Farmer groups urge extension to transition period on motor tax rules
IFA farm business chairman Tom Doyle called on Environment Minister Phil Hogan to review the situation as thousands of vehicle owners queued at motor tax offices around the country yesterday.
Mr Doyle said the IFA had highlighted the issues arising as a result of the change in legislation and had called for the Sept 30 deadline to be extended.
“Local authority offices around the country are inundated with queries and simply do not have the personnel to deal with the number of people who have to process the new form. Common sense must prevail and the deadline must be extended, or something must be done to deal with the backlog of applications before the new legislation is enforced,” he said.
Following correspondence with Revenue, assurances have been given regarding unregistered vehicles. They will receive an exemption until Oct 31, during which time they can be registered at a one-off VRT charge of €200 with no additional charge. These vehicles will then have 10 days from date of first registration to be taxed or declared off the road and will thus not be liable for motor tax arrears.
Mr Hogan said anybody whose application to declare a vehicle off the road is received in a motor tax office by close of business today, either by post or submitted in person, will be deemed to have complied with the deadline, 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 Sept 30 will be regarded as having been received by the deadline. Therefore, for owners with registered vehicles that are currently untaxed but which the owner intends to put back on the road sometime in the future need to submit a form RF100A filled in as completely as they can, or form RF150 (declaration of non-use into the future).
Meanwhile, the ICSA has argued that the three-month transition period to the new regime was too short.
ICSA president Gabriel Gilmartin said: “I see a clear need for the transition period to be extended given the sheer number of people turning up at the offices. It is a significant change that is being made to the tax regime affecting very large numbers of motorists, so an extension until the end of October would be a sensible move.”
