New DVLA stats released earlier in the week show that over 460,000 vehicles in 11 cities nationwide are clamped or fined yearly for failing to tax their cars.
The new advertising campaign targets 11 areas nationwide where the highest number of untaxed vehicles were found. It aims to raise awareness about what not taxing your vehicles will lead to, whether that is a fine, penalty or it being clamped and potentially towed.
Worst areas for clamping
The 11 areas chosen to be targeted for this advert are based on the numbers for enforcement actions taken in 2018, whether that is a penalty, fine or clamping.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, London was the worst for untaxed vehicles across the UK. Whether this is down to higher numbers of CCTV cameras, a higher proportion of people packed into the area, or merely because there simply are more people not taxing their cars in London it is very unknown.
However, the high contrast between London and the rest of the UK, over 50,000 more than anywhere else, shows the drastic need to crack down on untaxed motorists.
Area | Clamped | Fines or Penalties | Totals |
---|---|---|---|
London | 27,605 | 94,550 | 122,155 |
Northern Ireland | 5,516 | 67,944 | 73,460 |
Birmingham | 5,076 | 50,045 | 55,121 |
Manchester | 7,573 | 26,214 | 33,787 |
Glasgow | 2,666 | 29,705 | 32,371 |
Sheffield | 3,987 | 25,291 | 29,278 |
Cardiff | 3,021 | 24,598 | 27,619 |
Nottingham | 3,507 | 21,346 | 24,853 |
Bristol | 3,496 | 20,412 | 23,908 |
Leicester | 3,344 | 19,196 | 22,540 |
Coventry | 1,257 | 18,193 | 19,450 |
Removal of paper discs
Back in 2014, the DVLA removed paper tax discs, saying that an online database was a more cost-effective way forward, saving the Treasury around £10 million a year.
The lost revenue from the higher number of people not taxing their cars is predicted to be over £100 million, which is going to be a quarter of a million a year lost on average. Since 2014, experts approximate that the number of people not taxing their vehicles has increased by 28%.
Every two years the DVLA publish a report into Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) evasion statistics. The last report published in 2017 showed a drastic increase in vehicle stats compared to 2015, with a statistically significant increase of over 1%. Administrative factors such as the removal of paper tax discs were attributed along with the removal of automatic tax transfer when you the vehicle changes hands.
However, an increase from 0.6% untaxed in traffic figure in 2013 to 1.4% in 2015 and then 1.8% in 2017 shows that all the factors combined have not been as successful as perhaps thought. While these figures may seem small, 1.8% of the market equals around 755,000 vehicles on our roads.
Hence the reason for the new DVLA campaign. They’re hoping that by showing the stark consequences of not taxing your vehicle and reminding people how easy it is, they may be able to lower this figure.
Used under Open Government Licence v3.0 for editorial purposes only.
DVLA Head of Enforcement Tim Burton said: “This campaign has a clear message for anyone who flouts the law in this way – tax it or lose it. It’s never been easier to tax your car, so there really is no excuse. We would rather not have to clamp or remove vehicles, but this campaign highlights the consequences of not taxing a vehicle. Having your vehicle clamped is expensive and inconvenient – and you could end up losing your car.”
Tax changes recently
In April 2017, the DVLA changed tax figures by introducing higher rates for newly registered vehicles and in last years budget, they secretly announced that it would increase in line with RPI.
It was also announced that VED would be ringfenced for the Strategic Road Network, essentially building more smart motorways and major roads. This comes into effect on April 2019 and is the third year in a row that VED has increased.
What do you think of the findings? Do you think that less people have taxed their cars since the removal of tax discs? Will this new campaign help? Let us know what you think
Bring back visibable tax discs!
What does visibable mean?
If you are unable to make a sensible contribution other than sarcastic comments why not make yourself invisibable .
Sensibable surely?
Still cant spell it
impossibable
well I don’t know that word either so seems a perfectly reasonable question to me? Mr NPB being sarcastic !
Yes, what is this new word?
It means you can see him babbling
Visibable (sic) is nearly as useful as visible!
Think you mran visible
Mran? This conversation is fast becoming mran incomprehensibable 🤣
I agree, bring back the visible Tax Discs. If it saved the DVLA £10m but is now costing them £100m in lost revenue, it’s a no brainer.
Bring back visiable tax discs!
Yes it was nice to actually get something for my £265
Why not show tax details on the number plate!
Because it means buying a new number plate each year (as the Germans, and some Americans, do).
Since when have the Germans had to buy a new number plate every year? I’ve lived there twice and I can assure you that never happens. They get issued with new TUV discs, inline with the vehicle passing the TUV test, which they affix to the number plate. The discs denote the month and year the TUV is valid until. The only time they may have to buy a new plate is if they move to a new registration area and they have to register the vehicle in that area.
How is that any more convenient than just bringing back a paper disk?
