fined £548 for not having road tax, !!!!!!? Need advice

geoffken

Thread reported to Devon Cornwall police for action so OP had better get his ducks in a row and plead insanity or else carry his soap with him next time in court!!!

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

geoffken wrote: »

Thread reported to Devon Cornwall police for action so OP had better get his ducks in a row and plead insanity or else carry his soap with him next time in court!!!

In the old days, this would be called a trouser job. In todays world, he gets a cuddle instead.

droopsnoot

Robin9 wrote: »

The discussion seems to have taken a large detour away from the OP request for advice of having received a bill for non payment off his road tax.

Doesn't matter. Once the OP saw that they didn't have the weight of the MSE massive rallying to support them as the downtrodden underdog fighting against the opressive regime, they left never to be seen again.

droopsnoot

Joe_Horner wrote: »

But that fact that we'd be worse off doesn't alter the fact that it would be a MUCH fairer system, especially for those on low incomes who need a car because they happen to be born / live in an area without decent employment, shops or public transport.

And of course, not paying for your VED just wouldn't be possible, so there would be knock-on admin costs removed through not having to use resources tracking and prosecuting offenders.

AdrianC

droopsnoot wrote: »

And of course, not paying for your VED just wouldn't be possible, so there would be knock-on admin costs removed through not having to use resources tracking and prosecuting offenders.

Because there wouldn't be any rise in the use of biofuels or "grey" fuel illegally imported. Oh, no.

droopsnoot

I considered a comment about "red diesel" and the like, but hadn't considered those who raid the local chippy to make biofuel.

Cornucopia

There's no need to move VED to fuel duty - they are there to achieve different aspects of policy.

The VED incentives are there to promote lower emission vehicles, and this in turn has encouraged the motor industry to produce more of them. Arguably, this policy has been very successful - if anything, it is public understanding that is lagging behind.

One aspect that could be better is policy on diesels. Many of the lower emission vehicles are diesel... but diesel fuel is more expensive at the pumps (and a good proportion of that is tax). It's not clear whether this is intended as a claw-back to reflect that the ideal is for someone to own a low-emission vehicle, but keep their mileage down. That doesn't really make sense, because even small-engined diesels only pay back over reasonably high annual mileage.

AdrianC

Cornucopia wrote: »

but diesel fuel is more expensive at the pumps (and a proportion of that is tax).

Fuel duty is the same for both petrol & diesel - a whiff under 58p/litre. Yes, the higher base price of diesel means there's a slightly greater VAT take.

One barrel of crude doesn't make petrol or diesel or heating oil or paraffin or plastic or whatever. It distills into various fractions, which vary in proportion. Different fractions are then refined into petrol to diesel. The diesel fraction is shared with heating oil and kerosene - and the good ol' laws of supply and demand come into play.

Diesel's only cheaper than petrol in other countries because of favourable tax treatment. And, again, we come back to making changes revenue-neutral...

Cornucopia

Yes - I suppose what I'm saying is that if the objective is to have a UK car fleet that pollutes less(*), then it doesn't make sense to put some people off by having the cost of diesel fuel higher than petrol. We should do as other countries do and have different rates of duty.

It would also help with rural fuel costs.

(*) by the Government's existing criteria.

Iceweasel

Cornucopia wrote: »

Yes - I suppose what I'm saying is that if the objective is to have a UK car fleet that pollutes less(*), then it doesn't make sense to put some people off by having the cost of diesel fuel higher than petrol. We should do as other countries do and have different rates of duty.

It would also help with rural fuel costs.

(*) by the Government's existing criteria.

Diesel is cheaper than petrol in most other European countries - which makes a lot of sense.

Check this fuel price site - it's updated every day - very useful if you're going on holiday abroad, whatever fuel type you use - filling up on the correct side of a border can save a surprising amount of money.

http://www.fuel-prices-europe.info/index.php?sort=6