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.