What does visiable mean?
Same as visibable?
I think the word you’re looking for is ‘visible’ – and I wholeheartedly agree, bring back the visible tax disc. They were a reassurance when selling a car too, to show the prospective buyer a bunch of consecutive tax discs for the vehicle, (provided you’d saved them)
I myself prefer the current setup, as I’ve found out in the past on purchasing a car from a dealer over a weekend (of which almost all cashed in any remaining VED in order to increase profits) left me in a predicament where I’d be breaking the law by driving the vehicle away until it had been taxed, which can only be done when the post office opens on Monday.
You can tax online 24/7.
not true
Bring back the paper disc ASAP
Waste of money – just bring back the tax disc
And an insurance certificate
You get an insurance certificate when you insure the vehicle. The tax records show if the vehicle is MOT’d and insured. In addition to cars between purchase and use , maybe the high numbers in London refer to cars that are only taxed when the owner wants to go on holiday in it. Congestion charge and parking prices probably mean that it’s not worth taxing it for the whole year. Cars on forecourts are probably SORNed until sold. Maybe the toll road system,and congestion charge system could be used to tax the family car on an ad hoc basis. Say for 3 months of the year as specified, then SORN the rest of the year. I would have liked a holiday from tax and insurance when I was forbidden to drive for 6 weeks after surgery.
This is only a fraction of the story about untaxed cars, what are the ages of the guilty, is it men or women, is it British nationals or newcomers. If you are to solve a problem you look for the biggest gains not just lumping everyone in to one catatgory, it is typical government inefficiency to avoid th PC brigade.
Who do you think it is, John?
Here we go – blame women AND Johnny Foreigner – Racist and Sexist in the same posting , well done . Who are you going to blame for tax evasion in your new sunlit broken brexit Britain? Northerners ? Scots? Welsh ?
Statistical analysis is neither racist nor sexist. It is just numerical fact. If you beat the data hard enough you can find anything you want but if you are to solve problems you need to see the patterns that are there. Often some people find the outcomes uncomfortable but I can assure you the data just shows you the facts. It
s a little harsh saying someone
s racist and sexist because they understand data patterns. Some people see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear…I wonder how many of the “statistically not taxed” cars are in fact ones that were bought second hand during a given month and then only taxed at the start of the next month when the purchaser puts the car on the road? And what about all the second hand cars on garage forecourts? Since the tax was cancelled by DVLA at the point of sale this statistic is bound to rise. As with all statistical analysis, you have to dig into WHY the stats are changing before drawing conclusions.
Here endeth the lesson.
The figure shown are those caught without tax on the road. There is no practical reason why when getting rid of the tax disc, the DVLA could not allow cars to be taxed from any day of the month. When buying and selling a vehicle you end up paying 2 months tax – a right con on behalf of the government.
@ Mike – Agree. In fact, the Dvla gets 2 months tax (from the buyer) & the balance that was paid by the seller too. Refunds only for full complete months.
Dvla screws the public but is now losing £100m. It’s called Karma.
If you buy a S/H car you can not move it until taxed & insured, if you have it on drive waiting for new month to tax it you have to SORN it or you can still be done. Old Tax Disc was a better system and it stayed with car and transferd to new owner. Disc and ANPR together would catch a lot more, any car without Tax, MOT or insurance should be confiscated on the spot. Foreign cars should have to purchase a monthly tax disc while in UK and suffer same penalty if caught without one.
Well said, Steve, completely correct.
Racism and sexism is a modern concept. They are meaningless terms to those that do not conform to political correctness.
No Doug, they are meaningless only to those who think discrimination and lack of respect on the grounds of sex or race is ok!
It works both ways. When I worked in cologne some years ago, there were a number of vehicles in the Ford car park with UK plates and out-of-date, or absent, tax discs.
Ignoring the possibility that, being afraid to ask if, “they” are the main culprits has never led to problems has it?
Brexit getting blamed for something else eh? More PC c rap. What a stupid comment!
I don’t agree. As a woman, I’m sure that there are as many women as men who evade the law, or simply forget their car tax is due. I have a yearly reminder on my calendar to pay it but, like everyone else, used to rely on the paper ones to remind me.
Why don’t you pay it monthly by direct debit that way you will only have to worry about the mot
Can you do this if it’s £0 a year. At the moment, going to the post office, filling out forms, and getting a receipt for £0 seems a pointless waste…
@ Holmes – Paying monthly costs much more. I believe it can be paid yearly by DD.
‘Much more’ – I think the extra I pay for mine is about 6 quid per year; don’t spend your savings all in the same shop, will you?……..
Steve its because of people with your mind set that rotherham happened. Let’s be PC an hid the problem, no let’s tell it how it is shall we? White, black, brown, sky blue with pink dots. All ment to be equally treated.
