RE: No more tax discs!

[KTF]

I wonder if there will be a new market for fake tax discs that you can put in the windscreen to recreate that 'retro' effect.

Much like the black passport holders you can get for the idiots who still think the war is on.

[Zwolf]

Trif said:

My biggest issue with VED is the free loaders in their expensive modern cars that are <£30 a year to tax!

Freeloading by giving the government thousands of pounds in VAT for buying a new car instead of a few hundred of margin VAT on a used one, so they can "save" a couple of hundred per year? (Or no VAT at all if bought privately).

[Blue Oval84]

TooMany2cvs said:

LeoSayer said:

A 5% admin charge for direct debit is a bit cheeky.

Looked at monthly DD for insurance lately?

I don't even think it's cheeky, it's CHEAPER than what they do now. At present you can't pay monthly, and to buy a six month disc costs 10% more even though you still pay up front, the new system lets you pay monthly and it's only 5% more than paying for a full year up front.

[J4CKO]

Terminator X said:

J4CKO said:

Just save your VED up monthly, if you pay it today and its £240 for the year, just put £20 a month to one side, it isnt rocket science, I have several savings accounts and my online banking (when it works, Natwest...) allows me to assign them a name so I have one called VED, mine is £490 a year, so doing this will save me £24.50. People sometimes end up having to spend more money than they need to through not havign enough, a lot however just allow themselves to be fleeced because they are too stupid or lazy to manage their money and take the easy option, then moan about being skint.

I dont think the government will hike it any differently, they arent flogging over fifties policies "For less than the cost of a daily paper", George Osbourne isnt going to stand there saying that, he will say "VED has gone up 10 percent, like it or lump it, I am the chancellor and there is fk all you can do about it plebs"

Its about time they got rid of the disk, it is a pain in the arse, at least they have got round to doing it.

But if PH is to be believed leccy cars are just about to take off, how will he recover his lost VED?

TX.

It will have to go up for low emission vehicles, to recoup the lost revenue, the focus will change from the environment as that will have been saved by then with all the low emission cars on the road, will go back to plain old just paying for the privilege of using the roads.

[Stenjay]

I've wondered for ages why DD was never a payment option for tax, seemed silly. Although I think it's a good move I'm disappointed they've not just scrapped it altogether as other have suggested. It costs me >25% of the purchase price of my shed to tax it for a year, and I probably do 6k a year at most. I've never understood why a bluemotion driver covering 30k+ a year doesn't need to pay a penny.

[Skyedriver]

Not sure I like the sound of this
Do we get electronic tags in the car rather than a paper disc
Electronic tags that log when we use the car
Where we go
What speed we are doing......

[Cliftonite]

KTF said:

I wonder if there will be a new market for fake tax discs that you can put in the windscreen to recreate that 'retro' effect.

Much like the black passport holders you can get for the idiots who still think the war is on.

They have been available for years! :

http://www.britishtaxdiscs.co.uk/tax-disc-history....

[radio man]

if the govt want to get rid of paper tax discs why the ####### hell should motorists have to pay an extra 5% for the privilege.

[Blue Oval84]

Skyedriver said:

Not sure I like the sound of this
Do we get electronic tags in the car rather than a paper disc
Electronic tags that log when we use the car
Where we go
What speed we are doing......

Er no, they use ANPR to identify tax dodgers, the way they do with insurance and MOT today.

[Zwolf]

Blue Oval84 said:

Skyedriver said:

Not sure I like the sound of this
Do we get electronic tags in the car rather than a paper disc
Electronic tags that log when we use the car
Where we go
What speed we are doing......

Er no, they use ANPR to identify tax dodgers, the way they do with insurance and MOT today.

Quite so. It's insurers that will fit the data loggers.

[Trif]

Zwolf said:

Freeloading by giving the government thousands of pounds in VAT for buying a new car instead of a few hundred of margin VAT on a used one, so they can "save" a couple of hundred per year? (Or no VAT at all if bought privately).

You make £6bn sound like such a trivial amount that they might as well allow everyone to have their paper disc for free. Of course it is only 1% of the countries income. Many products have VAT applied to them, it doesn't really make much difference if I choose to spend my money buying a new £6k TV or a Dacia Sandero.

[KTF]

Skyedriver said:

Do we get electronic tags in the car rather than a paper disc

No. Try reading up on the subject at hand.

[Blue Oval84]

Zwolf said:

Quite so. It's insurers that will fit the data loggers.

At the moment I refuse to take insurance like that, would rather pay double to not have it.

Unfortunately, over time, I think more people will be lured in by the savings, and then eventually the industry will be able to nudge the public gradually into believing they're a good thing.

Once enough people have them, watch the premiums rise, and then watch non-tracker insurance become prohibitively expensive....

