Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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236. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of and value of motor vehicles seized by the Revenue Commissioners over the past five years to date; the amount of VRT recovered in respect of the seizures; and the number of vehicles returned following payment of outstanding VRT. [24554/23]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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An Authorised Officer of the Revenue Commissioners may lawfully seize vehicles liable to forfeiture for excise offences, which include VRT related offences, in accordance with Section 141 of the Finance Act 2001.

I am advised by Revenue that its approach to enforcement of the law relating to Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT) is that in each instance where a failure to comply with the relevant legal requirements is detected, the matter is dealt with in a manner that is fair and proportionate in the circumstances of the particular case. Revenue officers are faced with a variety of situations in dealing with enforcement of compliance with VRT obligations. The type of scenario that may be encountered, and the action considered appropriate in each such scenario, is set out at section 5.4.2 of the VRT Enforcement Manual available on the Revenue website.

The circumstances where vehicles may be seized for VRT related offences are set out in 5.7.2 of the VRT Enforcement Manual. This includes where an Officer forms the view that a person is a resident of the State and in possession of an unregistered vehicle contrary to section 139 of the Finance Act 1992, and that the person has had the vehicle in the State for in excess of a 30-day period.

I am advised that depending on the circumstances of a particular case, an Officer may then offer local release of the seized vehicle at the roadside pursuant to the provisions of s.144(2) of the Finance Act 2001 on payment of a compromise sum. Upon release of a seized vehicle in such circumstances, the alleged offender is required to give an undertaking, on a Form 20A that the VRT will be paid or the vehicle will be removed permanently from the State. As the option to register the vehicle within 30 days of release or to remove the vehicle permanently from the State is provided, it is not possible to identify from Revenue’s records the amount of VRT recovered linked to vehicles that were the subject of a seizure at a point in time from those where an individual was timely compliant and paid VRT in accordance with the relevant legal requirements and was not therefore the subject of a seizure.

The number of motor vehicles seized for VRT related offences and the value of seized vehicles, based on their open market selling price (OMSP) at the time of seizure, for the period 2018 to end April 2023, is set out below.