Don’t you just love how racists always drag the topic round to their prejudices, regardless? People reading your post might automatically assume that all British people are racist bigots, but they’d be wrong. Maybe you could consider that not all Asian men are rapists, and leave your issues out of a discussion on vehicle taxation!
Quite so Steve; does the demographic really matter? The common denominator is that they don’t pay their road tax……
Why on earth do you want to know the
type
ofoffender
. Its the car that carries the VED, not the owner or drivers - because there may be more than one.
t his responsibility. Just to make you feel better he was white British!A driver in a charity van was stopped for no VED but it wasn
In a country with limited funds for solutions the obvious solution would be to use more police to set up traps to catch the people without taxed cars. This isn
t a solution as the police can neither afford the time nor the funds.
t taxed but it wasnYou partially answered your own question by stating the example was driving a vehicle that wasn
t their responsibility. If we exclude the fact that everyone is responsible for the vehicle they drive (as you probably well know) the fact it wasn
t “his responsibility” is a statistical point. It could be possible that many people driving are not responsible for taxing the vehicle they are in. Therefore if the government are trying to find solutions that could well be one.I believe John K was just using “men, women etc” as examples. But who knows….
It`s nice that you know that your example was white British. Not sure what that reveals though but interesting you told us…
Do away with road tax and stick it on petrol. Simple.
TOTALLY FAIR SOLUTION BUT WOULD PROBABLY CAUSE MORE BILKING ON THE FORECOURTS. UNTIL PETROL STATIONS CAN OVERCOME THIS PROBLEM SOME PEOPLE WILL STILL ‘GET AWAY WITH IT’
It works in France so why not here?
We, the British, have an aversion to adopting good ideas from our European neighbours!
I have never understood why they don’t just add it to fuel instead.
How is it fair that a 20k miles a year driver pays the same road tax as the pensioner driving 500 miles a year going to the local bingo.
I have 2 cars both £315 a year to tax, but drive under 1000 miles a year.
It should be taxed on how much the driver wears out the road Infrastructure.
Pointless driving 3 miles per day and spending 315 pounds on ved plus cost of vehicle and running costs much cheaper with taxis..sorry if I offend you
Why 2 cars when you dont go anywhere
ANOTHER SELFISH PERSON if it’s that bad sell one of your 2 cars that way you will save on fuel and maybe you could go along to bingo and enjoy life like the pensioners you are trying to down who have paid all their lives and end up reading c**p like that
IT MAY NOT HAVE BEEN HIS RESPONSIBILTY TO TAX THE VEHICLE BUT IT STILL REMAINS AN OFFENCE TO ‘DRIVE’ AN UNTAXED VEHICLE, SO WAS STILL BREAKING THE LAW!
Interesting point. However, does every person who drives a vehicle not owned by them ask whether its taxed? I don’t think so, it’s reasonable to assume the owner has already taxed it.
When the disc was displayed, it was easy to see if it was or not!
@ Harry – How many drivers in a company (or even agency drivers), who drive a pool of cars, HGV’s (supermarkets, courier companies etc), ask the transport department, to show proof that the vehicle that they are about to drive is taxed? None.
Doubt it even the transport/despatch department has that knowledge, as taxing the vehicle(s) is the responsibility of the head office.
Actually it was the charity workers responsibility, it’s the drivers responsibility to check the vehicle is road legal before they drive a vehicle ask any HGV or PSV driver
Not so easy now there is no disc on vehicles.
You may be correct, I don’t know the law as regards this. However, if someone drives multiple vehicles in the course of a year (e.g. emergency services, delivery drivers) is it reasonable that they have to ask this question every time they get into the driver’s seat? I don’t think so.
if you are driving a vehicle it is you responsibility to ensure it is road legal, not the owner.
And doing charity work ,that’s very British.
The driver is responsible for ensuring the vehicle is legal and roadworthy.
If it was discovered that women under the age of 40 were the worst offenders, how does that help anyone?
It was obvious that the lack/need of displaying a tax disc was going to be taken advantage of. PLEASE BRING BACK THE TAX DISC. It would bring back fairness & the right to be driving vehicles on the roads.
The means of determining the legal status of a vehicle is done, by law enforcement, with Automatic Number Plate recognition (ANPR). ANPR will bring up the status of the vehicle, V.E.D, M.o.T. and Insurance.
There is no need to have a paper disc on the screen.
If you really do miss it you could print a fake disc, or buy an out of date one.
Incidentally, anyone can buy an ANPR device that detects vehicle status and a few wheel clamps and go about the streets looking for non V.E.D.vehicles, and reporting the index plate to DVLA and police.
JJ – if they haven’t taxed the car, do you think they are going to stand around while you clamp it? hope your medical insurance is up to date!
It is a specific criminal offence to immobilise a vehicle unless you are an appointed agent if DVLA or Courts. Protection of Freedoms Act.
In all seriousness I would have thought that with all the ANPR camera’s more vehicles would have been detected.
