Michael McAleer answers your questions.
From Eric Sweeney:
If you have a summer house in a foreign country (eg, Spain) could you tax a car in that country for a year and then bring it back into Ireland without paying VRT, even though you pay your tax in Ireland?
Sadly, a summer house is not enough. The Revenue requires that for VRT purposes you must have your normal residence outside the State at the time of transfer.
A normal residence is defined as a place where you usually lived for at least 185 days in the year ending on the date of transfer because of occupational ties.
If you had no occupational ties, then the place where you usually lived for at least 185 days in the year ending on the date of transfer.
If your occupational ties were in a different country from your personal ties then the country of your personal ties is taken as your normal residence.
Take a look at the online Revenue leaflet on VRT: http://www.revenue.ie/leaflets/vrt_3.htm
Also remember that if you were to live abroad for the requisite time and bring the vehicle back, you cannot sell it for 12 months after it is registered in Ireland.
From Niall O'Toole:
With the loss of super unleaded fuels from the market some sports car owners have had to use octane booster or other additives in the 95 octane fuel to get the minimum octane required for their cars. The Government is giving tax breaks to fuels using bio-ethanol mixed with petrol.
The Government levies extra tax on fuels over 95 octane yet the fuels with bio-ethanol are between 99 and 106 octane depending on the percentage mix of the bio-ethanol.
Does that mean that the Government is breaking its own rules for taxing motor fuels?
It should come as no surprise to learn that the Government is indeed breaking its own rules regarding octane levels.
However, since the whole point is to promote cleaner fuels it is something of a technicality regarding duty on these fuels.
At present there is a duty derogation on ethanol use when mixed with petrol.
With the E85 on sale in Maxol stations, there is no duty on the 85 per cent ethanol and then duty is charged on the 15 per cent of petrol added to the mix.
There's been a significant rise in demand for E85 as sales of Ford Focus FFVs has increased in recent months.
There are now four Maxol stations selling the cleaner fuel: three in Dublin - Sandymount, Crumlin and Drumcondra - and one in Cork.
Three more are due to come into operation in the coming weeks: Drogheda, Waterford and on the Navan bypass.
Maxol are also looking at offering E85 in stations in Bray, Portalington and Galway in the near future.
From J Monahan:
Can you offer some advice on low-profile tyres?
Like all things in life, low-profile tyres have their advantages and disadvantages. Taking the good news first, they do offer improved handling and better grip when braking.
That makes logical sense as you have more rubber in contact with the road. So to the bad news: more rubber on the road means more road noise and a harsher ride.
There have also been claims that low-profile tyres are less resistant to aqua-planing due to all that extra road contact.
If you are going for a sports car then you will expect the ride to be less than smooth and that might not impact as greatly as it would on a luxury saloon for instance.
From S Gallagher:
I've got a used car that has not been taxed for several months. Am I going to have to pay the backdated tax on the car when I put it back on the road?
It's a legal requirement to have motor tax if the vehicle is taken on to the road. There should have been some queries from the motor tax office as to why there was no tax on the car. If you have not, then perhaps not all the paperwork was completed when the car was sold to you. Either way you will need a letter from your local Garda station stating that the car has been off the road for the period in question.
Send your queries to Motors Helpdesk, The Irish Times, D'Olier St, Dublin 2 - or e-mail motorshelp@irish-times.ie