targets for petty non sense like this- is it really anyone's business how a commercial vehicle is used if that includes work and leisure. How is this even inforcible? God we really do live in a nanny state if what you're describing is true.

The people driving these commercial vehicles are far from "hard working targets " as you put it.

Isambard

jca wrote: »

The people driving these commercial vehicles are far from "hard working targets " as you put it.

no that would be the PAYE worker, with no choice but to pay through the nose

Grueller

jca wrote: »

Here in Co. Wexford the guards are hauling off commercially taxed vehicles being used on the weekends for sport. The motor tax office aren't handing out commercial tax discs that readily either.

Where has that happened? I am out and about in my crewcab all weekend every weekend and have been waved through several checkpoints in the last number of months with just a glance at tax, ins and cvrt.
Anyhow, is this business use? Yes guard, on my way to price a job, see the vet, check premises/stock. Very hard law to enforce.

chicorytip

road_high wrote:

There's the kind of bs that drives me insane about this country. Screw easy hard working targets for petty non sense like this- is it really anyone's business how a commercial vehicle is used if that includes work and leisure. How is this even inforcible? God we really do live in a nanny state if what you're describing is true.

Is it not the case that an owner wishing to tax their vehicle as commercial is required to supply v.a.t. returns to the motor tax office as proof that they are engaged in legitimate business?

colm_mcm

They're hardly seizing ones that are being used legitimately.

Chiorino

chicorytip wrote: »

Is it not the case that an owner wishing to tax their vehicle as commercial is required to supply v.a.t. returns to the motor tax office as proof that they are engaged in legitimate business?

In a word, no.

newacc2015

LIGHTNING wrote: »

What if your job is a weekend based sport i.e your company works on race cars? Not everybody works Mon-Fri.

Im sure the Gardai can call Revenue who can verify that. But if you are a plaster or a plumber with a surfboard in the back of your pickup on a Sunday, I think you are to have a hard time justifying that to the Gardai.

The Gardai use common sense in situations like this.

jca

LIGHTNING wrote: »

What if your job is a weekend based sport i.e your company works on race cars? Not everybody works Mon-Fri.

I don't work Mon-Fri myself, and have always been waved through in the company van on the weekends, a blind man on a galloping horse can see the van is a legit business. The people who are getting their vans impounded by the Guards aren't a commercial enterprise, enterprising maybe(in their eyes) but not much in the way of paperwork to back it up.

jca

Chiorino wrote: »

In a word, no.

A guy working with me has started up a new business in the last 6 months and went to tax his van in wexford motor tax office. The girl on the desk made him go to his accountant for some document before she'd tax the van for him. He doesn't have any sign writing on the van and got the third degree at a checkpoint in Ballon coming back from pricing a job on a Saturday afternoon, it is happening.

jca

jca wrote: »

Here in Co. Wexford the guards are hauling off commercially taxed vehicles being used on the weekends for sport. The motor tax office aren't handing out commercial tax discs that readily either.

No they aren't simple as that. Considering the amount of people I know driving them as family cars it's just not happening.

You have to fill in a declaration signed by the gaurds as to what business you are using it for. That goes off to revenue who check if you are filing a tax return. If you are not you will get a letter to file a tax return

TrailerBob

jca wrote: »

A guy working with me has started up a new business in the last 6 months and went to tax his van in wexford motor tax office. The girl on the desk made him go to his accountant for some document before she'd tax the van for him. He doesn't have any sign writing on the van and got the third degree at a checkpoint in Ballon coming back from pricing a job on a Saturday afternoon, it is happening.

I just don't believe that vehicles are being seized for this issue.. in the last 8 years I have been through checkpoints at all times of day and night and weekends and never once has a Garda asked about the jeep (2 seat commercial), or it's use.. that included a MAT check in Enniscorthy on Nunnery road a short while back at 11.30 pm on a Saturday. As far as I can see there's some other reason for them to be checked out

colm_mcm

Crewcabs are of more interest as they're often used as cars.

colm_mcm

colm_mcm wrote: »

Crewcabs are of more interest as they're often used as cars.

Sure look at the amount of 5 seat commercial discoverys on the school run alone on the road, there is no way it's being enforced.

TrailerBob

colm_mcm wrote: »

Crewcabs are of more interest as they're often used as cars.

A fair point I suppose, but yet to see it appear on Garda twitter feed or something better than "my cousin's friend's brother who's married to a Gard said...."