Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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277. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if he will ensure stipulation number 6 on the official form for taxing a horsebox will be amended to address a matter (details supplied). [34436/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 277 and 287 together.

To be taxed as a commercial vehicle, a vehicle must be constructed as a goods vehicle and must be used solely in the course of trade or business. Licensing authorities have an obligation under Article 3 of the Road Vehicles (Registration and Licensing) (Amendment) Regulations 1992 to be satisfied that a vehicle is correctly taxed and it is thus open to a motor tax office to seek appropriate documentation supporting a claim for the commercial rate of motor tax. Such documentation may include a certificate of commercial insurance, evidence of registration for VAT or, at the discretion of the licensing authority concerned, any other appropriate documentation that would indicate that the applicant is in trade or business. It is up to the individual concerned to provide whatever evidence is required by the licensing authority in order for it to be satisfied that the applicant is entitled to claim what is in effect a concessionary rate of tax.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Non-Use of Motor Vehicles Act 2013 came into effect on 1 July 2013. The primary purpose of the Act is to replace the system whereby a vehicle was declared off the road retrospectively with a system under which the vehicle must be declared off the road in advance. The system of making retrospective declarations had become a means of evasion of motor tax estimated to have cost some €50m annually.

The Act provides that a vehicle can be declared off the road for a minimum period of three months and a maximum period of twelve months. Where the owner of a vehicle wishes to make a declaration of non-use, he or she must do so during the final month of an existing tax disc or a previously made declaration of non-use. The declaration can be made on-line at www.motortax.ie or through the local motor tax office. The National Vehicle and Driver File, under the auspices of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, issues renewal notices at the beginning of the final month of tax or a previously made declaration of non-use to remind motorists that the vehicle must be taxed or declared off the road for a further period.

Where a declaration of non-use is not made in the final month of a tax disc or previously made declaration of non-use, a vehicle must be taxed for the minimum period provided for in motor tax legislation for the category of vehicle concerned. A new declaration can then be made at any stage during the final month of the new motor tax disc if the vehicle is thereafter not going to be in use in a public place.

These arrangements were well publicised at the time of introduction of the legislation.

The legislation does not provide for exemptions from the foregoing requirements. This is to protect the revised arrangements; allowing an owner to declare a vehicle off the road after the expiry of a current declaration of non-use could potentially be a move back to the system of retrospective declarations, thereby undermining the overall objective of the legislative change.