How long does VRT appeal take

mark1974

HI all,
I recently bought a car in the North and had to pay the VRT on it.
However I thought their valuation of the car was high so I appealed it.
Ive got a letter from the appeals officer stating that they received my appeal and were looking into my claim.
This was about a month ago and Ive heard nothing since.
Just wondering does anyone know how long this process takes?

dingding

Took me almost six months last year.

E30i

I appealed on 18th January this year and got a letter on 15th June, my appeal was successful but I don't know when I'll receive the refund as this comes from the local VRT office.

Mylow

E30i wrote: »

I appealed on 18th January this year and got a letter on 15th June, my appeal was successful but I don't know when I'll receive the refund as this comes from the local VRT office.

8 to 12 weeks. Mine was 8 weeks, girlfriends was 12 weeks.

mark1974

Thanks all.
It amazing it takes this long considering they want you to pay the VRT immediately. :eek:

mullingar

8 weeks for me (got it last week).

Read the VRT 6 leaflet VERY carefully and follow it to the letter.

I Paid VRT mid April and sent off the "Section 145 first stage appeal" letter to Rosslare, I received the acknowledgement letter - make sure you do too!

As I heard nothing within 30 days, I was allowed to make a "Section 146 second stage appeal" letter to Monaghan (my local Rev.Comm office), I received the acklowledgement.

Within 2 days Rosslare sent me a letter informing of the refund being made through my local VRO office (Tullamore) and to please write to Monaghan to cancel my 146 appeal.

It seems that the 146 appeal scares them!:D

http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/excise/leaflets/cande6.html

mark1974

Thanks Mullingar,
Ive received the acknowledgement letter and its been over 30 days so do you I think that I should go ahead with the next stage?

mullingar

mark1974 wrote: »

Thanks Mullingar,
Ive received the acknowledgement letter and its been over 30 days so do you I think that I should go ahead with the next stage?

OF COURSE!

Quote from above link:

Second Stage of the Appeals Process. (Section 146, Finance Act 2001)
If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of the first stage of the appeals process you may apply to have your case heard by the Appeal Commissioners. You also have this right if the Appeals Officer has not given a decision within 30 days. To initiate this process you should send a notice of your intention to appeal the decision, in writing, within 30 days of the date of notification of the determination of the first stage appeal. This notice should be sent to the Appeals Officer in the Revenue Region where you reside. VRT 6 - Appeal Procedures relating to Vehicle Registration Tax. Your notification should set out the grounds or reasons for your appeal.


Section 146 seems to include an oral hearing if you are not satisfied with the posted responses. IMO that is why mine was rushed through so it would avoid going to a oral hearing(more work for them).

Your steps:
1. Send letter to local RevComm as per VRT6 form (NOT ROSSLARE) clearly stating "Section 146 stage 2 VRT appeal" and include more or less the same appeal story on your first letter
2. Wait for acknowledgement
3. Wait for a response in 2-3 days.
4. If you are happy with the result then respond to letter clearly stating that you are satisfied with the outcome and you no longer rquire section 146.
5. Wait for acknowledgement
6. Wait for cheque, photocopy it and frame it.

Do it right and you will have a cheque within 2 weeks.

Mailman

Note the timeout period.
If you make an appeal questioning the legitimacy of the valuation methodology they used they'll be tempted to misplace your appeal.
I had to follow up on my appeal in the run up to the timeout period just to make sure they couldn't claim that I had let it lapse.

took many many months for my appeal to come through as they really didn't want to engage with me; might have had something to do with the nasty FOI requests I was making too.

Lex Luthor

Folks, would those of you who were successful care to put up the amounts they originally paid and how much refund they got...it would be interesting to know how far out they are and also the details of the cars....

mullingar

Mailman wrote: »

Note the timeout period.

The exact phrase from the Rev.Comm's is ", in writing, within 30 days of the date of notification of the determination of the first stage appeal

The OP never received any "notification of the determination of the first stage appeal", therefore it can be made any time after the first 30 days of the 1st stage acknowledgement.

I registered a 06 1.6 TDCI Focus, was OMSP €14,200, revalued to €11,000. €511 refund. (Its now €10,550!)

mark1974

This is my position:
Bought and cleared the car: 27/04/09
Sent letter of appeal to Revenue (Rosslare): 28/04/09
Got letter from Appeals officer dated 12/05/09 stating that he received my letter dated 28/04/09.
Heard nothing since.
Tried ringing the office but nobody answers the phone.
Given the advise here and reading the VRT 6 leaflet very closly, (thanks Mullingar;)) I now go to the second stage of the appeal process. Correct!?

