late paying car tax

Esel

Bond-007 wrote: »

The tax must have expired 3 months before it can be seized under S41 of the Road Traffic Act 1994.

This was amended to 2 months a good while ago.

jimmycrackcorm

I left my tax late. I used motortax.ie and printed out the receipt in czse I get stopped.

TheNog

Guidelines for us is to give the motorist 4 weeks grace to tax the car from when it expired. After the 4 weeks it is at the Garda's discretion whether to prosecute or not. A prosecution can be either by a fixed penalty fix of €60 or a summons to court. Neither action entails getting points on your licence.

Some guards will prosecute, others will let you on your way but may ask you to produce the new tax disc at your local station. Although there is no provision in law for us to ask you to produce (unlike producing a Driving licence and insurance cert) it is sometimes done to satisfy the guard you did tax it and there will be no prosecution.

The Law

Section 41 of the Road Traffic Act 1994 allowed us to seize vehicles where the tax expired more than 3 months. The 3 months has now been shortened to 2 months under Section 19 of the Road Traffic Act 2006. Strictly speaking many guards will not seize your car from you if it just over the 2 months. However if the tax was out say 10 months or more, guards can and probably will the car off you and leave you walking. Remember not to take the pissh!!

Last thing is the Motor Tax Renewal form. On the very end of the form is a part for to declare the vehicle off the road. No harm if that is true but if you are making a false declaration, you can be prosecuted for it.

One more thing - never ever falsify a disc. It is a criminal offence to do so and is quite easily spotted. You could face not only having your car taken off but also a summons to court of a forgery offence. Now that would not look good for future employment or travel plans to the U.S., Oz, N.Z etc. Just not worth it. Same goes for false driving licences. We know they are out there and again with the amount of security features on a driving licence, most false ones are easy to spot too. We also have access to ultra-violet lights in our cars and computer access to verify your licence details.

jimbling

I bought a new car recently.... about 6 weeks ago. The tax was out of date when I bought the car. Somehow, I still haven't managed to get the bloody thing taxed. It's damn hard to get a few hours off during the week to get into the tax office (which you have to do with a change of car... or so I believe?).

Anyway, the funny thing is......having been stopped at checkpoints only once or twice over the last few years...... I seem to have stumbled upon every checkpoint in Cork over the last week :eek:
Luckily for me, on all 3 occasions, the cop was sound and just told me to get it sorted.

Esel

^ Just post the form in!

hurleronditch

Aaaaaaaaaaagh, bought a second hand car in july, garage were slow sending forms in, tax office sent me nothing, i never chased them up, driving through castleknock this morning, stopped by garda traffic corp, stopped, car taken, me left on roadside. humiliating annoying and all my fault !!

Any ideas about how i get my chassis number so i can fill out the form in the tax office in the morning?

I also must pay 125, plus 35 per extra day to get it out.

dr.bollocko

hurleronditch wrote: »

Aaaaaaaaaaagh, bought a second hand car in july, garage were slow sending forms in, tax office sent me nothing, i never chased them up, driving through castleknock this morning, stopped by garda traffic corp, stopped, car taken, me left on roadside. humiliating annoying and all my fault !!

Any ideas about how i get my chassis number so i can fill out the form in the tax office in the morning?

I also must pay 125, plus 35 per extra day to get it out.

I reckon they only need the licence plate really.
Isnt the chassis number an option to fill in on the tax renewal form also?
I never filled that in...

zilog_jones

TheNog wrote: »

Guidelines for us is to give the motorist 4 weeks grace to tax the car from when it expired.

I always thought it was this too, because on the renewal form it says "Application is made prior to or during" followed by the month after expiration, e.g. November 2008 on mine (it expired in October). I left it till this week because of this (I'm unemployed right now - all my dole money has gone to tax and insurance ), and was surprised to see this thread about people being so worried about their tax being out by a couple of days.

Heroditas

hurleronditch wrote: »

Aaaaaaaaaaagh, bought a second hand car in july, garage were slow sending forms in, tax office sent me nothing, i never chased them up, driving through castleknock this morning, stopped by garda traffic corp, stopped, car taken, me left on roadside. humiliating annoying and all my fault !!

Any ideas about how i get my chassis number so i can fill out the form in the tax office in the morning?

I also must pay 125, plus 35 per extra day to get it out.

You big eejit not chasing it up! However, I can sympathize.
I changed car in September and the dealer put down the address that was on the logbook for the old car for the change of details. I had told him not to use that address because I was at a new address (yes I know I should have changed it when I moved!!!) yet apparently that was the address they stuck down for the new car.
As a result, the logbook was sent to the old address and I never got it. The car's tax was out of date since May so I was getting worried it would be taken off me if I was pulled over so I got it taxed by sending the forms in the post.
Where were they sent? Yup, the wrong address..... cue me getting forms stamped in the Garda startion to get replacement disc and logbook. I eventually got the logbook this week - 9 weeks after I bought the car!

Paperwork and forms eh? :rolleyes:

ninty9er

zilog_jones wrote: »

I always thought it was this too, because on the renewal form it says "Application is made prior to or during" followed by the month after expiration, e.g. November 2008 on mine (it expired in October). I left it till this week because of this (I'm unemployed right now - all my dole money has gone to tax and insurance ), and was surprised to see this thread about people being so worried about their tax being out by a couple of days.

Prior to or during means that you don't need to declare the car off the road for a month before taxing, it's still illegal to put it on a public road.