Either stop taxing cars or really clamp down, and make it. tax it or lose it for good . An untaxed car is usually also uninsured and has no mot. I know of a car that was involved in an hit and run that had not been taxed or insured for over 10 years . The fines were less the the tax and insurance would have been ,And banning someone who has no licence is pointless .
Banning them isn’t pointless because if they are then caught driving while banned, they can end up with jail time. Step by step…
The jails are already full. The only reason people dont pay is cost, Lower the price or scale it to your income. If not pay it at the pump, then no one gets away with it…..unless they do a runner of course
Pay at pump ,small addition to petrol would cover cost.at least then those who are using the roads slot pay more, surely that’s better.
I,am 66 and have been saying that we should be paying more TAX at the pump and doing away with the TAX DISC dodge altogether for years. Its an MOT marker that should be stuck to very car number plate . once a year as part of the MOT. That way the Police NPR units would really have a good job to do. keeping unsafe Vehicles off the roads.
Pay at the pump makes the most sense that way those using the roads more will be paying more simples
I use cash only when paying in shops and for my petrol, so paying at the pump isn’t an option for me.
I think pay st the pump means putting a bit extra on the fuel price !
Sentences less than 1 year are not going to be used unless very serious crimes.
I was a Private Hire driver for seven years and saw for myself how people who commit crimes (drugs-possession, shoplifting, burglary, ASB, receiving stolen goods, Assault, failure to pay Road-tax / insurance / MOT etc) are not punished. The cost of the fine with the court cost doesn’t deter the idiots. Crime pays.
After the tenth time they’ve been caught maybe they’ll end up with 28 days in jail. Unlikely though.
But now any sentence up to 6 months in jail is dismised.
A certain Labour MP got 4 months and spent one month inside.
This is so on the money!
The removal of the tax discs shows just how out of touch government officials are. Anyone with half a brain said in 2014 when the system changed that it was a crazy idea. As law abiding citizens we are now all paying the price of this stupid idea with the loss of 100 mil of revenue coming into the system. Bob.
There is way to many cars on the road how much of an incentive can it be for the powers that be to confiscate cars not taxed etc.Less cars less emissions.
Government are out of touch with general public
BRILLIANTLY SAID-I WHOLE HEARTEDLY AGREE WITH YOUR COMMENTS
Well if it’s not taxed your insurance is void same with MOT.Insurance is based on a car being taxed and mot’ed
No, it’s not. Your insurance contract requires that the vehicle is roadworthy – not that it has to be taxed and MoT’d. Otherwise, you would not legally be able to get an un-MoT’d vehicle to a test centre to get it tested.
There is exemption to allow a car to be driven to and from the MOT station provided there is a pre-booked appointment
this is absolutely one hundred percent INCORRECT
Sorry Joe but Lex is correct. Provided a car is insured it can be driven to and from a pre-booked MOT station without road tax but no where else. You cannot get the tax until it is MOTd and insured, and you can only get it to the MOT station if it is insured.
You may legally drive to and from a pre-booked MoT test and to and from a place of repair if it fails the test. The test MUST be pre-booked but there is nothing law to state that the testing station must be the nearest (or even close).
The latest MoT tests allow a test centre to refuse to allow the vehicle to be driven away (and that includes towing) if it is judged to be too dangerous to be on the road.
Remove tax on cars and increase tax on fuel, those who use cars most pay most.
I drive less than 3000 miles a year but still pay same tax as someone doing 50000.
Missing out on government greed here. Forcing low mileage users to pay ‘car tax’ means they can coin in more cash. When it comes to greedy grasping MPs and taxpayer’s money, This is the only thing these incompetents in the Westminster bubble have a flair for.
Agreed the greedy slave mentality in here is saddening everybody willing to throw each other under the bus for not paying there masters there champagne cut is sickening but not a surprise this is just one amongst a pilethara of ways our masters rape poor peoples wages and everybody wants to throw each other under the bus for car tax 🙁 sad desperate slaves I say buk allyall that want to persecute poor people for our overlords 🖕
I would have thought that as a King of Kings, you would be happy the Overlords were getting paid.
I think that is a good idea, although if we are all paying then the price of the fuel should come down?
This has always been the fair way to do it, those who use the roads most and those who drive ‘Gas guzzlers’ emitting the most emissions pay the most – simples. This method would be a real way to encourage the use of more economical vehicles and less vehicle use
So your food in the shops will go up to as my hgv needs fuel at some times in town, 3.5 mpg, average is 10. So taxing your fuel will cost you big time, we put a fuel surcharge on when fuel went past 1 pound a litre, I saw it add to shop prices then.
