Keep it Taxed
New fines introduced this month for failure to keep your car taxed
Letting the tax lapse on your car in future could prove expensive. Whilst we all know that a car should be taxed or declared as being off the road, did you know that new fines have been introduced to 'encourage' continuity of taxation? i.e. Let it lapse for more than a month and you'll have a £80 fine slapped on you. That will reduce to £30 if paid within 28 days of receiving the notice.
It's part of a drive to make the DVLA's records more accurate with respect to vehicle ownership. Currently they are unable to identify the owners of 8% of the cars in the UK.
Records suggest that of those not paying their car tax (VED), 60% have been unlicensed for four months or less. It's hoped that the new measures will result in that figure being reduced.
Roadside enforcement is to be increased as the DVLA want the 8% unknown reduced to 4% by 2007.
but how many sketchy, knackered cars are regularly driven without tax, insurance etc and get away with it.
think the execution of these laws leaves a bit to be desired.
rant over. off to do some work now.
As mentioned before, if you are late with a SORN, fill it in and backdate it. That shuts the firkers up because they can take weeks or months to actually key paperwork into their system and to show that they achieve these ever more important agency targets, they date the entry as the date that the paperwork was dated not when it was received or entered.
Simply not filling in a SORN opens one up to this grab; fill it in and they are stuffed.
The loophole in this legislation seems to be that they are intending that Messrs Post Office Counters will be the collectors of these 'fines', so you will have to pay the £ 40 or £ 80 before you get the tax disk.
But if you have forgotten to fill in your SORN and fall foul of this new trick, sell the unlicenced vehicle and the new regd keeper applies for a tax disk. There is no provision for the fine to be applied to the new regd keeper in law AFAICS. Then later you can buy it back, even from your m8. Then for the cost of 2 stamps and some form filling you can smirk knowing that the DVLA have been denied £80 and put to quite some inconvenience. But obviously filling in a SORN is easier.
>> Edited by Richard C on Wednesday 3rd December 18:46
Where does that leave me? Am I looking at a huge fine? Never really thought about it before, the bikes have been in pieces for so long. I may even have a couple still registered to me (at god knows what address) that were actually written off but not notified to the DVLA.
My guess is that as soon as I decide to try to tax the bike I rebuild DVLA I'm going to get hammered.
Any thoughts?
The new fixed penalty of £80 is automatically generated and sent to the registered keeper 14 days after the old tax expires if you have not renewed or DVLA have received a SORN decleration. This comes into force as fron January.
It is believed that the SORN will be discontinued in time and if you do not renew tax the vehicle will be confiscated and destroyed. This was a EEC directive proposed by the Germans. The idea was to remove old poluting cars and those that will never get repaired/restored.
Just how museums will fare I don't know..
I now have tax from the 1st Nov , and hope the DVLA leave it at that. If you fail to pay the fine within 2 weeks it doubles to £48. It would seem that they want every car taxed and registered, is this a precurser to road tolls on major routes using the high resolution blue Traffic master cameras one has to wonder?
Gassing Station | Speed, Plod & the Law | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff