Declaring when a vehicle is off the road

If your vehicle is not in use and will not be kept in a public place you need to declare your vehicle off the road.

Unless your vehicle is not in use and you intend to sell the vehicle, you will not need to fill out an off-road declaration form.

If you intend to sell the car before the expiry date of the declaration of non-use, the declaration will be cancelled automatically from the date of the sale.

This can be done by filling in an RF150 form and sending it to your local tax office. The form can be download here or it is also available to pick up at your local motor tax office, Garda station or citizens information centre or requested through email.

Another way you can declare your vehicle off the road is on the motor tax online website https://www.motarviews.ie/ORD/login.

If you use the online method, you will need the PIN given to you from your last tax renewal notice.


The vehicle must currently be taxed before you can declare it off the road. An off-road declaration can be made up to one month in advance of the expiry of a motor tax disc or a previous declaration of non-use.

If the tax on the vehicle has expired you will not be allowed to make an off-road declaration until any arrears of motor tax have been paid plus a minimum of three months motor tax.

The minimum amount of time you can declare your car off the road for is 3 months with a maximum of a 12 month period of time. Your vehicle declaration must start on the first day of the month and end on the last day of the month.

If you would like to keep your vehicle off the road for longer than 12 months, in the month before the end of the period, you can make another vehicle declaration for another 3 to 12 months. This can be repeated for as long as you intend to keep the vehicle off the road.

The vehicle that has been declared off the road may only be used solely for the purpose of bringing the vehicle to a test centre for a test (NCT or CRW) or to premises for repairs before a test provided an appointment is in place for the vehicle for the test.

Renewal notices for your vehicle declaration are issued by the Driver and Vehicle Computer Services Division of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport early in the final month of the period specified in the declaration.

But you may cancel the vehicle declaration at any time by renewing your tax in your local motor tax office. The validity of the tax disc will commence from the first day of the month in which you tax the vehicle.

If you have just bought a new or used vehicle and you want to keep it off the road for the moment, you have 21 days from when you bought the vehicle, shown on the registration document or the notification of transfer of vehicle ownership, to declare the vehicle off the road with the Revenue Commissioners.

In this case, the declaration starts from the first day of the month in which the car was sold or the registration of a new vehicle.

It is an offence to make a false or misleading non-use vehicle declaration. This can carry up to a Class B fine of €4,000, and/or six months imprisonment on summary conviction. On top of this, a penalty of €60 will be given for not having a motor tax disc on the vehicle.

For further information on declaring a vehicle off the road, read motor tax procedures for declaring a vehicle off the road here.

Useful links:
Motortax.ie
Motor tax form