Jealous of people who can afford to run what they want is pathetic. We don’t need dictators in this country it’s their problem nobody elses
It isn’t a matter of ‘jealousy’ – Vehicle tax was originally the Road Fund Licence; the proceeds of which paid for the building and upkeep of our roads, and there were none of the divisions on engine size and emissions we have nowadays; the fact that battery-powered cars aren’t taxed on the basis that they don’t emit CO2 is ludicrous; the pollution might not come from the exhaust, but from the power-stations,; nonetheless, the vehicle is causing pollution and contributing to wear and tear on the roads, so they should be taxed the same as other vehicles. And the monies should be used, once more, to maintain the roads. Putting a small percentage on fuel would, indeed, make the system fair; those who use the roads and put out more pollution should pay more than those who do fewer miles.
It has been the Road Fund Licence since the 1930s!
As was said another dictator who likes to spend other people’s money
Can’t agree more. Well said, that person.
I have a dirty diesel car thats only £30 a year tax. It averages just 41MPG because of the stupid DPF and the regens it does which pumps additional fuel into the exhaust, what a waste of fuel.
My previous car was 4 years older, had a slightly bigger engine but averaged 56mpg and cost over £200 a year to tax.
How does that make sense? They keep telling us the emissions are based on the fuel consumption. If that really was the case then why is a car that averages 41MPG cheaper to tax than a car that does 56MPG?
Low mileage user also, so tax on the fuel makes sense until you think how much tax they have on it already..
I remember the fuel strikes, the government said they needed to tax the fuel to pay for the hospitals etc. Why are motorists paying for something that everybody has access to, yet fail to keep the roads in a good state of repair?
Tax on the motorists should revert back to repairing the roads with some left over to add to the kitty. Not fleece motorists for 100% of the kitty. Need some money just fleece the motorists some more.
Have told DVLA 5times in last 4 month re car on sorn no tax no mot and probably no insurance. Still running about
Pointless ! I like that.
Unfortunately these campaigns are aimed at the 99% of law abiding motorists who may forget and be a little late, no excuse, it happens.
The few that don’t simply won’t.
You can’t put points on a non existent licence.
Crying shame their not getting so tough on actually maintaining the roads we are taxed to use!
Well said …
This old chestnut.
Vehicle Excise Duty, VED, is not for road construction or repairs.
VED is absorbed in to general taxation, then hypothecated.
The hypothecation of a tax is the dedication of the revenue from a specific tax for a particular expenditure purpose.
Yeah but “hypothetically” they should be spending it on the roads!!!
Years ago it was called the Road Fund licence which led to the belief your money was converted into tarmac and cats eyes.
In the spirit of openness the government changed its name before it pilfered the cash.
A bit like the ‘National Insurance Fund ‘set up by the liberals? it was always a con and politicians joked that the laugh was there was no Fund! The cash was spent as it came in so they ran out and bingo up go taxes -for ever.
Well back when this duty was introduced it was to pay to keep roads in good condition to drive on, but since there was not as many cars back then and the roads were quality made, they lasted really well for a long time so there ended up quite a lot of surplus cash for the government to play with and they did exactly that. It got spent else where. Then when more cars hit the roads and roads started to suffer they hadn’t got enough left to keep on top of things. You would think that more cars means more money collected !! ?? So where has the money been going if not to mend our roads???
It does say in the article trhat they are ring fencing it for road improvements (Smart motorways were mentioned if I remember correctly & from April – if I go and check now I’ll lose where I am in the comments!). It caught my eye for the reasons mentioned here – hasn’t been used for roads for years.
Never mind so-called ‘smart motorways’ – the money needs putting into the A and B roads which are falling to pieces!!
Unfortunately the way we seem to be self-imploding we need to stop being so lenient. The government needs to step up and remove untaxed cars from the road and if that fails bring back the tax disc.
Taken from them and never returned at any price .Lose an untaxed vehicle for good
In 2015 Eastbourne council contracted a
blitz
on non VED vehicles which were clamped and notified. A lot were fined and many were towed and crushed – no comeback!‘they secretly announced’… Love it
You don’t have a special sticker on your house to say you’ve paid your council tax so why would you need one on your car to say you’ve paid your road tax? Surely it’s more important to you or I that the other cars on the road are insured (if you could choose between tax and insurance!)
if your car is not taxed, is the insurance not valid?
The insurance validity has absolutely nothing to do with having current VED.
Untrue Pat; the vehicle must be taxed,if used on the road, or SORNed if not, otherwise the insurance is null and void!
Sorry, totally wrong. You are allowed to legally drive a non-taxed and non-MoT’d vehicle to and from a pre-booked MoT test and to and from a place of repair if it fails the test. However, it must be insured. Vehicle Excise and Registration Act provides the detail.
Take the car away then deport the owner
As if all tax evaders are not British? Behave.
