Car Tax - you can drive your vehicle without a disc for 5 days!

StaceyAKelly

I just decided to share this information for people that arnt aware. Im terrible for leaving my car tax online till last minute and was stressing a bit about not having my new disc when my old one expired but I found this usual bit of information.

I hope it helps someone in the future :-)

I ordered my tax disc online but it has not yet arrived, is it against the law to drive/park my vehicle on the public highway whilst I wait for the disc to arrive?

Since 1 September 2008, you can legally drive or keep your vehicle on the road up to five days from the end of the month without displaying a valid tax disc provided you have made your application online or by telephone before your current vehicle tax/SORN expires.

Strider590

Ok strictly speaking you MUST display your tax disc.

However, to ANPR camera's you'll appear to be taxed....

Someone could report you, but the authorities will be unlikely to take much notice once they've run your plate.

As yet the DVLA have not tapped into this as another source of income, they only send the ANPR vans around to streets/homes which have SORN declared vehicles. Checking tax disc's is a manual task and far too costly.

I personally don't foresee you having any issue at all, I don't leave my car anywhere that would be at risk of being spotted, I would carry on using the car..... BUT I am not you!!!

thenudeone

It's not really news; it appears on the reminder notices.

StaceyAKelly

Strider590 wrote: »

Ok strictly speaking you MUST display your tax disc.

However, to ANPR camera's you'll appear to be taxed....

Someone could report you, but the authorities will be unlikely to take much notice once they've run your plate.

As yet the DVLA have not tapped into this as another source of income, they only send the ANPR vans around to streets/homes which have SORN declared vehicles. Checking tax disc's is a manual task and far too costly.

I personally don't foresee you having any issue at all, I don't leave my car anywhere that would be at risk of being spotted, I would carry on using the car..... BUT I am not you!!!

So this is incorrect on the direct gov website then?

Since 1 September 2008, you can legally drive or keep your vehicle on the road up to five days from the end of the month without displaying a valid tax disc provided you have made your application online or by telephone before your current vehicle tax/SORN expires.

Scooby_Doo.

StaceyAKelly wrote: »

So this is incorrect on the direct gov website then?

Since 1 September 2008, you can legally drive or keep your vehicle on the road up to five days from the end of the month without displaying a valid tax disc provided you have made your application online or by telephone before your current vehicle tax/SORN expires.

Not so we are talking about two offences.

1. Not having a disc.
2. Failing to display one.

Keith

Strider590 wrote: »

Ok strictly speaking you MUST display your tax disc.

No, for 5 working days after the purchase of a tax disc you can legally use the road without displaying a disc, providing that you purchased a disc before the expiry of a disc or SORN.

wealdroam

StaceyAKelly wrote: »

So this is incorrect on the direct gov website then?

Since 1 September 2008, you can legally drive or keep your vehicle on the road up to five days from the end of the month without displaying a valid tax disc provided you have made your application online or by telephone before your current vehicle tax/SORN expires.

StaceyAKelly, why did you not post a link in your first post?

Without a link it does appear that you could be making this up.

As mentioned earlier, there is nothing new here.
This information is on the reminder letter.

Here is the link to the DirectGov page you meant to supply.
It says...

I have not received the tax disc. Can I use the vehicle without the tax disc displayed?

When you apply for a tax disc online or by using our phone service you are able to legally continue to drive your vehicle for up to 5 days after the tax disc has expired while you wait for the new tax disc to arrive. This will only apply when you have applied for a new tax disc before the current one expires. You should continue to display the expired disc on your vehicle, until the new one arrives.

Strider590

Keith wrote: »

No, for 5 working days after the purchase of a tax disc you can legally use the road without displaying a disc, providing that you purchased a disc before the expiry of a disc or SORN.

This 5 days is to account for late delivery of tax disc's sent by post, I assume it's fairly recent.... It's an extension of the law, but essentially the tax disc MUST be displayed.

Nilrem

Aye, failure to tax and failure to display are two related but different offences.

The 5 working days grace is for if you have taxed online/over the phone before the expiry but it hasn't arrived by the start date.
You can still in theory be done for failure to display but it would take a fairly hard/jobsworth officer to do you for it as they can normally check the status via the control room etc, traffic wardens can also do you for it (but it may be able to be contested) - in other words, if you're pulled when waiting for the disc, be polite to the officer:p

From memory a lot of bikers are technically falling foul of "failure to display" as they often don't have anywhere to safely/securely display their tax disc, but will use a photocopy/note on the bike with the disc in their wallet/hidden somewhere (some bikes have a locking compartment) so it's safe but with them when they are on the bike.

Superbiatch

I didn't receive my renewal and I'd just changed my address on V5 and licence so figured it must have got lost in the confusion. Anyhow waited til payday (30th) and went online to buy my tax and found out this thread information which was reassuring.

The problem occurred when I put in my V5 ref number and reg plate, apparently my licence isn't due as it was renewed on 1st April :cool:

Obviously that isn't correct, but it has me worried someone might have a set of duplicate plates - how accurate is the database supposed to be? Is this just likely to be a mistake and I should call the DVLA to correct it?

StaceyAKelly

Well like I said, I didnt know and I was stressing about not having it on time so this information was really useful for me and I hope it helps someone else.

If you already knew then surely this doesnt apply to you?

Have a nice day x