Flagging out moves ICs to advise on tax
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• by Karen Miles Hauliers flagging out their vehicles on UK Operator's Licences are being warned to take advice to make sure they are not illegally withholding tax.
Following consultation with the Department of Transport, the Traffic Commissioners are advising hauliers who have trucks on their UK 0-licences which are registered overseas to seek "informed advice" from a legal source or trade association.
This means that the TCs are effectively commenting or vehicle excise duty, which is outside their remit. They say they are simply protecting themselves from any clalrns from hauliers convicted of VED evasion who might say that flagging out was authorised by the Traffic Area Office.
The advice is also designed to alert hauliers to check the law governing flagging out—
the International Circulation Order 1975, amended 1996.
"There is a general concern that an awful lot of operators are not taking legal advice on the duties and responsibilities of flagging out." says Senior IC Michael Betts. "We are saying this is a complicated area and
operators should get their own legal advice."
While it might help hauliers in court if they can show they took proper legal steps, advice on flagging out is often conflicting.
Most advisers, including the TA0s, say hauliers who carry out UK domestic haulage may not Legally run foreignregistered trucks on their UK 0-licences. Confusion arises over the legality of partial flagging out when an international operator claims foreign VED but fails to set up a proper base in that country.
The DOT has already said that the courts are likely to differentiate between an operator who simply re-registers abroad and an operator who sets up a permanent base abroad where his vehicles are serviced.
Confusion continues following £500 spot fines imposed by French police on UK hauliers displaying foreign number plates on UK 0-licences.
The Dutch, Belgian and Luxembourg authorities have now joined the French in stopping these trucks, according to transport solicitor Stephen Kirkbright of Ford & Warren.