YES please deport me to Australia! ( I am English born and bred)
I inherited a 1999 car off my dad. Although it’s in A1 condition, having been garaged and little used, it has a book value of £250. There must be lots of poorer households out there with cars that are only worth a couple of hundred. If they’re parked off the public road — out of sight of traffic wardens — and only used on the school run or shopping, then the cost of tax, MoT, and insurance vs the risk of these cars being crushed is non-existent.
It’s only us honest mugginses who pay.
Return to the paper disc – it acts as a “receipt” to be seen by all who pass by. ANPR is fine fior where it operates but that is only a drop in the ocean. The statistics clearly show that removal of the paper disc has not been successful.
If all fuel stations anpr alerted untaxed cars and then refused to dispense any fuel what a laugh that would be for the honest motorist or maybe then we would have the problem of number plate cloning again
No real way round this problem has I see it unless something attached to rear number plate so all police not only anpr cars know that its untaxed and give the local recovery men some business removing them all no waiting for person to return untaxed off the driveway removed simples
No doubt the person who came up with “bright spark” idea of saving £10 million by getting rid of the paper disc got a bonus/promotion. While we honest drivers & taxpayers ended up paying for the £100 million loss of tax, PLUS the huge increase in insurance premiums to cover all the uninsured!
“Tax or lose it” will never happen – “Costs too much to enforce” – and the ruined lives from Hit & run – “Oh there are no votes in that”!
In Wiltshire its tax it or lose it!!,been like that for at least a year !!
Make the tax transferable and bring back the tax disc. The whole thing is secretly to nick people who accidentally forgot to tax their cars as we no longer have a tax disc to refer to.
More big brother tactics.
Get rid of tax altogether just another money making sceam
While this is a good idea what the government should also do is tax the forien embassy cars which Will pull more money into the government pockets if they are still excempt from paying vehicle road tax . Another thing they should do is when a person gets caught using a mobile phone by texting or calling rather than giving out a fine is taking away the car and crushing it while the owner is forced to watch as in my view this will make driver’s think twice about using phones when driving or sitting waiting at traffic lights
I think the removal of the requirement for a paper tax disc has led to a big increase in uninsured vehicles, and an increase in hit-and-run incidents. If you are not taxed and insured, you are hard to trace and you certainly don’t want to get caught. I think for a significant number not taxing/insuring your car is a conscious decision and now a much easier to make thanks to the short-sighted decision of our penny-pinching government administrators.
Another thing – why is it not legally possible for the public to check the insurance status of cars other than their own? I see many examples of appalling driving and, guess what, the cars are not taxed. I doubt whteher they are insured. Tries reporting to the police a few times – not interested. I despair!!
If you want to know if a vehicle is taxed, mot’d & insured, log in to Gov. UK.
Type in the reg number & it will give you the information on that vehicle.
A tax disc was the hardest part when cloning a car.
Now that’s gone all it takes is a set of plates from eBay and I can multiply away.
Thanks government.
That is exactly what our local car criminal did recently via eBay. Sadly for him I noticed the plates on the front did not match those on the back so i reported it to the police. The plates belonged to cars in the South and we are in the North East.
Young peoples high insurance cost, high cost of public transport , LOW cost of secondhand vehicles and no tax disc (easily solved by printing from DVLA) and DVLA perceived as cheating the public by not allowing transfer on sale all make it acceptable in some circles to not tax your car.
It’s the old story “if it’s not broke do not try and fix it”
Okay so look at the figures. It isn’t only the loss of revenue it is the cost of manpower to clamp and unclamped the vehicles. I am all for ease of getting things done but a visible tax disc is more of a deterrent than not having one. The parking police can also see at a glance and report them too. I say just bring the paper disc back and the law abiding citizens like us at least know the naughty ones will get fined
It was blatantly obvious when it was announced they were going to do away with issuing tax discs, and removing the need to display a tax disc would lead to a significant rise in more people dodging the need to tax their cars. If I could see it then why didn’t the people for who we the tax payer pay these people MEGA BUCKS not see how stupid this decision was.
Its not rocket science
Put a couple of pence on fuel and scrap tax
The more you drive the more you pay
Better and fairer for all
DVLA rubbish been reporting an untaxed car being used on road. Finaly got clamped but owwners got it off and DVLA dont want to know
Get rid of the car tax, put the cost on fuel much fairer system, more you drive more you pay and no one gets away with it everyone has to fill up
Totally agree. Drive in the UK you automatically pay the tax. This saves money on enforcement and also ensures that everyone pays. Now how do you tax electric vehicles charged at home?
I’ve said this for the last 30 years. The amount extra on fuel could be calculated so that “Mr average”, in the “average” car, doing “average” miles ends up paying roughly what he would have paid in VED. If he drives less miles, in a small car, he saves. More miles, in a bigger car, he pays. It would also act as a kind of “environmental” tax at the same time.
I’m sure the details would take some fine tuning and there would be some groups who felt hard done by but if you wanted to drive, you’d have to pay the duty.