PCwiggum

Lex Luthor wrote: »

Folks, would those of you who were successful care to put up the amounts they originally paid and how much refund they got...it would be interesting to know how far out they are and also the details of the cars....

I just got notification of a refund last week...
Original OMSP was just shy of 20K.
I appealled in late February/early March.
New OMSP = 17K
Refund = €563

Well worth the minimal effort to research and send in an appeal

Gun_Slinger

I brought in a 05 Accord in late January with OMSP of 17K. Paid around 3.5K to clear and sent in the appeal straight away. Got the letter last week to say I would be refunded 993 euro so am chuffed with that. Got the checque within a couple of days from the tax office. Well worth the small amount of time it takes to draft a letter and get a few valuations.

VRTJournalist

Hi guys

I am working with a national broadcaster doing a story on the vast difference between the OMSP that VRT gives and the price people actually pay for cars.

If anyone has had a successful appeal and would like to talk about their experience on air for a national radio station could you get in touch?

Thanks

mullingar

Can I ask what station?

The VRO better emply some more staff if the flood gates open!, oh wait they cant as there is a staff freeze!:)

VRTJournalist

Well thats the plan so far if my story comes together!

Would you be interested in going on air to talk about a successful appeal you had?

Dan_B

Appealed VRT in mid March.
Conformation of appeal arrived a week later.
Nothing for 3 months, several attempts to contact vrt offices in Naas and Roslaire unsuccessful due to no one answering the phone.

Letter arrived last week saying appeal was successful and a cheque would be issued from the Naas office.
Still no cheque and still no answer to the phone in either office.

mark1974

Hi Dan. Your story sounds very similar to mine. Having waited for almost two months after getting confirmation of appeal letter and not being able to get through on the phone I decided to ring my local tax office(limerick)and I was told to wait for letter from Rosslare to see if I was successful or not.
I think its a total disgrace that they can let this money(OUR money) just sit in their bank account.
Im beginning to think this is just a cynical way to deter people from getting cars abroad:mad::mad::mad:

Dan_B

Completley agree Mark.
If I owed the revenue money there would be taxes and penalties applied but it seems perfectly acceptable for them to owe me.

If I dodged them I would probably end up in Jail but again it seems that they can give me the run around.

To call these people public servants makes no sense at all.

The appeals process could easily be avoided by putting realistic valuations on used cars but who knows what factors / lobbies are at work.

There is no transparency and whether this is to deter people from going down this route or not, that is the effect it has.

The whole thing stinks if you ask me.

Cars&cars

Hi

I did an appeal on a Volvo V50 2006 three months ago and it still has not come back. I phoned Rosslare and got to speak to the Appeals Section. They lady (manager) told me that they have a back log and that there is only two people (yes 2 persons) working on appeals in the appeals section. For private cars she told me there is a minimum of 3-months wait and she said this is rising because the number of appeals is rising!

We actually did an appeal on an L200 commercial just one month ago and got a refund of €950. We are reappealing this under section 145.

Funny how one car is more than 3 months and another is less than a month!

I asked for compensation for delayed refund: I was told there is no provision in Law for refunds or interest payments. Essentially the Law is there to get money out of you and me, not to give us money back.

The Appeals Procedure is a Disgrace - the lack of Customer Service (helpline, people on the phone, responses ect) from the Rosslare Office is beyond funny. Its a Banana Republic in my view!

mark1974

I phoned Rosslare today and after a couple of tries somebody finally answered the phone:eek:
The conversation went like this:(Briefly)
ME: Hi, I want to know how my appeal is going.
Appeals officer: When did you appeal?
Me: 28Th of April.
A.O: We are just starting Aprils appeals now so we should get on to yours in a few weeks.
Me: A few weeks more you say, what happened to ye getting back to me before thirty days?
A.O: Ah yeah, we normally would but we are swamped at the minute. Shur give us a ring back in a few weeks if you hear nothing from us.
Is that all?
Me: Well I guess so!
A.O: Well, goodbye then!
Me; goodbye.

Well guys, after that, all I can say is don't bother phoning them about your appeal coz it takes about three months because they are swamped ,poor guys:rolleyes:

mullingar

For anybody else currently appealing, DONT even bother with ringing Rosslare!

Follow my steps for a stage 2 appeal and you should get your refund within 2-3 weeks once the stage 1 "30 day rule" has lapsed.:)

Cars&cars

ye totally agree after 30 days go straight to local office appeal stage section 145