here is a great read from an irish website and depicts how the irish government screws us over for the pleasure of wanting to drive to work rather than buy a donkey or walk it






I received an email from a reader by the name of Shannon a while back, calling attention to the following query in The Irish Times "Helpdesk" column.

As you will see, it illustrates nicely the Kafkaesque workings of Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT) in Ireland, a tax cooked up to overcome the free-trade laws of the Treaty of Rome, which supposedly provided for the free trade of goods and services between EU states.

When the Treaty of Rome came into effect, the Irish Government simply stopped calling their tax on vehicles "excise duty" and renamed it "VRT" - a tax to register your car in Ireland and have a little IRL badge in one corner and the name of your county along the top in a language most of us don't speak. Bargain, huh?

VRT means that some cars cost over 40% more here than they do in many other EU countries. It also operates on the basis of a term invented by Revenue called the Open Market Selling Price (OMSP). The OMSP is effectively the Paddy Price (PP): a price above and beyond what our nearest neighbours in the UK, for instance, pay for their cars.

As the OMSP is just a dreamt-up figure which takes as its yardstick the inflated prices already forked out for existing cars registered in Ireland (after VAT and VRT are applied), it makes it really tricky if you want to import something a bit out-of-the-ordinary into our rotten little land.

I am quite sure that there is not another comparable 1992 Ford Escort Cosworth in Ireland, as you will see in the text below, which illustrates the nonsense of the OMSP concept. There IS no comparable "open market" selling price in this instance.

But don't worry, Revenue will find a way to screw you anyway, as evidenced by the following:


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How much VRT on an imported shell?


From DS: I rang Monaghan’s VRT office back in September 2010 to find out how to go about registering a 1992 Ford Escort Cosworth shell as it was from the UK. At the time they gave me a VRT figure of €5,900 but said it may be less as they were valuing the VRT on a complete, running 1992 RS Cosworth. I was happy with that and was told I could continue with the rebuild and this would all be worked out when the car was completed.

I was later told by another VRT office that what I was told in September 2010 was wrong – I would have to go an NCT centre for them to assess it and calculate the VRT price.

But the NCT centre can’t work out the VRT for it as they say it is not a fully complete, running car. After a lot of calls to various departments, I then get told that because the “car”, is in the country more than seven days I would be fined as I’m breaking the law.

Finally, someone in Revenue told me that it has to be fully rebuilt for it to be VRT’d at an NCT centre, as they will only VRT it when it is a fully complete, running car. I explain the whole shell saga to him to be told that the last good condition Cosworth he looked at for VRT he valued at €25,000 giving a VRT rate of €9,000. I’m then told that as mine is being rebuilt to such a high standard and will be better than its original intended build form, and that it is a one-off, it will be valued at the highest rate as a concourse car of €40,000-plus, meaning the VRT on it would be anything from €15,000.

Do you have any idea if the information I’ve received so far is correct?

Answer: We contacted Revenue on your behalf and they came back to us first with an apology for you, which we believe you’ve received for the confusion, but also with the following information.

“To be registered, a vehicle must satisfy the definition of ‘mechanically propelled vehicle’. One of the prerequisites of that definition is that it is capable of achieving vehicle propulsion at the time of registration to the satisfaction of the Revenue Commissioners’. Therefore, the Cosworth shell was not a “mechanically-propelled vehicle” and couldn’t be registered, and the NCTS would, correctly, refuse to register it.

“We no longer provide a speculative valuation service to those intending to register vehicle, ie, someone can’t value a vehicle accurately based on a phone call or cursory information relating to the vehicle.

“Instead, where we do not have a valuation on our website, we have published on our website the methodology used by Revenue. Additionally, in order to help an individual who may have an esoteric vehicle for registration, we have provided a form to guide them in the self-estimate.

“The main things that determine the valuation of a vehicle are: its open market selling price (OMSP), and that depends very much on the characteristics of the vehicle, make, model, version and variant and what it might fetch on sale in the State; the level of CO2 emissions; its condition, and in this, a badly-restored vehicle, it will have a lower OMSP than a well-restored one and will have a lower VRT charge; and finally its mileage.

“The engine size does not impact on the VRT charge unless it has lower emissions (and we determine the VRT on the emissions at the time of manufacture, not the later modification of the vehicle) and it is likely, in this particular case – unless we have satisfactory documentary evidence of the CO2 of the vehicle at manufacture – it will be charged at 36 per cent of the OMSP.

