Taxes

Mike Ryan wrote: ( I would need to check in past copies of Off Road and Four Wheel Drive Magazine, have all issues back to 1984)

Wow.....!  Now that is serious and dedicated petrol head stuff there!

QUOTE=CurleyKilian is right registeration follows the chassis and that why you see the occasional classic shape 4 door v8 range rover on a ZV or equivalent irish 30y/o plate.]

A company in the UK offered a conversion to owners of older range rovers. You exported your over 30 year old range rover to the UK and delivered it to their premises. You let customs here in Ireland know of your intensions in advance and showed them the gleaming new body on the refurbished galvanised chassis on return. This company ( I would need to check in past copies of Off Road and Four Wheel Drive Magazine, have all issues back to 1984) gave you a choice of either a new landrover discovery body either 2 or 4 door, with everything new except the chassis that left Ireland.  The other much more expensive choice was to continue and leave it range rover but use the 4 door body.

There are many examples of both of these conversions running around on original Irish plates. It was also possible to bring one in, as an import - hence the ZV plates. I spent a lot of my time in the 80s converting range rovers to diesel. Converted many of them using tried  and trusted engines from elsewhere. Then along came Toyota, Nissan etc. and that put an end to my diesel conversions.

Maybe I might be in business again. Check out

www.knackerednavara.co.uk    

[QUOTE=CurleyKilian is right registeration follows the chassis and that why you see the occasional classic shape 4 door v8 range rover on a ZV or equivalent irish 30y/o plate.]

A little o/t but the Range Rover thing has always facinated me.  There are a good number of 4 door RR Classics in the country that appear to have reg numbers that significantly pre-date the official introduction of the 4 door (iirc, somewhere around 1982). 

Some of the ones I've seen have the "look" of later '80's and '90's models.  I know that Sbarro in Switzerland did some 4 door conversions on these before the factory model appeared (and I may be wrong, but think that there was a connection between their design and the official 4 door). 

I'm guessing that the numbers of Sbarro cars is relatively small and its doubtful that so many of them have ended up in this country.

So, what's the explanation?  Anyone know?

Many thanks for the info regarding CO2 emissions Dergside. I have been told by customs that fitting a new engine in a pre Jan 2008 registered car will not qualify the car for the new CO2 emission regulations regarding car tax. They said that the car will be liable for annual road tax based on the cubic capacity of the engine. I am referring to original Irish second hand cars that are sitting in dealer's yards. An example would be a typical E60 525 plated 04 or 05 or even an E39 525 plated 00 to 04. They aint movin like they used to. Diesel conversions were all the rage in the late 80s and early 90s for large cars. Large older cars were attractive then, and their higher running costs could be reduced with a diesel conversion.  Im wondering has the time now come for some enterprising engineering firm to consider offering a smaller cubic capacity high powered petrol engine conversion kit for similar large cars that are still desirable by many today. I remember a time when there were a total of 38 conversion kits available for the range rover. Most of these kits were diesel conversions, but some were petrol engine kits of smaller capacity. Example: Out with the rover V8 and in with a ford V6.    

Seeing that second hand E60s with large capacity engines are hard to shift off the forecourts at the moment lets go one better. Stick a spanking brand new VAG 1.4 liter high performance petrol engine under the bonnet. They can be tuned to develop as much power and torque as the E39 528 engine. Half the engine size and as good to go. Now your sucking diesel - sorry petrol. 

Republic of Ireland has one of the lowest personal tax rates in western Europe. This has been the priority of sucessive governments here for quite a while now. We marched in protest at high personal taxes through the streets of our cities in the 80s. Politicians listened to the people and as a result the personal tax take (as a percentage)from our wages gradually reduced. This policy has been sucessfull in the creation of  conditions that have stimulated growth in employment. The more recent policy of creating a minimum hourly wage rate has also helped to get people whom might otherwise be happy to live on the social welfare allowances to take up the offer of employment.

Our government must get the taxes in from the public by some other means. High VAT rates is an example. VRT is an other example. High PRSI rates on personal income is an other example. We have a choice in the decision we make regarding the size, engine size, age, petrol or diesel of the car we wish to drive. If we cant afford to run an M5, then we scale back on our purchase.  

Locals driving around in foreign registered cars here come to the attention of Customs and Exise rather quickly here especially the further south you live in the Irish Republic.

With respect to being patriotic, I lived and drove cars when the annual car tax was only £10 per year back in the 80s. This did not last long im afraid. They quickly brought it ten times higher. I didnt loose my patriotism because of this massive increase in annual car tax then. Lets hope that annual car tax will not be doubled or tribled in the future. If it does I will still be patriotic and maybe drive one of the smaller engined beemers that BMW have already designed, only to start building them when the market conditions create the demand.   

Im not comfortable with the arrangements in the Irish Republic regarding VRT. I complain like everybody else, but in the end I put up with it. We live here, We work here, We pay our taxes here. We voted in our government here. If we have no work here as happened in the 80s we will emigrate to find work as many are doing again right now. When we work and live abroad we will abide by the laws with respect to motoring in our adopted country. I dont like to see right hand drive cars on our roads that were originally on Irish plates being fitted with foreign plates and driven around with windscreen decorations applicable to the country from where the plates originated. I have seen 3 such vehicles in car parks in the Limerick area over the last 3 months. Imagine an Irish citizen trying a stunt like that in mainland western Europe on a locally sourced left hand drive car and fitting Irish plates on it together with the appropiate Irish windscreen decorations. The minister for foreign affairs would need to be quickly involved in interceding on the Irish citizen's behalf.   

Maniac wrote: If rental cars are ok here then why not to register car rental company in some "tax paradise" and then start to rent out cars to Irish people. Condition are - minimum rental term is 1000 years and you have to pay full car price straight a way. And point in the contract- you have total right to sell your rental car and company dont have any claim power against you :D

Funnily enough, there is a bit of a loophole for rental companies, and has been for years.  The problem is that a rental is defined and if the rental contract doesn't match the definition then its not regarded as a short term rental and therefore the provision doesn't apply.

The "rental" you've described doesn't qualify as a short term rental afaik!

If you want to avoid VRT, buy a van.