Taxsaver fares 2013-2014
 

This seems strange as there is no word of a fare determination by the NTA and I understood that fare changes were being aligned.

http://www.taxsaver.ie/MonthlyRatesN...Parking-Offer/

The following fares are not listed on that page.

DART/Commuter Rail + Feeder Services Monthly
Iarnród Éireann All Services Monthly
Iarnród Éireann & Bus Eireann All Services Monthly
Iarnród Éireann & Dublin Bus All Services Monthly
Iarnród Éireann & Luas All Services Monthly
All CIE Services Monthly

Cork - Likely €440 Monthly
Limerick - Likely €440 Monthly
Mallow - Likely €440 Monthly
Cork -Cobh - Likely €1,110 Annual
Cork -Midleton - Likely €116 Monthly

That is a massive increase for a service whose quality is going the opposite direction. They have me over a barrel anyway, no choice but to pay the extra 400 euro per annum.

I see that:

DART/Commuter Rail & Dublin Bus (Short Hop) € 1,560.00 and DART/Commuter Rail + Feeder Services € 1,700.00.

Are there any feeder services that aren't run by Dublin Bus? If not, why would you possibly pay more for less?

That includes the Luas between Connolly and Heuston

Coast of adding DB to Rail:
Commuter rail: 180
Point to Point: 1230

Cost of adding DB+LUAS to Rail:
Commuter rail: 840
Point to Point: 1450

City centre 145/LUAS
Point to point: 350

Why does it cost so much extra for point to point customers?

I read in the Metro shortly after the August bank holiday Dublin Bus strike that €10 is refundable to holders of season tickets held over the period.

I know it's small beer, and is completely outweighed by the 10% odd increases, but I presume this will be in the form of an automatic credit at renewal for holders of any annual ticket that includes Dublin Bus?

If you haven't received a refund, demand it now. Do not rely on your ticket supplier providing it.

Though isn't the refund payable to the person who purchased the ticket, i.e. the employer?

As the renewal is due at the end of the month, I'll see if it is done automatically. If it's not then I'll submit a claim.

Credit does not appear to have been given against my new annual ticket. Should it be claimed from the Dublin Bus office (whose drivers went on strike) or the Taxsaver office who supply the tickets?

Clearly by not offering credit automatically to season ticket holders renewing their tickets (as I believe happens in the UK when service standards are not met), they are hoping to limit refunds only to those that are prepared to go through the hassle of claiming them. Good for short term accounts but not very good long term business.

There is a serious legal issue with respect to refunds on tax saver issued annual tickets as technically you have a tax liability on the refund received

Yes, I realise that, which is why the ideal scenario was that a discount on the gross renewal price of the ticket would have been best, as then there would have been no issue.

It is only a tenner, which after tax is a fiver. Hardly worth the effort of claiming at an individual level. But that's lot of tenners that are going to go unclaimed.

What if a refund of a €100 was due to the strike going on for month? Would that have tipped the scales in favour of action?

The bigger issue is that a mechanism for dealing with refunds on taxsaver tickets does not appear to be in place. This would have been a good opportunity to put one in place, because you can be sure it won't be the last time this happens.

They should be able to do the refund in vouchers the same as they do for delays but to be of any use they would have to be usable on all CIE services as opposed to just Dublin Bus vouchers. If this wasn't legally possible, surely all of the taxsaver offers would attract a tax liability.

But they should have a system for doing this automatically - I sometimes forget to do my delay voucher which is why they do it this way. The procedure for claiming this is just stupid and involves 6 steps (Ok the first two probably aren't necessary but the point is that is only out of sheer pig-headedness that I bother to go through the process at all - most people just don't bother.

1. Online Form
2. Email requesting proof of ticket
3. Photocopy ticket
4. Post Letter and Ticket copy to Irish Rail
5. Receive Voucher by Post
6. Six months later use the voucher (or forget about it).

I believe that in the UK they have an automatic refund system if punctuality targets aren't met but than they are paying twice or three times as much as us especially when you consider there are no tax benefits available.

Actually that is being phased out. A few remaining train operating companies have a system whereby they give 5% or 10% off season ticket renewals if targets are not met, or they can declare a day "void" if there was widespread disruption which means all renewals get an extra day free. Most are already moved to a voucher-based system and those few remaining will move at franchise renewal. There is a complicated formula for how many journeys you are assumed to make on a season ticket and you are then compensated by rail travel vouchers for delays of 30 minutes and over.

One train operating company (Southern) will change its own vouchers for cash at its booking offices.

As mentioned the tax implications are non-existent here and season tickets are very expensive :(

"if there was widespread disruption which means all renewals get an extra day free."

Surely that's the most sensible suggestion as it avoids the tax liability problem

It all gets very complicated due to the employer buying the tickets, so tracking who gets what and when is messy. There really isn't the concept of a renewal currently on annual tickets.

EU law will mandate refunds from December 2014 but the legal and tax side is something that is still in limbo.

Yes because the employer purchases the ticket on behalf of the employee the question of where the refund goes gets tied up in all sorts of legal knots.

With respect it's not that difficult at all - the normal process is just reversed.

1) The transport company refunds the companies
2) The companies refund the employees through payroll at gross level

That's what would be involved.