Illegal Government Law!

peasant

If one were to follow the argument that VRT is a necessary form of revenue for the state and if abolished other costs were to go up ... and therefore one wanted to keep VRT in existence ...

...then I would (in the interest of fairness) suggest the following changes to be made:

1) all revenue from VRT is ringfenced to be spent on transport only. Maybe that way we'd finally get a road network worthy of the name and toll free.

2) all VRT on new cars is to be calculated from the published list price of the car manufacturers PRE VAT price. You pay list price + 21% in VAT of list price + 30 or so % in VRT of list price - whatever discount the dealer is willing to give you. This way everything would be clearcut and double taxation would be avoided.

3) all VRT on imported used cars should be calculated on the basis of the "book value" price for that same vehicle in its country of origin. Every country I know of (bar Ireland) has such evaluation lists compiled and published by reputable organisations. In most countries these lists are even used by the revenue comissioners when comes to official tax matters. Just make them the basis of our local lists and not some arbitrary figure.

Captain Slow IRL

The U.K. may only have a set price to import cars but they are paying nearly double what we are for petrol. We are currently one of the cheapest countries in the E.U. to buy petrol - if they abolished vrt, they'd probably double (or triple) the price to make back what they are losing out on.
It's just a rip-off country to live in - full-stop!

ninty9er

VRT is an ad valorem tax. They're perfectly legal and based on a price which includes the tax itself and while I have issues with VRT and would like to see it become an election issue, it won't because people can afford it simple as that. Would you prefer to pay 5-6k every 5 years in tax on a purchase or 5-6k every year in Income tax!!

Seth Brundle

land9 wrote:

The U.K. may only have a set price to import cars but they are paying nearly double what we are for petrol.

No they are not!
http://www.aaireland.ie/petrolprices/

Boston

VRT is not illegal. (might have apoint about how it's calculated) VRT is an equal burden tax meaning irish car manufacturers are burden as much as any other EU countries. This is what people fail to realise, it would be only illegal if irish manufacturers where protected using the tax. They arn't, since there are none.

NeMiSiS

Boss ghot me to price the VRT on his new car.. Jag XKR 41,000 Euro, I nearly shat my pants.. he didn't seem awfully phased..
TK

MR BIG

So what if the government is able to make a lot of money from the people in vrt! What did they do before it was brought in? Could any off the wannabe politicians that are replying to this thread tell me how much the Irish tax payer is being fined yearly by the European Union for continuing to impose the illegal vrt tax?

aFlabbyPanda

ah VRT is not illegal, as per attached document Portugal has a simialr tax and is each nation is free to apply this tax as it requires.

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2004_2009/documents/cm/536/536456/536456en.pdf

Tanabe

Just because people are forced to pay vrt doesn't imply "they can well afford it". Me hole. I had to ask a family member to take out a loan on my behalf whom I am now repaying in order to cover the cost of vrt on my car.

Blitzkrieger

ninty9er wrote:

or 5-6k every year in Income tax!!

What do you mean, "or"?

There's two things that are certain in life : death and taxes. I realise that I will always have to pay tax, but the way the tax burden is distributed is a disgrace and the way the funds are spent are a bigger disgrace.

Taking VRT as an example. We drive **** cars. Tax on new cars in other countries is lower so you tend to get more extras for your money. A UK dealer doesn't have to pay VRT so if a manufacturer sends him a car with a base price of say, 20,000 Euros with 5,000 Euros worth of extras, he knows he can sell that car at a profit. An Irish dealer has to pay 5,000 Euros VRT, the base car costs him 25,000. In order to make a profit on that car he can't offer as many extras as the UK dealer.

Not all those extras are luxuries - some are safety features that can and do save lives. Maybe the government could find the money somewhere else and we could all drive better and safer cars? Maybe we could get the Queen of Drumcondra to cut back on the rouge?