He already cleared it back in June. Thats harsh enough treatment if you ask me, did you explain all this to the Customs officer?
Depends exactly what "cleared it for €50" means I suppose.
It was still a premeditated and deliberate act to evade tax. Nobody likes VRT, and it's anti competition clearly, but it's the law, and has to be paid like all other taxes due.
I liken scamming to theft.
its not theft or scamming, i needed to sell the vehicle, and the market in the North is better than here for high end vehicles,i was unfortunate not to have removed the vehicle ASAP.
You cleared it but you didn't register it. Were you still running it on English plates?
It was all over the news a few months back how reputable garages were removing back seats/seat belts from 4 x 4's and passing them off as commercial vechiles for paying clients. Once VRT of €50 was paid, it was then back to garage to have seats/seat belts put back in, hence becoming a private vechile and no longer applicable to the €50 commercial charge. Its a scam the custom lads have cottoned onto and OP was unlucky to get caught.
Very relevant I'd say?
But you cleared it as a commercial vehicle? and when you were pulled over you were in a non commercial vehicle? These are the same 4 x 4?
Were you aware that this is a common scam? or do you belive you did nothing wrong?
It's a pity you didn't place the seats in the back of the vehicle, throw a cover over them etc. until you hit the UK. At least you could have argued that you were only transporting them.
I suspect that the reason they seized the vehicle is because you failed to re-register it as an Irish vehicle. You left the time lapse so they seized it.
so if the state is breaking the rules, why isn't is being stopped? I know its the million dollar question, but surely its black & white...Such sharpe practices? You think VRT is a fair tax? Show below, a nice article from Mr. Williams in relation to VRT.
I think the OP will find plenty of support.
"Traipse over to Britain. You find your dream car for, let’s say, £18,000.You bring it back to Ireland. You are then confronted with the first tax - VRT. So already the state is bending the rules.
Resigned, you are then prepared to pay the tax on the euro value of the sterling cost of the car. So the first rule of the Treaty of Rome is broken the minute you get off the boat at Dun Laoghaire, because any tax on any good at the point of entry contravenes the original Treaty of Rome.
But worse is to come. The Revenue then judge that it’s not the cost of the car in Britain that counts for the tax, it is some Orwellian-sounding levy called the ‘‘open market selling price’’. The Revenue, in an approach which protects Irish car dealers, squeeze money out of the beleaguered Irish motorist with another, extra tax.
They calculate the difference between what the car cost in the free, unfettered market of Britain and what it might cost here in the protected, sewn-up kleptocracy that is Ireland and then slap another totally unjustified tax on top of the original totally unjustified tax.
If you want to see how this shameless infringement of EU law works, check out https://www.ros.ie/VRTEnquiryServlet/ showCarCalculator. Rather than enhance competition, our government smothers it. The motorist is being penalised twice to protect Irish car dealers who have being making a fortune in recent years by selling overpriced cars. The state, therefore, is not only breaking the rules of the EU but, more egregiously, is protecting an industry here which is actually doing nothing.
thats a kick in the teeth....will they not let you take the seats out and reclaim the vehicle?i was aware of the previous cases where people had reconverted their vehicles, but my intention was not the same,my plan was get the seats back in and bring the vehicle back to the north, but I was unfortunate to be stopped before i got the vehicle out of the state. simple.
its not theft or scamming, i needed to sell the vehicle, and the market in the North is better than here for high end vehicles,i was unfortunate not to have removed the vehicle ASAP.
...
p.s. Where did you get the interior - seats, door cards etc. btw?