merrion street

Local Government Minister Phil Hogan today highlighted that the three month transition period provided for in the Non-Use of Motor Vehicles Act 2013 is coming to an end on Monday. If a vehicle is being taken off the road temporarily after that date, the owner must notify his or her local motor tax office in advance. The long-standing facility to declare that a vehicle was off the road retrospectively will come to an end.

Minister Hogan said:

Evasion is estimated at €55m per annum. This is a burden on those people who pay their tax as they should, and is a loophole that needs to be closed. Anybody whose application to declare a vehicle off the road is received in a motor tax office by close of business on Monday, either by post or submitted in person, will be deemed to have complied with the deadline in the legislation, even if the form is in some respect incomplete or incorrectly completed. Applicants will be contacted over the next few weeks to rectify the forms. Postal applications postmarked on or before 30 September will be regarded as having been received by the deadline.

If there is currently a record of a vehicle on the National Vehicle and Driver File, an application to tax the vehicle or make a declaration of non-use must be made by Monday to avoid incurring arrears.

For those older vehicles that are not recorded on the National Vehicle and Driver File, and that will be used in a public place, the vehicle record will need to be uploaded on the File in order to allow taxing or the making of a declaration of non-use. Owners need to contact their local motor tax offices to put this process in train. They do not need to take any action before Monday as no back tax can be sought for the period prior to the uploading of the record on the National Vehicle File.

For vehicles that are not registered, the owners should contact the Revenue Commissioners to have the vehicle registered. Again, motor tax will not be sought for the period prior to the registration of the vehicle.