Car tax office puts brakes on 'off the road' excuse

Con_316

seamus wrote:

Same as they have in the UK. Frankly, I'm for it as a tool for catching those who don't bother taxing/insuring.

Not same as uk. In ul they have the "Sorn" (s.o.r.n. statutory off road declaration.) It's actually more long term than this proposal. The uk government are in the process of trying to bring in a ridicukous possession tax for owning a car, as well as a proposed fee of something like 350 pound for undoing the SORN. Many old vehicles will be made go through "s.v.a." tests in UK a sort of type approval as if it was a new brand of car if theyve been SORN'ed for a long time. I'd sat it'll go that way here soo too.

seamus

Con_316 wrote:

Not so easy as you make out bud. I had to declare a car was off road a few months ago. You have to go get it signed by the gardai too.

That's only if you want to go and get it taxed. Plus the Gardai don't actually check. So long as you're not a known scumbag, they'll just sign the form. Plenty of people drive around for years without any form of taxation (or insurance).

The problem is with self-policing. A lot of legislation in this country puts the onus on the citizen to do the right thing. They can only be caught by random checks. Now, this worked fine years ago, but not in this day and age. People need to be chased up and the record of their requirement to pay has to be taken.

CrowdedHouse

seamus wrote:

That's only if you want to go and get it taxed. Plus the Gardai don't actually check.

That's true,some years ago I was out of the country,when I came back and wanted to put my car back on the road it was well over a year since it was last taxed.
Down to the local cop shop with the form,I was expecting to be grilled and so brought some proof with me - yer man never even looked at the form just did the stamp and handed it back.

Con_316

seamus wrote:

That's only if you want to go and get it taxed. Plus the Gardai don't actually check. So long as you're not a known scumbag, they'll just sign the form. Plenty of people drive around for years without any form of taxation (or insurance).

The problem is with self-policing. A lot of legislation in this country puts the onus on the citizen to do the right thing. They can only be caught by random checks. Now, this worked fine years ago, but not in this day and age. People need to be chased up and the record of their requirement to pay has to be taken.

Problem is, sometimes they do check up on it apart from on the roadside. it has happened. anyway i was only talking about if you were trying to tax it again, as in when/if you're caught by the gardai on the road.
Spaking of checkpoints i had a "lovely" experience with a right pri*k of a gard the other day when he took exception to my car abd nade me pull into grass verge, subsequently causing me to partially break off my front bumper (brand new BMW M technik II, sprayed the previous day) because he stood there saying, "go on, up there, pull it in more and wasnt happy till i was on top of the grassy bit in my Rather low car (factory low, before anyone starts to berate me and call me a boy racer).
Anyway he kept me ther for 25 minutes and when he found nothing he could give out about on my car, he gave out about my clothing and said it was anti social. i was perfectly civil all through it he'd really taken a dislike to me.

@MODS, sorry for my rant there, just all came out ther, will start new thread if going to continue that line. Not planning on it though.

69 mustang

seamus wrote:

Same as they have in the UK. Frankly, I'm for it as a tool for catching those who don't bother taxing/insuring.

But in the UK you can cash in your tax disc if you take your car off the road and the road tax is cheaper.:)

Our man in Havana

The whole system is doomed to failure. What about all those untaxed tractors out there, the farmers won't pay up on these.
What about all the scrapped cars that people never bothered to tell the tax office they are gone? These will still be in the system somewhere. Grannies getting threats in the post on a car she gave away 20 years ago. The bulk of any penalties won't get paid and will be come a nightmare to enforce.

AMurphy

testicle wrote:

From today's indo...


MOTORISTS won't be able use the excuse that their car was "off the road" to avoid paying road tax.

A new system, whereby drivers will have to continue paying road tax unless they fill in a special form, is on the way.
......

Is this allowed for paying tax in arrears for those who forget to pay for months on end and turn up at teh tax office one day 6 months later or for the months/year ahead.

Here, if you are late, missed the renewal, etc, you pay the full amount for the past, and you can apply to have it off the road for the time ahead.
And if you were driving about in a car with expired registration and caught, it woud be impossible to claim it was off the road, and if caught driving a car that was registered as off the road, not sure what the consequences would be, probably let you carry on, with 10 days to pay all the arrears + penelties, etc.

Our man in Havana

AMurphy wrote:

Is this allowed for paying tax in arrears for those who forget to pay for months on end and turn up at teh tax office one day 6 months later or for the months/year ahead.

Here, if you are late, missed the renewal, etc, you pay the full amount for the past, and you can apply to have it off the road for the time ahead.
And if you were driving about in a car with expired registration and caught, it woud be impossible to claim it was off the road, and if caught driving a car that was registered as off the road, not sure what the consequences would be, probably let you carry on, with 10 days to pay all the arrears + penelties, etc.

There will be so much wriggle room that it will become a joke.

WhiteWashMan

kdevitt wrote:

You're a ****ing idiot.

banned