Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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424. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to introduce a mechanism in the context of motor tax that provides for a refund of funds and or transfer of motor tax to another vehicle in instances whereby a person disposes of or sells a vehicle; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19945/18]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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Under the current motor tax system, motor tax remains with a vehicle on transfer of ownership and the vehicle remains taxed until the validity of the existing tax disc expires.  

A motor tax disc is vehicle specific, with the registration number and other details pertaining to the vehicle printed on it.  This ensures that the disc relates only to a particular vehicle and prevents the tax disc being transferred to vehicles other than the one that has been taxed.   

There would be administrative and cost impacts attaching to any system of returning motor tax discs on change of ownership, issuing refunds to the seller and issuing new tax discs with a new registration number and vehicle particulars.  These impacts would increase if the tax class (and thereby the motor tax rate) of the replacement vehicle was not the same as the original vehicle.

There are no plans to review the mechanism currently in place.  It is open to the seller of a vehicle to manage their motor tax affairs to minimise the residual motor tax upon sale of the vehicle, including through the availability of quarterly or half yearly motor tax options.  Further, the value of the residual motor tax can be factored into the price the vehicle is traded for.