Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 27 January 2005
97 Mr. Aylward asked the Minister for Finance if his Department will review the disabled drivers and disabled passengers (tax repayment of tax concessions granted by the revenue concessions) regulations 1994 to take account of the plight of a person (details supplied) in County Kilkenny; if such a view will be carried out in the immediate future; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2221/05]
View answerI am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that the case involves an application for relief from vehicle registration tax on a motor vehicle under the Disabled Drivers and Disabled Passengers (Tax Concessions) Regulations 1994.
The claimant's application for the relief has been rejected because the disabled person, on whose behalf the relief was being claimed, died prior to the registration of the vehicle with the Revenue Commissioners. While I am sympathetic to the circumstances of the case, the conditions governing the qualification for the relief states that where a person receives a repayment or a remission, that person shall undertake to use the vehicle in question for the transportation of the disabled passenger in question for a period of two years from the date of purchase. The death of the disabled person in this case before the vehicle was registered results in the cessation of the tax concession and all the allied concessions.
The claimant appealed the Revenue Commissioners' decision under section 145 of the Finance Act 2001. The case was reviewed by an independent revenue appeals officer, and on 5 January he advised the claimant, through her solicitor, that his review of the circumstances of the case found no grounds for altering the decision to refuse the relief.
It remains open to the claimant under section 146 of the Finance Act 2001 to appeal against this refusal to the appeal commissioners by giving written notice to the Revenue Commissioners within 30 days of the issue of the revenue appeals officers decision. The claimant has been advised of this option by the Revenue Commissioners.
