The High Court has ordered the Revenue Commissioners to provide data needed for Used Car Importers of Ireland Limited to test how vehicle registration tax (VRT) was calculated on cars it imported. The order concerns vehicle-specific depreciation information and related calculation inputs. The court refused a separate request for broad market research and made no order on access to the full VRT database because access had already been offered.
The company’s proceedings, begun in 1995, challenge the way VRT was assessed on its imported used vehicles. It disputes the amounts charged and says they were paid under protest. The case also challenges the relevant statutory provision and raises constitutional and European Community law issues. The court was considering an appeal from the Master’s decision on a 2004 application for further discovery, not deciding the underlying challenge to the tax.
The company sought surveys and market research about the valuation system, data for each of its registered vehicles, and access to the full registration database. A working copy of Revenue’s valuation programme had already been ordered by the Master and was not part of this appeal. The defendants said technical limits meant the mainframe system could not be copied for practical use. They supplied a CD-ROM containing data still held for the company’s vehicles registered between 1993 and 1997, along with representative calculations and a trade calculation CD. The company said the data lacked the depreciation profile assigned to each vehicle.
Justice Laffoy found that the depreciation tables and their association with each vehicle were essential to examining how the tax was calculated. The relevant data did not then exist in the requested form but could be regenerated, the evidence indicated. She ordered discovery of the data necessary for the company’s experts to test the methodology and accuracy of the calculations for each imported vehicle. The order also covers the benchmark value input used by an officer, if it had not already been supplied, and VRT calculation rules if they are necessary data distinct from what Revenue had already provided.
The court was not satisfied that the accumulated general data on used-car prices sought under item (a) was relevant and necessary for fair disposal of the case. It made no order on item (d), which sought access to the full database, because access had been offered before the motion was issued. The judgment did not determine whether the VRT assessments were lawful or order repayment of tax.