The days when we used paper tax discs will soon be finished, but latest surveys indicate that drivers don’t much about this new tax road change. The new rules will be effective starting from the 1 October 2014 and it seems that not many of the drivers are informed well about this.
The elimination of paper tax discs doesn’t mean that you won’t have to pay road tax. The tax will remain and the DVLA and police will rely only on digital records. So the only thing that will change is that your windscreen won’t have to have a sticker on it.
The DVLA will increase the number of options to pay road tax. In addition to the option to pay road tax every 6 or 12 months you can now choose to pay monthly. Paying monthly will be the more expensive option (5% more than paying per year). However, the DVLA expects this option to be used by around 50% of the drivers.
Buying and selling cars will be affected by the new road tax. Sellers and buyers won’t have the chance to buy or sell a car with tax included. The taxation will be left for the final buyer.
If you want to use a new car that you have just bought, you will need to tax it. There are few ways to tax it – through the DVLA’s website, by calling their automated phone service and by using the Post Office.
The good news is that if you are selling your car you will need to notify the DVLA and the unused tax will be refunded. You must notify the DVLA when selling your car, otherwise you can face a 1.000 GBP fine.
Remember that you must use the tax disc until October 1st 2014. If you remove the disc before that date you risk a 200 GBP fine.
£35 million is the sum that the state will lose because of VED evaders in 2013/2014 period. This estimation was made by the Department of Transport.
Tax discs have long history – they were first used in 1921 as part of the Road and Finance Act of 1920. Vehicular taxation has even longer history and it has its origins in the 17th century Great Britain.
The colored tax discs appeared in 1923 while the perforated tax discs appeared in 1938. In that period, the discs usually lasted within the year of issue.
It was 1961 when the 1-year system of payment was introduced to the public. The same year the design was improved making it very difficult to forge. The Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency became responsible for dealing with these discs in 1974.
In the 70s the four-month tax disc was replaced by the six-month tax disc. The design of these discs had two major changes in 1987 and 2003. In 2003 the taxation rates were changed and they were based on the vehicle’s engine size. Today road tax is based on several factors – year of production, CO2 emission, engine size etc.