Thats fine adding to the cost of fuel but what about the people that do not pay tax as their vehicle emissions are low
Totally agree I own a diesel car with 10g/km so free road tax why should I pay the same for my fuel if they put it on fuel has the man with his 6 litre v8 kicking out God knows what
Because you would be using very little whilst the gas guzzler will be buying fuel by the tanker load. Thus the “tax” is proportionate to road usage and fair.
Sooner or later, ince the majority of cars qualify as zero VED, the the Treasury will need to find another way of raising revenue.
Because you drive on the same roads. I’m sure you visit the petrol station less frequently than the gas guzzler driver anyway.
Use the roads; pay the tax – ‘zero emissions’ vehicles still pollute; the smoke just comes from power station chimneys instead of the exhaust pipes!!
Good for them
think it through if you have paid the vehicle tax for a year and have 8 months left of that year when they add the tax to the fuel, the government would have to reimburse all unused tax to the car owners meaning more (prepaid) money leaving the government purse leaving a huge deficit
Actually, most foreign trucks carry enough (cheaper) diesel not to need to fill up in the UK
I think theft of fuel from vehicles will go sky high.
That makes sense, but there’s still going to be the issue of cars that aren’t insured or without a valid MOT on the road. Might be better if you had to display an insurance disc in your window rather than a tax disc.
Won’t work. Unlike our European and US cousins, we insure the driver not the vehicle.
Why do we have car tax???? Surely if the tax was added to petrol or diesel prices those that use the roads most would pay for it. That way the cost of maintaining the highways would be funded fairly to all parties. It would also ensure foreign vehicles used in the UK would be contributing!!!!
Just think of the VED as annual subscription to a club, you are then eligible to drive on the motorways and byroads of the United Kingdom, the government is looking at pay by the mile for the trucking industry both domestic and foreign.
Why they have won’t put road tax/ emissions tax on the price of the fuel , so the bigger the guzzler or the more miles you do you pay more I don’t know.
A question, All the cars that are taken because of no insurance etc and are not paid for or collected and are scraped. do the Councils /police/courts get money for the scraping as you would scaping your own car or do they have to pay for the scraping.
Part of the process is checking that all taxed cars are MOTd and insured 3rd party at least. Unless those are in place you aren’t taxed. If you are taxed, you have MOT and insurance. That was what the tax disc meant. But if you sold it taxed, there was no guarantee that the new owner was insured. Maybe that’s why they dropped the continuation. Maybe if they fined anyone who sold a car to someone who was banned from driving. And anyone who lent their licence to a banned motorist. If you couldn’t produce a copy licence in respect of a driver you sold your car to on private sale, you’d get a big fine. If it was a fake licence for the banned driver or someone else’s licence, they’d pay the fine. Dealers would hav to provide documentation to cover the seller too. You’d have to produce your driving licence to buy a car. And car hire companies would have to give tax and insurance documents to customers.
Thats no answer, who pays to scrap the cars that are illegal on the road and do the authorities get the money for the scrap or do they pay to have the car scrapped.
There are scrap yards and breakers who would kill for a contract like this, and they PAY for the vehicles!!! – all the decent cars they’d be able to buy on a contract, with a pre-agreed rock-bottom scrap price? it’s win/win situation!
This could be available at post offices, libraries etc…. Oops, wrong comment, sorry!
IMHO, chances are if your not taxed VED you haven’t got insurance, no MOT, also very little servicing and if your going that far you need to be taught a harsh lesson.
Impound the all 460,000 and crush them, they will be petrol or diesel thats one way of getting these polluting vehicles off the road.
As I’m part of this community that we live in, and I pay my way, the goverment has a duty of care to its law abiding citizens.
And no bleeting about civil rights you give them up when you flout the law of the land.
Why on earth doesn’t the Govn’t accept that they got it badly wrong and start issuing paper licences again and thus save the country a massive amount of cash. There will always be the fly guy who thinks he can get away with not paying.
Do away with road tax and stick 10p a litre on fuel, that way if you use your car a lot you pay a lot and the OAP’s Sunday drivers pay little, so if you use a car you cannot get out of paying
It’s a simple fix job, put an amount of money on the petrol / diesel price, you pay the road tax for what you use, it’s a fairly simple fix for everyone, can the government not see this ?
Bring back the tax disc also a sticker saying the vehicle has an M.O.T.
Your tax status only applies when the tax authority has evidence of a current MOT and Insurance. My tax begins in Nov, my MOT falls due a couple of weeks later (it was off the road for a while, and I had to tax it back to the beginning of the month). The Insurance is renewable at the end of January so I can spread the cost.
Bring back the paper tax discs. They also act as a reminder for my benefit. If Motorists had to show a visible disc it would act as a deterrent.
You should receive a letter reminding you to renew your tax, or just go online – like you are now, and sign up to continuous taxation.
You can already get an e-mailed reminder if you sign up for it.