[/tinfoil hat mode]

[pagani1]

There is no law to stop you scanning in your last ever tax disc, putting it into Adobe Photoshop and then changing the information to indicate what your current VED is, when paid and when it runs out, if you can't bear the thought of an uncluttered windscreen or want to get more mileage from your tax disc holder, you can change the colours to reflect the changing seasons and have fun with your own logos etc.
Or you could get on to rejoicing in your new found freedom and clean the inside of your windscreen more often to prevent loss of vision-ha ha.Finally I am sure Pistonheads could come up with some of their unique designs to replace the boring official tax disc when it finally becomes extinct and we could input our info on to the decorated blanks-a new business opportunity for Pistonheads-Hooray! Be Happy

[Krikkit]

pagani1 said:

There is no law to stop you scanning in your last ever tax disc, putting it into Adobe Photoshop and then changing the information to indicate what your current VED is, when paid and when it runs out, if you can't bear the thought of an uncluttered windscreen or want to get more mileage from your tax disc holder, you can change the colours to reflect the changing seasons and have fun with your own logos etc.
Or you could get on to rejoicing in your new found freedom and clean the inside of your windscreen more often to prevent loss of vision-ha ha.Finally I am sure Pistonheads could come up with some of their unique designs to replace the boring official tax disc when it finally becomes extinct and we could input our info on to the decorated blanks-a new business opportunity for Pistonheads-Hooray! Be Happy

I think I'll just be putting a PH smiley onto a piece of black card, until I'm used to the idea anyway. Seems very strange not to need a tax disc all of a sudden!

[iloveboost]

I suggested this to friends years ago I thought everybody knew the police can check this stuff on a computer and ANPR cameras on police cars/gantries check this stuff automatically as well. Don't see the point of the tax disc seems like common sense saying you don't need to display one. It also seems pointless to have Road tax based on CO2 when the tax on fuel is such an efficient, foolproof, non-avoidable, easy way of collecting tax on heavily polluting vehicles! Road tax is pointless. Arguably the MOT test is as well but not because it doesn't perform a vital role of making vehicles safer but because there's arguably a cheaper way for everybody of enforcing cars being safe.
I believe in Spain they don't have an MOT test or road tax just fuel duty plus the traffic police randomly check your vehicle at the roadside for road-worthiness and that you have all the right documentation. If you fail to provide documentation or you car isn't roadworthy they can fine, impound and in severe cases crush your car! This sounds a little strange, but seems to have worked for years there and to be fair to the Spanish I've never heard of a modern car being deemed 'unsafe' because of structural damage. The only exception to this is cars that have been badly crashed and badly repaired.
Even on old bangers the most common MOT failures are small items like worn bushes, brake pads, wipers, tyres and bulbs so to me it kinds makes sense so even if it sounds a bit reckless in theory it seems to work in practice.

[Escort Si-130]

I agree good, no more asshole local council traffic wardens waiting to slap tickets on cars the 1 day of every month whose tax is out of date. It also gives people a little grace to park their car on the road if the tax disc is run out.

CrutyRammers said:

No more paper discs? Good.

[ianwayne]

They most certainly do have an MoT equivalent in Spain.
"An ITV is the equivalent to an MOT in England and is required by Law, ITV stands for “Inspeccion Tecnica de Vehicles”. A number of checks are carried out on your vehicle to check that it is safe to drive and road worthy. Once your car is 4 years old, you will need an ITV done every two years. Once it is over 10 years old an ITV will be needed annually. For Motorcycles over 5 years old, an ITV is needed every 2 years and for a caravans over 6 years old, an ITV is needed every two years."

It's actually more strict than here. For example, your can will fail if you have different brands of tyre on the same axle, even if they have legal tread. Note that caravans have to pass one too, unlike here.

There was a suggestion to adopting it here as a 24 month check but it was shelved, no doubt lobbying by the garage / repair industry.

[Andy_J_G]

RemarkLima said:

You have, they really do not walk along the street checking for out of date tax, much like the TV detector van do not detect if you have a TV:

• The database has a list of all registered vehicles.
• The database has a date by which the RFL expires on said vehicle.
• Reminder is sent out, no payment or SORN, fine sent out.

ANPR will mean they can verify if you've been on the road and fine accordingly.

Sure, some criminal types will have wrong addresses etc... But that's no different to having a paper disc.

They do, got done last year when I forget to put my new tax disc in as it came in the post while I was on holiday and I had forgotten to check for it.

[AJB]

radio man said:

if the govt want to get rid of paper tax discs why the ####### hell should motorists have to pay an extra 5% for the privilege.

Ummm-they don't have to... They can still pay exactly the same as before in exactly the same way. It's just that government don't print and post a disc and the motorist doesn't display it.

Separately there's a new option to pay monthly, costing half way between the old 12 and 6 month options. I guess that's now viable as they won't have to post a new disc every month once you've paid for that month.