Despite the sinister music and threatening tone of some adverts on TV - "We know where you live" - "You are in the databse" - "You'll get caught" mostly used for Benefit Fraud and TV licencing I admit, I was suprised to see a car parked in my local town yesterday displaying a tax disc which expired at the end of September last year! I thought there are mechanisms in place to issue penalties, order the payment of back taxes etc. How can somebody drive around UK for 11 months with no tax! Another reason to scrap road tax and put it on fuel - minimal paperwork and no way of avoidung payment!
Edited by Pugugly on 04/09/2009 at 09:36
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Might be taxed - tax disc on the floor or at the home of its owner, owner having been or on the way to LVLO to tax it ?
Edited by Pugugly on 04/09/2009 at 09:37
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I assume you did the decent thing and reported it?
There are mechanisms in place but whose to say the car is not stolen, false plates, might be SORNed but have taken a chance to nip to the shops in it etc?
However agree with your last point, as long as I could be convinced it would be done in a fair way.
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...Another reason to scrap road tax and put it on fuel...
Armitage,
Are you a fairly low mileage motorist these days by any chance?
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No - 1000 miles a month! I have no objection to paying for what I use. My miles cost me £10 a month, of which about £3 is spent on the transport infra structure SFAIK. More miles, more wear and tear on the road, pay for it. The reason it doesn't happen is it would put some people out of work in Swansea.
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... it would put some people out of work in Swansea...
Agreed, but I wonder how many?
I think it is accepted the country would still need to maintain a database of vehicles, reg numbers, etc, even if road fund licence was abolished.
The tax disc gives some indication the car has the correct number plates, is registered, and is what it says it is.
A free tax disc carrying the same information is unlikely to be much cheaper to administer.
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displaying a tax disc which expired at the end of September last year! >>
Owner/keeper may have forgotten to display the current disc, or it may have been sorned for the last 11 months, or ?
A check on the DVLA web site would have told you its current status.
www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/BuyingAndSellingAVeh...6
scrap road tax and put it on fuel >>
Agree completely. A fair way to pay for your road usage by the mile.
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SFAIK, if a vehicle is SORNed it must not be on a public road?
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SFAIK, if a vehicle is SORNed it must not be on a public road? >>
1. Was it sorned? You can check its status at the link I gave.
2. If it was sorned, hd it been on the road for all of the 11 months as you claim, or only at the time you saw it?
3. If it was sorned, was it on its way to an MOT station at the time you saw it?
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I didn't take its number, I am not THAT bothered.
I have no idea how long it has been on the road, I simply saw it while waking past, with an 11 months expired tax disc.
It wasn't on its way to an MOT SFAIK, it was just parked on a public road
Main concern - despite all the precautions and regulations in force a car displaying a tax disc 11 months expired was out on a public road. This is against the law and I am suprised that it has apparently not been noted in this time.
Edited by Armitage Shanks {p} on 04/09/2009 at 13:53
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Another reason to scrap road tax and put it on fuel - .........
That would penalise drivers who use a lot of fuel.
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>> Another reason to scrap road tax and put it on fuel - ......... That would penalise drivers who use a lot of fuel.
I never thought of that. You mean in the same way people who smoke more pay more tobacco duty, or heavy drinkers pay more alcohol tax, or high earners pay more income tax than poor people?
Edited by Cliff Pope on 04/09/2009 at 10:26
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high earners paymore income tax than poor people?
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Since when? They stick it all offshore. Most truly high earners barely pay a penny becasue they can afford to arrange their lives that way.
If you mean middle earners, you have a point. That's where the sting is.
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French mollusc - It wouldn't penalise them at all - it would let them pay for what they use.
Edited by Armitage Shanks {p} on 04/09/2009 at 11:03
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That would penalise drivers who use a lot of fuel. >>
That's true but we're all dead green these days, aren't we? So that must be right because greater fuel use equals greater emission of greenhouse gases. And the current VED system is structured to financially penalise the owners of cars that emit more CO2 so taxing petrol will have the same effect.
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I wonder which other country have a road tax.
Most seem to stick it on fuel, it ind makes sence
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Switzerland has road tax, but this only applies if the driver was wanting to drive on the motorway (autobahn), otherwise their road tax is not needed for normal roads.
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>>Another reason to scrap road tax and put it on fuel<<
It's been done several times over. You can buy a car that requires very little money for the annual registration. It's this annual registration that the govt requires - why shouldn't a motorist pay for it ?
It's also this registration that the OP noticed is absent on this car - so it may not have insurance and could (should?) be reported. All this would be missing if the VED disc was not required.
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The DVLA were after me soon enough when I forgot to retax/sorn my old motorbike as is languished in the garage over winter! That wasn't a question of ANPR - it was just the money machinery winkling out an honest Joe who'd slipped up.
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It's also this registration that the OP noticed is absent on this car - so it may not have insurance and could (should?) be reported. All this would be missing if the VED disc was not required.
In most countries you need to display a sticker that says your car is insured and\or MOTed just like a tax disk
But with all the details on police computers is the tax disk a bit redundant?
All that is needed is to have the technology in all cop cars not just the traffic ones.
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You can buy a car that requires very little money for the annual registration. It's this annual registration that the govt requires - why shouldn't a motorist pay for it ? >>
Is that right? I know there's a first registration fee but why should a car have to be registered annually? And if the annual registration is what matters, why should different cars have different fees? Why not a tenner each?
As for the insurance point: you can have a disc on the screen which shows that the car is insured which would prevent all the fuss when ANPR pings, MID isn't up to date or incorrect and the driver hasn't the documents on him.
Put a disc on the screen for the insurance, tax the petrol, and save everyone a lot of time and effort.
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Another vote for putting it on fuel - and I do a high milage.
Edited by ijws15 on 04/09/2009 at 13:17
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You need to persuade the govt.
Do you really think a replacement system is going to save you money or be less bureaucratic ?
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I wonder if it was put on fuel, (and I don't believe it will be, as turkeys don't often vote for Christmas, even Tory ones), would it be put on at the end, i.e. after all other taxes, or would it be another nice little VAT earner?
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