1st October Tax Discs are at last abolished - did you know?

[Zak33]

It occured to me today that simply LOADS of people don't reaslie that, as of 1st October, you won't need to show a tax disc on your car.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/d...f-the-tax-disc

Also from 1 October 2014, the paper tax disc, first issued on 1 January 1921, will no longer be issued and required to be displayed on a vehicle windscreen. Vehicle tax will still need to be paid but with DVLA having a digital record of who has and has not paid, a paper tax disc is no longer necessary as proof that vehicle tax is paid.

though you'd better know if you didn't already.

[filbert]

Yes known a long time, also I understood you can pay monthly by direct debit, and if you sell your car you have to claim any unused tax back, so you can't buy a car with tax already on it.

[Andy3536]

Yes known a long time, also I understood you can pay monthly by direct debit, and if you sell your car you have to claim any unused tax back, so you can't buy a car with tax already on it.

I think you almost certainly can buy a car with tax on it. You've been able to claim unused tax back on cars for as long as i can remember, but generally people don't unless the cars going for scrap or registered off the road.
Tax will actually work in the same way it does now, selling a car on with months left of tax will still be the norm.

[Guy]

About time! Now just need to get rid of the paper counterpart to the driving licence photo card. It's an utter pain having to dig it out for hiring anything. Nearly every other country manages without having to have it, and when hiring outside of the UK I've never once been asked to show it!.

Oh and yes I did know, surprised there hasn't been more publicity about it though.

[Barakka]

I think you almost certainly can buy a car with tax on it. You've been able to claim unused tax back on cars for as long as i can remember, but generally people don't unless the cars going for scrap or registered off the road.
Tax will actually work in the same way it does now, selling a car on with months left of tax will still be the norm.

Nope. When you sell a car from 1st October any remaining tax will be cancelled and must be claimed back by the seller. It will not be possible to sell a car with remaining tax on it, it must be purchased by the new owner. See Here

Makes sense really as someone could sell you a car telling you it has 4 months tax remaining, but without a tax disc you have no way of knowing. Even if they showed you a receipt they could then claim it back the next day and you'd be driving an untaxed car.

[Tonka777]

Twas news to me, thanks Zak!

[stevie lee]

so what about smaller mobility scooter shaped electric vehicles?
class 3 ones that can drive at over 4 mph need a (currently nil value) tax disc to be driven on the road, but don't have any other form of registration displayed on the vehicle.

the same rules of the road apply to these. https://www.gov.uk/mobility-scooters...-and-insurance

[mikerr]

Makes sense really as someone could sell you a car telling you it has 4 months tax remaining, but without a tax disc you have no way of knowing. Even if they showed you a receipt they could then claim it back the next day and you'd be driving an untaxed car.

That will annoy a great many people who used to buy bangers with x months TAX & MOT on them
- it meant you didn't need to pay extra or touch them mechanically for a year.

Now you effectively have to pay 6/12month tax on top when buying a car.

[Andy3536]

Nope. When you sell a car from 1st October any remaining tax will be cancelled and must be claimed back by the seller. It will not be possible to sell a car with remaining tax on it, it must be purchased by the new owner. See Here

Makes sense really as someone could sell you a car telling you it has 4 months tax remaining, but without a tax disc you have no way of knowing. Even if they showed you a receipt they could then claim it back the next day and you'd be driving an untaxed car.

So, when you buy a car it'll have no tax. But you can't go online and buy tax, as you won't have a reminder with the code and the computer system won't be able to identify you as the owner?
Surely something has changed there too? Can you tax vehicles that aren't registered to you from 1st of Oct? Otherwise you'd be driving around for a month without tax before the DVLA got round to changing their computers???

[Gerrard]

I knew about the no tax disc but did not know about the new hassle of selling cars on. I just picked up my new car today and should be receiving my last tax disc next week at some point.

[Barakka]

So, when you buy a car it'll have no tax. But you can't go online and buy tax, as you won't have a reminder with the code and the computer system won't be able to identify you as the owner?
Surely something has changed there too? Can you tax vehicles that aren't registered to you from 1st of Oct? Otherwise you'd be driving around for a month without tax before the DVLA got round to changing their computers???

Apparently you will be able to use the V5 form from the seller to tax the vehicle, either at a post office, online, or over the phone.

[peterb]

So, when you buy a car it'll have no tax. But you can't go online and buy tax, as you won't have a reminder with the code and the computer system won't be able to identify you as the owner?
Surely something has changed there too? Can you tax vehicles that aren't registered to you from 1st of Oct? Otherwise you'd be driving around for a month without tax before the DVLA got round to changing their computers???

You don't need the reminder to pay VED provided yo have the V5 registration document to enter the V5 document reference number.

[mikerr]

Sounds like a nice earner for the government if the cancelled tax refund is not sent automatically.

Sell car, tax is cancelled. It's then up to the owner to claim refund (and many wont...)

[scott1541]

I like the idea of getting rid of the physical tax disc, but this new system seems much more of a pain than the old one.

[kalniel]

There used to be a couple of people in our neighbourhood who often parked inconsiderately - they also tended not to display in date tax discs (whether they actually had valid tax or not I couldn't say). When their parking particularly annoyed someone it wasn't uncommon for a tip off to be made to the DVLA and a penalty notice would suddenly appear on the car (and a few others - seems like when they go out they have a looksy around the area as well). On one occasion I think the parking was bad enough they got towed at the same time (or maybe they had had enough repeats or something).

Presumably there are enough ANPR systems around that are going to start alerting police to untaxed/insured/MOT'd vehicles, but I do wonder if someone uses a car only for local journeys and can't be bothered with insurance/tax/mot will ever get picked up now.

[MrComputerSaint]

Interesting, I didn't know.

I suppose it'll mean we see more ANPR on Police vehicles as the cops would normally look at the tax disc to see if it's in or out of date.
Probably makes it easier for uninsured drivers to not be pulled over (if they also have no tax).