Slackbladder:
Road repairs are paid for out of general taxation, part of which is made up of vehicle tax. The excise duty you pay is based on the vehicle emissions of your vehicle, the bigger the vehicle the more you pay usually. The thing now is that there are approximately 2 million cars on the roads that aren’t required to pay the tax, hybrids, electrics etc, but still require a disc, thereby taking money out of a system they don’t put into. Without wishing to ignite another cyclist debate its the reason they dont pay to use the roads,it’s one of the things drivers bang on about all the time, I will say it again, it’s a tax based on emissions. If its going to be axed I’m sure some faceless bean counter will be coming up with a more government friendly, and therefore driver unfriendly, system of paying through the nose.
The Vehicle Excise Duty ( or Road Tax ) itself isn’t being scrapped, merely the obligation for one to display a Tax Disc.
As the records are now held electronically, the disc is merely a receipt, much in the same way as the MOT.
Makes sense to me and the option to pay by DD is long overdue. I’ve a couple of classic cars that are used infrequently, so if I tax them for six months, but only use them on a handful of occasions I’m losing out, now I can just tax them as I use them. Hopefully.
I think it’s a very good idea, ESP monthly payments. The paper disc is just a relic from another age. Be interesting to see the stats for how people are caught for no tax. Bet it’s a minuscule number caught from a physical check of the tax disc.
Simple answer to the road tax issue is add it to the cost of fuel no one can avoiding paying for it then, A rebate could then be applied to the cost for essential users such as us too simple for the government to work out though!
switchlogic:
I think it’s a very good idea, ESP monthly payments. The paper disc is just a relic from another age. Be interesting to see the stats for how people are caught for no tax. Bet it’s a minuscule number caught from a physical check of the tax disc.
it’ll stop the dodgy neighbour from grassing you up
One thing we could see is the amount of vehicles been declared SORN or even an increase of fines for non-declaration
The way I read the statement, was that you will be able to get monthly payments for your vehicles road tax, but you will be charged 5% extra, although the disc itself is to be abolished, the vehicle will still have to be registered, either on line or the post office, and the reason they say is because everything is registered digitally, the police no longer look at a tax disc, or stop you and ask for insurance and m.o.t., so as they do now, everything will be on a database.
There was no mention of vehicles being registered to Poles, Lithuanians, or any other eastern bloc nationalities, who fail to pay road tax at the present time, so I assume they will continue to flout the rules.
Which begs a question: When I take my car abroad, my insurance limits me to 90 days in any one year, so surely, this same system must limit foreigners to a limited amount of time abroad, and I don’t know of any foreigners, that go home every 90 days, unless their insurance companies work in a different way, most of the foreign cars on our roads are driving illegally, or am I wrong.
switchlogic:
I think it’s a very good idea, ESP monthly payments. The paper disc is just a relic from another age. Be interesting to see the stats for how people are caught for no tax. Bet it’s a minuscule number caught from a physical check of the tax disc.
Id guess most who are caught are by anpr not by a bobby walking along the street.
“There will be no additional handling fees for annual payments but to limit the impact on the public finances there will be a small surcharge of 5% of vehicle tax for biannual and monthly payments.”
From a business/finance perspective - it’s better to have a steady income stream, than big chunks every so often. Surely the ■■■■■■■■ should be giving us a discount !
switchlogic:
I think it’s a very good idea, ESP monthly payments. The paper disc is just a relic from another age. Be interesting to see the stats for how people are caught for no tax. Bet it’s a minuscule number caught from a physical check of the tax disc.
Id guess most who are caught are by anpr not by a bobby walking along the street.
I would agree with you there kr79. Afaik the only people who physically check tax discs are nosy neighbours and traffic wardens. These days with almost every supermarket having an ANPR camera (on the basis that everyone uses them) the paper disc is merely a financial burden. My mate has a little eco car with is VED exempt but he still is required to send off annually for a tax disc for it, farcical really.
Its a good idea in principle, as long as the dvla system can cope with it correctly. Mistakes are made on the dvla database, not that they will admit it!
ROG:
I think it should be put into the fuel cost so the more the fuel used, the more the roads are used = the more you pay
This is what was suggested some years ago,and it does make sense.Drivers can avoid road tax,but they can’t avoid fuel tax.
By this method you only pay while you are driving,and it will probably mean 10p on the price of a litre of fuel to cover the lost tax from VED,and the bigger the “Gas guzzler” you drive,the more you pay.
Mind you,some folk will still complain.
I imagine that some sort of annual disc would be issued just to prove you have MoT and insurance.
10 p on a litre, shame hgvs do so little mpg then.
ROG:
They are also thinking of allowing monthly payments for a 5% fee
That’s not too bad considering the amount they charge you more then that to buy 6 instead of 12 months.
True, I’ve just taxed mine for a year at £700, for six months they wanted £385 which works out at £770 for a year as well as an extra visit to the Post Office six months down the line.
Still, at least I could tax it at the Post Office this year, last year I had to post it all off to the local DVLA office, still can’t do it online though because there’s still no central database for RPC certificates.
“There will be no additional handling fees for annual payments but to limit the impact on the public finances there will be a small surcharge of 5% of vehicle tax for biannual and monthly payments.”
From a business/finance perspective - it’s better to have a steady income stream, than big chunks every so often. Surely the [zb] should be giving us a discount !
is it not the case that most of the places that make it cheaper to pay by dd would usually by paid in arrears, like a quarterly gas bill, but things that are usually paid upfront like car insurance are more expensive to pay by dd.
which would earn you more interest, £120 in a bank for a year or paying in £10 a month for a year?
too simple for the government to work out though!
