The 1st of this month, October 2014, marks a significant change in UK motoring with the loss of the tax disc. That little circle of paper stuck to the inside of windscreens everywhere.
It’s significant in that it’s not just all the tax disc holder manufacturers going out of business overnight, but how we buy and manage vehicle taxation.
The road fund licence continues even without the indications that you have bought any, now it’s done electronically. There is no need to display a disc, which would be impossible anyway as the DVLA are no longer issuing them. Yet you can still go into a Post Office and hand over large amounts of cash and leave with nothing. Buying a ‘new’ car shouldn’t be any more difficult than before, with the options of buying tax online or by a 24 hour phone line.
The obvious downside is there is no tax to transfer, but a refund is issued upon sale of the vehicle, for whole months only of course.
This all looks to be beneficial to us overall, especially the option of paying monthly. With the average Jalopyist being into hard up motoring, shelling out a vast proportion (if not 100%) of your car’s value each year is a bit much, or every six months looking at the Jalopy staffers vehicles…
The major problem with this has been communication, or lack of and how these changes affect people. Basically it’s happening now and not next year, you still need to buy it, but it’s no longer an offence to not display a disc. The flexibility has improved and the direct debit scheme spreads the cost with half of the additional fee that buying it every six months used to add.
There, easy now isn’t it.
If you want to be confused, read the DVLA version by clicking on the link below.
