Council calls in staff to cope with tax loophole panic

Kerry County Council was preparing to redeploy extra staff to the motor tax office in Tralee last night as owners of off-road vehicles continued to descend on the office in advance of the introduction of a new tax system.

The office has seen a surge of business by owners of vehicles who were “panicking” in advance of changes to taxing their off-road vehicles, due to come into force on Oct 1, which could see them having to pay out arrears, a council spokesman said.

Meanwhile, the Irish Farmers Association has called on the Department of the Environment for an extension to the new regime to cope with an obvious backlog, saying it had been inundated with calls from worried farmers.

The changes are an attempt to stamp out abuse costing the State an estimated €55m a year, the department has said. While there are genuine cases, the method whereby owners of cars and vehicles off the road for some time could simply declare the vehicle had been off the road, get the form stamped by a garda and get their motor tax renewed, was being abused, it said.

It said the changes — which may leave people facing significant arrears bills — had been announced during the summer and may have been missed until recent days. Farmers are gearing up for the national ploughing festival.

The IFA council had discussed the fact they were being “inundated” with calls from farmers around the country, its spokesman said.

IFA farm business chairman Tom Doyle said there has to be extension to the new regime because of the backlog in dealing with queries.

He said: “It is clear that the end of September is too early for the new regulation to apply. IFA will be meeting officials in the Department of the Environment tomorrow and making a strong case for an extension beyond Oct 1. We have been inundated with calls from farmers around the country and it is not feasible to have all their cases processed in two weeks’

“Local authorities around the country are not in a position to get through the number of applications they have received since this was announced.

“A common-sense approach would see this deadline extended to allow sufficient time for everybody to familiarise themselves with the new regulation, and all the applications to be processed.”

Under the new law, motorists who do not have an up-to-date motor tax disc from Oct 1 will no longer be able to claim that their vehicle was off the road. The change means that motorists must now make a non-use declaration in advance of a vehicle being taken off the road for a period of between three and 12 months. Motorists will no longer be obliged to make such declarations at a garda station, but instead submit a “Declaration of Non-Use of a Motor Vehicle Form” RF150 to their motor tax office.

They will then be sent a notice their off-road time is up and asked to pay their motor tax for the forthcoming periods, according to the spokesman for Kerry County Council.

Meanwhile, yesterday at the motor tax office in Tralee some people waited in cars, while every available seat and much of the standing room was taken up by mid-morning.

Tickets in the mid-250s were being called at noon, while those coming in at around 12.18pm were told they were number 418 in the queue.