“When the vehicle is completed or when it satisfies the definition of a ‘mechanically-propelled vehicle’ and is presented for registration, Revenue valuation officers will have to determine the value.

“Because of this, the vehicle won’t be registered on the first visit and it will necessitate a second visit to the NCTS to pay the VRT charge that will be determined after the vehicle has been valued by Revenue’s valuation officers. Your reader will then be able to complete the registration of the vehicle.”

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How do they continue to get away with this?


See also:

Commission on Taxation says scrap VRT

 

no idea what your on about but it sounds like a rip off......

 

know anyone in the north?
log it there and drive it home??

i found similar situation in oz where some states require yeary (nsw) roadworthys (MOT) whereas others never require (WA) it and some only when you sell it (QL)

if you live nr the border you pick and chose your prefered place to log it

because WA is so far from where we were, we had to get a QL van which ment a roadworth when we wanted to sell it and come home but they dont mind doing a bent roadworth just like us with our mot's

this is me in the van

 

or ding it up to something already reg'd

 

unfortionately importing from the north of ireland is treated exactly the same

 

what it means is if we import a car from any place in the world we pay what is called vrt, ie vehicle registration tax, this used to be import duty but when irelans signed up to the eu many many years ago they changed import duty to vrt to use as a loophole.

for example if i import an escort cosworth ill have to pay the irish revenue 36 per cent extra of the value they put on it here and not what you paid for it, prob circa 6000 to 8000 euro just to change the number plate

 

Well you are doing a ground up resto. Fair enough. Add a little work, and save a little money.

Present the car to them for the NCT in a rather dire state.

Poorly painted ( if painted at all ) shoddy normal escort interior ( or maybe just drivers seat and not much else, maybe some torn up bits of carpet ), wrong wheels, steel if possible. No big spoilers, normal escort bumper if you can.

Hopefully that should devalue it enough to reduce the extortion force upon you.

And things that can be rectified after registration.

 

What he said. Cheap, shitty Escort as a donor. Get the shell registered, and THEN start the build. Don't know what the CO2 rule is if you get charged again for putting a bigger engine in?

After pissing around for years I suddenly had to finish my car in a real hurry to beat the change from SVA to IVA testing.

That meant things like central locking, electric mirrors, sunroof etc were there but just not connected. In simple terms, if it wasn't needed for the test it wasn't done.

 

This VRT thing has been a debate for years. According to EU law its illegal for the irish government to do it. When they charge someone vrt, they are automatically fined. But the fine never exceeds the price of the vrt they just charged someone. So for them its a win-win situation!!

 

sure their taxing us now for having cars in our sheds now which are off the road 100euro a ducking year if you want to keep the log book of something you might use in the future. they can come take some of the scrap away from my place if they want but paying 100 quid on everything you got each is stupid. cant even enjoy a hobbie like im 20 and it keeps me from smoking, going out drinking (too much) and being bored in general like and now im to be taxed on it

 

Simple. Just "sell" the car to someone either with a fake address, or back to the UK.

As the car will never actually be registered anywhere it should be in limbo for the time being.

then if you ever wish to use it again, "buy" it back and register it in your name again.

If you had a few cars the same, it would be worth cloning them on one log book.

Their system is totally and utterly corrupt and it's unlikely to change anytime soon. For some reason governments and insurance etc love corruption from within when it brings them in huge sums of money.

 

glad im in the north

 

problem with selling it to someone in say the north or uk you have to hand in the log book and declare it sold abroad, then you wont have a uk log book to get it back

if you sell it to someone in a false irish address the log book will then be sent to that address unless you had access to that address like a flat or something


pack of cunts they are

 

So everytime you sell, you must return the log book ?

In theory that's supposed to happen here too. But when you buy it again, you can just apply for a new log book saying you never received the old one, or it was lost/stolen etc.

But you telling them it is sold ( in writing ) is enough to remove your liability for it. What the "buyer" does with it is then their problem.

Although I guess if you wanted, there are plenty of empty or derelict houses about you could use as an address. I see them daily when driving about.

 

yeah everytime u sell u have to fill in new owner details on log book and send it off, it saves u i guess getting all sorts of fines if new owners a cunt and acts the maggot,