VAT at 21 per cent is now being applied to State-owned tolls at the West-Link Toll Bridge on the M50 and the Dublin Port Tunnel.
The Revenue Commissioners have decided that toll charges levied by the State must include VAT. Privately operated toll charges already include VAT on foot of a European Court ruling in July of 2000.
For now the National Roads Authority is absorbing the tax within the toll and is not passing it on to road users.
“It is absolutely critical that motorists should not be faced with yet another price hike on the M50,” says the AA’s Director of Policy Conor Faughnan.
“We had VAT on the West Link before when it was in private hands. When the bridge came into State ownership in 2008, the VAT was not removed. They simply took the existing VAT-inclusive price as the new State-controlled toll. It would be an act of utter bad faith to now re-apply VAT on top of that figure.”
The AA is calling on the NRA and the government to make a commitment that these VAT charges will never be passed on
to motorists.
