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I need to tow a horse trailer.
I will be moving to Ireland shortly. I need a vehicle that can tow a horse trailer. I understand there are two levels of road tax in Ireland. What vehicles with towing capability qualify for the lower of the road tax rates.
Our answer:
Hi Ralph,
It isn’t that there are two specific rates of tax, it’s that there are two separate tax regimes. Cars registered before 2008 are subject to the old car tax system, which is based on the cubic capacity of the engine, and realistically anything above 2.0 litres is punitively expensive to tax. In fact, once you’re above 1.8 litres, you’re going to pay €750 a year…
Post-2008, it’s all based on CO2 emissions, so what you need to find is a car with low emissions, but high towing weight. The best one in terms of emissions is the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV plugin hybrid, which has a tax rating of just €170 a year, and can tow 2,000kg of braked trailer. Just remember that if the total weight of car, trailer and horses exceeds 3,500kg, you will need a category BE Irish drivers’ licence, as you’ll be over the standard weight limit for a normal category B licence.
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