Fined for not paying £0 on my road tax

Aretnap

In days of yore a "vehicle licence" was a physical object - a coloured circle of paper which you displayed on your windscreen. Normal people called them "tax discs", though that term wasn't strictly correct. To get one you had to

(1) Go to the post office
(2) Present your MOT and insurance certificates
(3) Pay the appropriate fee (Vehicle Excise Duty) and
(4) Sign a form

For tax-exempt vehicles the VED was zero - but you still had to do steps (1),(2) and (4) every year - and display the licence in your windscreen.

Nowadays of course the Vehicle Licence is an entry on a database rather than a piece of paper and the process is generally done online rather than at the post office - but it still has to be done.

In days gone by getting a licence for an tax-exempt vehicle served an obvious purpose. Displaying the licence served as a check that the car was insured and MOTed - or at least that it had been at some point in the last year (which was better than nothing in the days before the internet, online databases and ANPR cameras). Arguably nowadays there's less reason for making people click a button online to relicence zero-rated cars every year, but the law tends to move more slowly than technology so like it or not, we still have to do it.

force_ten

you still need to apply for VED/tax even if you don't have to pay anything

if you had gone online and used your reminder you could have applied for a years VED/TAX and the amount to pay is £0.00 but the car is then classed as taxed

many people with cars that are zero rated for VED fall foul of this including many disabled people

Nasqueron

force_ten wrote: »

many people with cars that are zero rated for VED fall foul of this including many disabled people

Evidence? Statistics?

Not reading your renewal letter/email is no excuse

GothicStirling

force_ten wrote: »

many people with cars that are zero rated for VED fall foul of this including many disabled people

I've never forgotten. Bought car in April 2015, it gets MOT in February and Taxed (£0) by the end of March.

Rover_Driver

GothicStirling wrote: »

I've never forgotten. Bought car in April 2015, it gets MOT in February and Taxed (£0) by the end of March.

It's not forgetting, it's the confusion of the word 'tax'. The people who think that as their car is 'tax free' (V.E.D = 0), they do not need to do anything when the 'tax' (vehicle licence) is due for renewal, and then find the DVLA taking action for not renewing it.

Cornucopia

To be fair, it made sense when there was a physical "tax disc" that even if it was zero-rated, you still had to obtain one and display it.

I, too, find it a surreal experience to have the following dialog with DVLA each year:-

- Reminder letter to renew at cost of £0.

- Go online and pay £0 to receive nothing.

- Check that £0 has been paid, and the VED has been renewed.

Is there a particular reason why the £0 renewal is not automatic, does anyone know? Is the DD scheme the same, or different?

AdrianC

Rover_Driver wrote: »

It's not forgetting, it's the confusion of the word 'tax'. The people who think that as their car is 'tax free' (V.E.D = 0), they do not need to do anything when the 'tax' (vehicle licence) is due for renewal, and then find the DVLA taking action for not renewing it.

You'd think the renewal notice would be a clue, wouldn't you?

But, no...

davemajor wrote: »

I got a letter through from DVLA saying that my road tax was due for renewal and the amount was £0.

I thought this was an automated letter and didn't pay much attention to it.

Cornucopia

For most bills, receiving one marked "£0" would be a fair indication that it could be safely ignored.

AdrianC

Cornucopia wrote: »

To be fair, it made sense when there was a physical "tax disc" that even if it was zero-rated, you still had to obtain one and display it.

I, too, find it a surreal experience to have the following dialog with DVLA each year:-

- Reminder letter to renew at cost of £0.

- Go online and pay £0 to receive nothing.

- Check that £0 has been paid, and the VED has been renewed.

Is there a particular reason why the £0 renewal is not automatic, does anyone know?

Because if the amount changes for that particular vehicle, the process doesn't.

So if your car is £0 VED because it's in the disabled tax band, then the eligibility for that may cease.
The <100g/km CO2 band A VED may rise in the next budget.
The historic 40yo+ VED may rise in the next budget.

The process remains the same, the cost changes.

Also - for a car to be taxed, the MOT is checked on the date of the tax starting. Without a current MOT, where needed, it cannot be taxed. While it's taxed, it must always be insured.

AdrianC

Cornucopia wrote: »

For most bills, receiving one marked "£0" would be a fair indication that it could be safely ignored.

It isn't a bill. It's an indication that you need to take action to explicitly declare the vehicle as being on the road, triggering MOT and insurance checks. It just happens that, for most vehicles, that declaration comes with a cost.

There's nothing new about this.
Historic vehicles have had to do it since 1993.
<100g/km CO2 vehicles have had to do it since 2001.
Vehicles in the possession/use of disabled people have had to do it for decades.

It just happens that recent developments mean that a larger number of people are now having to do it, and simply failing to read the notification they're sent.

Still, it'll be a short-lived problem, with this year's changes to VED.