New Vehicle Registration Procedures from 1 September
The Revenue Commissioners have announced changes to the system for registering vehicles brought into the State which means that from 1 September pre-registration examinations will be carried out by the National Car Testing Service (NCTS).
A person wishing to register a vehicle will have to make an appointment with an NCTS office to bring it to one of their designated Centres. A number of options for making the appointments are available including mail, telephone, Internet, etc. The changes also mean that people who bring cars into the State will now have seven days in which to book an appointment and 30 days to complete the registration process (as opposed to 24 hours under current regulations).
An appointment slot will be provided by the NCTS and the individual will have to present the vehicle along with a number of documents at the appointed time. Where examination of the vehicle and the documents shows that the vehicle satisfies the conditions for registration the details will be forwarded to Revenue who will determine the VRT charge. The person pays the relevant charge to NCTS and Revenue will then forward the registration number to the NCTS Centre for the customer. The Driver and Vehicle Computer Services Division of the Department of Transport, based in Shannon, Co. Clare, will forward the vehicle registration cert to the registered owner in due course.
Individuals registering a vehicle will incur no additional costs from the changed procedures. The NCTS will charge for each vehicle presented for registration but this charge will be allowed against the VRT payable.
Appointments and further information on registration is available at www.ncts.ie/vrt
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Information on the new VRT procedures is available at: Revised VRT Procedures .
[Ends 23/08/10]
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Background
Section 61 of the Finance (No. 2) Act of 2008 provided that the Revenue Commissioners could appoint a competent person to carry out a pre-registration examination on all vehicles presented for registration to ascertain that all the conditions necessary for the registration of the vehicle and the proper administration of vehicle registration tax (VRT) have been complied with before the vehicle could be registered. Section 109 of the Finance Act 2010, provided that the Commissioners could authorise a competent person, to declare the vehicle details to the Revenue Commissioners, and to collect the VRT due on behalf of the Commissioners. (This authorisation is similar to that granted to dealers in new vehicles, who carry out comparable registration functions for new vehicles on behalf of Revenue.)
As a precursor to this initiative, the Commissioners availed of an opportunity to include a requirement, relating to the pre-registration examination of vehicles, in the tender issued by the RSA for the renewal of the contract for the supply of the national car testing Service (NCTS) in Ireland. Following a procurement process, carried out during 2008, in accordance with the public sector procurement regulations, a contract for the NCTS (including Revenue’s requirements) was awarded to a Spanish company, Applus+ in early 2009. That company commenced operation as the National Car Testing Service for the State on 4 January 2010, and will shortly be appointed by the Revenue Commissioners as the "competent person" under Section 61 of the Finance (No. 2) Act 2008.
Why Revenue is taking this step.
At present Revenue staff do not examine all vehicles presented for registration but rather apply a risk-based approach. While this risk-based approach is satisfactory to protect the VRT yield, Revenue, as the registration authority for the State, also has a responsibility to ensure that all vehicles presented for registration are registered correctly. This responsibility became more onerous with the transposition into Irish law in March 2009 of EU Directive 2007/46/EC, which laid down minimum European vehicle standards as a pre-condition for registration. While the Directive impacts only on new passenger cars at present, its scope will be extended to all vehicles by 2014. Additionally, other Directives are extending the obligations on Revenue, as the registration authority, leading to a position where we will be obliged to examine all vehicles pre-registration. This examination is not an efficient use of Revenue resources whose core work is the assessment and collection of tax. Consequently, the opportunity was taken to appoint an external entity to carry out this work.
The new registration Process.
From 1 September 2010 it will no longer be possible to register a vehicle at a Revenue Vehicle Registration Office (VRO). Instead, the vehicle must be brought to a designated NCT Centre for registration. A person wishing to register a vehicle will now have to make an appointment with an NCTS office. An appointment slot will be provided by the NCTS and the individual will have to present the vehicle along with a number of documents at the appointed time. If the documents are not presented at the time of the appointment, the examination will not take place and a new appointment will have to be made. Where examination of the vehicle and the documents shows that the vehicle satisfies the conditions for registration, the vehicle details will be forwarded to Revenue and a VRT charge will be returned to the NCTS centre. On payment by the person wishing to register the vehicle, Revenue will forward the registration number to the NCTS Centre for passing on to the customer. The Driver and Vehicle Computer Services Division of the Department of Transport, based in Shannon, Co. Clare, will forward the vehicle registration cert to the registered owner in due course.
Occasionally, because the model of vehicle presented for registration has not been previously valued by Revenue staff, it might not be possible to provide a VRT charge immediately. In these cases, it may be necessary to arrange a further appointment with the NCTS to pay the VRT and collect the registration number.
Advantages
Under current rules individuals had one day to register the vehicle*. From now on an individual has seven days to book an appointment and 30 days in which to finalise registration.
The proposed system will also allow customers to:
- Book the pre-registration examination in advance at a time and date that suits through a variety of channels provided by Applus+;
- Reduce queuing time by arriving at the appointed time;
- Avail of custom built facilities providing ample parking and examination space at the NCTS centre;
- Avail of customised waiting facilities in the test centre.
From the point of view of the State there are also advantages because Revenue will be able to
- Re-deploy officials from vehicle examination to other duties;
- Minimise the levels of VRT evasion through misidentification or misrepresentation of a vehicle at registration as vehicles will now be examined pre-registration;
- Ensure full compliance with European Community Whole Vehicle Type Approval Directives in relation to minimum safety standards, emissions standards and other vehicle related standards;
- Ensure that vehicles over four years old imported into the State have a valid NCT certificate and that the date for next NCT test is recorded.
* In practice Revenue allowed seven days for registration.