No back tax for de-flagged Irish
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• No back taxes will be levied on 2,000 Northern Irish trucks which flagged out to Dublin and were subsequently de-registered by the authorities in Southern Ireland. Following a deal between Dublin, Coleraine and the Road Haulage Association, it was agreed that credit would be allowed for the time the truck was registered out of state.
Up to 4.000 trucks left the Northern register from March 1999 to save up to 13,000 a truck when VED rates changed in the UK Budget, according to the RNA. Operators from the North were initially accepted by Dublin, but as flagging out burgeoned it sent them de-registering notices.
"Dublin says unless you have a bona fide business premises employing Southern people they will not allow you to register in the Republic," says Val Smith, the RHA's NI regional chair. He adds that hauliers had been welcomed with open arms by the South when they first registered: "There were a lot of people registering, It was not haphazard."
However, Irish police report that it became increasingly difficult to police Northern trucks which had been using accommodation addresses in the South for flagging out.