Worst thing ever doing away with the paper discusses, was so easy to walk down the street or a car park and see the vehicles with no tax. Any vehicle now found with no tax should automatically be crushed and a list of names published, name and shame.
Elderly friends of ours were driving in the countryside and were stopped by Police who stated that their car was not taxed or insured and “they must leave it there”.
The driver produced the road tax receipt and valid Insurance certificate from the glove pocket, and the Police departed muttering about incorrect computer information.
Ever since then I’ve carried a copy of my Road fund receipt, and Insurance certificate in my car glove pocket, and strongly suggest you do the same.
I and our local police have reported an individual numberous times who always has 2-3 un taxed vehicles on the road who cannot get insurance because of his numerous convictios and not one has ever been lifted by DVLA.
Tax car means tax it and if lose it we’re to perhaps mean CRUSH IT INSTEAD, instead of just being towed away and waiting to have the penalty fines paid. Cars that’s not taxed usually are cars not insured either or mot from what I’ve learned from all those programmes on tv.
So I think Lose the car should mean to have it CRUSHED INSTEAD. Then more people will get messages to tax as they’ll be scared to have their car crushed !!!
Simple, either add the tax cost to fuel or display an MOT disc which is only available once tax has been paid. This would ultimately prove that the car is fit for the road.
Why isn’t road tax done away with and they just add the cost to fuel? Those that use the roads more, pay more, simple. This would cut all this nonsense out of clamping, reinforcing, admin etc which yet again, honest people pay for!
Clamping, enforcement and fining is all big business for private businesses and local councils to generate money. Bwhy would anyone want to get rid of a profitable sideline. That s why taxing fuel to cover road tax will never happen. I also believe that fuel taxing should be used to cover car insurance. Meaning the more you drive the more you pay. No discriminating against young drivers who are pushed out of the car market, job market by unscrupulous, greedy insurance companies. We are all paying for the uninsured driver and this would eliminate that. Electrified vehicles could be charged an amount by mileage verified annually at mot
Young drivers aren’t discriminated against on account of their age per se; it’s due to their inexperience; older, inexperienced drivers pay higher premiums too.
It was, I think in 1937.
Those that use the road most and have the larger engines/consumption would be delivery vehicles of goods and people, vans, haulage,buses and taxi’s would be passing those costs on to us all. Government are not losing as much as you think, all the clamping firms put people in work and they and their employees pay taxes and spend money on goods.
It should have been obvious that there’d be an increase in tax evaders when the Tax Disc was dropped. However, the computer data base will very quickly produce a list of untaxed vehicles, they have there addresses, most are parked on the road at night, it would be simple to have a hit squad visit and clamp or better issue a fixed penalty notice at an amount much greater than the Tax and Insurance which they probably haven’t got either. this would fix it very quickly.
Why don’t they give people the option to print a disc at home after they have paid for the vehicle tax. As usual, the penny pinching ends up costing everyone more.
You only have to look at the welfare state to see that the likes of PIP and UC have cost the taxpayer a fortune and brought untold misery to thousands, instead of supposedly improving the situation.
I couldn’t agree more. Stick the tax on fuel so the gas guzzlers and long distance drivers pay the correct proportion of tax and nobody avoids it. Too simple for the powers that be methinks.
There are ANPR cameras pretty much everywhere, petrol stations, carparks and of course police patrol vehicles. Tax Dodgers can’t get away with it anymore.
I’ve seen in recent years a visible increase in abandoned vehicles and some of these look pretty good.
Remember to tell DVLA when you have moved address if you want a tax renewal notice through the post as to avoid an embarrassing wheel clamp on your vehicle.
When you have your post redirected, they also notify the local authority and the DVLA. Also the Passport office I think. You can get a list from the post office of who they tell.
Like everything our rulers do it always makes the problem bigger, why not create a hidden digital code in the number plates that be read by a reader and displays a signal indicating no tax and would make cloning more difficult.
I agree. In fact with technology it should be possible to have a Quick Read (QR) or barcode sticker on the roof and even do away with index plates
When you think about it why not give stickers with for your tax, insurance and mots to put on your windscreen then your neighbours could dob you in if you haven’t got them.
It is typical of this country SAVE A PENNY SPEND A POUND
Get rid of the VED and replace the lost revenue buy increasing the fuel tax, the more you use your vehicle the more you pay and save all those administration costs. Also like in France you have to display a valid insurance disk.
I seriously believe the end of the Paper Disk was an invite to avoid taxing ones vehicle. In my case I had bought a second hand car transferred my personal number plate and requested my refund of unexpired months. My new Tax was paid for the changed car. The refund came to me from the sold car, but also from the replacement. I retaxed the vehicle from the 1st of the month. The following year no notification to remind me of the due date. I have not been advised at any time since. It seems that paper disk was all we had to help us to keep taxed.