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Hi Brian,

It’s pretty simple to tax a commercial vehicle as a private car, but it does mean reverting to the old by-engine-capacity tax system, so beware of going over 2.0 litres in engine capacity as the tax cost starts to become prohibitive after that point. 

Read our Buying a commercial vehicle for private use feature on the subject for more.

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Hi Martin,

It depends on the age of the X5 as to whether this works. As long as it was registered pre-July 2018, then yeah — it’s fine and legal, although rather more in the letter of the law than the spirit. As for a new Range Rover Sport, the answer is no — that tax loophole was a closed off last year, so no-go I’m afraid.

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Hi Declan,

That’s right — the NOx tax will only apply to Category A vehicles, i.e. private passenger cars. Vans are in Category B and are exempt. 

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Hi Aidan,

No, the new NOx tax is only applied to Category A vehicles — which means private passenger cars — from Jan 1st onwards. 

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Hi Simon,

It depends on the engine, as to tax a Sprinter as a private vehicle, you’d have to go back on to the old engine capacity taxation system. So for a Sprinter with the 2.1-litre diesel, you’d have to pay €906 per year, and for one with the 3.0-litre V6 engine, you’d be looking at €1,494 per year.

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Hi Clare,

A Hilux has a 2.4-litre engine (well, the current one does, but remember that older versions had 3.0-litre units) so if you want to tax it as a private vehicle that’s going to be €1,034 per year for motor tax. I’m pretty sure you can’t register and tax a horse lorry for private use as it’s over the 3,500kg limit for private cars. The tax therefore would be the commercial rate of €333 per year. As for insurance, that’s probably more down to you and your own driving record than it is to the vehicle, but the good news is that there are specialist horse lorry insurers, such as Wexford Insurance, who would probably be able to give you a good quote. 

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Hi Tracy,

Do you mean VRT? VAT, Value Added Tax, is only charged on a new vehicle, or on an import that’s younger than six months old, or has less than 6,000km on the clock. At the current 23 per cent VAT rate, you’d pay around €6,000 on a brand new Nissan X-Trail in VAT.

If you do mean VRT, or Vehicle Registration Tax, then for a 2018-registered X-Trail with the 1.6 dCi diesel engine, you’re looking at around €5,000 for VRT. If you’re importing after January 1st, then there’ll be the extra NOx levy to pay, which, with the basic X-Trail’s 40mg/km NOx rating, means an extra €200 on top of the VRT.

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Hi Kieran,

Because you go back to the old engine capacity tax system when you tax a commercial vehicle as a private car (no, we don’t know why either) it’s going to be €413 a year to tax a Courier with a 1.5-litre engine.

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Hi Gerry,

Yes, you can absolutely insure it as a private car, especially when you have taxed it as such. Just ring up your insurer and let them know of the change. There shouldn’t be any increase in cost, or at least only a small one.

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Hi Ken,

It depends on the car, and how and where you are buying it. If it’s an import, then you’ll have to pay Vehicle Registration Tax when you bring it into the country, and this is charged on the basis of the car’s current second hand value in the Irish market, and it’s CO₂ emissions, so we’d need to know the make, model, trim, year and mileage of the car to give you anything like an accurate figure. You'll also have to pay the NOx levy.