€500,000 in penalties from VRT crackdown

A TEN-day crackdown on vehicle registration tax (VRT) evasion has resulted in the seizure of 140 vehicles as well as motorists being slapped with fines and penalties amounting to almost €500,000.

Officers from the Revenue's Customs Service carried out a State-wide VRT compliance operation, based in part on information gleaned from a "name and shame" campaign by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI), late last year.

The 10-day operation utilised the Revenue's own intelligence sources as well as details provided by SIMI which included names, addresses and car registrations of Irish residents who had been seen driving UK- and Northern Ireland-registered vehicles in the Republic.

According to the Revenue, some 2,391 vehicles were challenged, with 140 vehicles being seized and follow-up inquiries initiated in relation to a further 384. Fines amounting to €360,535 in VRT and penalties of €103,698 were imposed.

The follow-up enquiries also resulted in 107 vehicles being registered, with additional taxes being paid.

Four vehicles were required to pay additional VRT following conversion, according to the Revenue statistics. Typically, additional VRT payments would arise where commercially-registered cars or jeeps were being converted for use as passenger vehicles.

In addition, 19 vehicles were exported from the Republic and 12 vehicles were registered under the State's Transfer of Residence provisions.

A spokesman for the Revenue told The Irish Times the vast majority - almost 82 per cent of vehicles challenged - had been registered in the UK.

Just under half of the Revenue effort was concentrated in the Irish border counties, with 11 per cent of the crackdown taking place in Dublin.

An additional 32 vehicles were issued with formal warnings for using illegal registration plates. This is understood to relate to statutory size and colour requirements, rather than forged plates.

The SIMI action, in which members across the State were asked to identify those suspected of tax evasion, was initiated last October and results forwa-rded to the Revenue. The crackdown took place in November.

Vehicles imported to the Republic should be registered and VRT paid by the end of the next working day.

However, the Revenue allows people up to a week to register.

Driving an imported vehicle outside those terms can lead to the impounding of the vehicle, with fines and penalties for the driver.

A spokesman for SIMI was not available yesterday to comment on the results. However, SIMI has previously estimated the Government is losing out on between €50 million and €100 million annually due to non-payment of VRT and road tax.

In the first eight months of last year, the Revenue's Customs Service had challenged over 12,000 cars. In 72 per cent of these cases, the registration was satisfactory.

For the balance, 2,748 written warnings were issued. Some 673 compromise penalties totalling €716,090 were also issued, while Customs obtained 18 convictions, with court fines amounting to €18,295.

"Monitoring VRT compliance is part of our day-to-day compliance activity. It is supplemented from time to time by major targeted compliance operations," Revenue said.