MSE News: Revealed: 34,000 fined last year for not taxing vehicles which are FREE to tax

glider3560

My car has £0 road tax, and it's slightly frustrating having to "tax" it every year.


However the process is useful. It ensures the car has a MOT (England, Wales and Scotland are computerised, NI is not and a GB car can be MOTed in NI, so continuous enforcement is not yet possible).


The process could be improved by allowing £0 tax to be paid by annual "direct debit" where the "tax" will renew automatically every year providing the MOT is logged electronically, as it can do for people who actually have something to pay.

Nasqueron

Paul_DNAP wrote: »

It would have been much clearer if we still got the little paper disc every year - you still need a new paper disc, even if you're getting it for free. But in the paperless world it's less obvious that you still need to obtain your updated "virtual tax disc" every year.
It's always confusing when you get an invoice for £0, how do you pay nothing, do you even have to pay it? Maybe the "no VED" should be altered to a token amount, say a penny, so they say "you need to come and give us £0.01 to get your new year's VED"

How is it different or clearer when the form is the same? The government have a free alert service that sends you an email when the VED is due and the DD is about to be taken. Not having a paper tax disc is no excuse, if you're that bad at remembering, write the date on a post-it and put that in your disc holder

Aylesbury_Duck

Nasqueron wrote: »

How is it different or clearer when the form is the same? The government have a free alert service that sends you an email when the VED is due and the DD is about to be taken. Not having a paper tax disc is no excuse, if you're that bad at remembering, write the date on a post-it and put that in your disc holder

Exactly. I don't understand why people who bemoan the disappearance of the tax disc don't just make their own. It's easier to to stick a note in the car than it ever was cutting out the disc and inserting it in the holder.

I seriously doubt those people registered the date in the disc every time they got in the car, anyway.

seatbeltnoob

Its not tax free, it's £0 tax as it stands which can change next April. It is a nuisance to police ANPR and also to DVLA who sometimes do random checks in certain high risk areas and on the roadside.

VT82

cjdavies wrote: »

Does this help?

http://acierta.us/v11-reminder-letter.html/ideas-collection-v11-reminder-letter-also-letter

http://oliff.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/CarTaxV11.jpg

Thanks for that. Having seen it, I find in favour of the defendants lol. A lot of sympathy for people caught out.


If the DVLA was a private company that had a regulator to answer to, or had a reputation to protect rather than being a public sector monopoly, they would have created a letter specifically for exempt car owners with 'no you don't need to pay tax, but yes you still need to do something' written in big letters. Not agreeing with the views of the 'god people are so thick' apologists. The world has moved on in the last few years, and in a world where businesses (at least pretend to) care about their customers, they try and help them, not try and catch them out. It just seems like public sector monopolies are exempt from this!

alastairq

All the excuses for folk ''not being aware'', makes me wonder, what else these drivers and registered keepers are unaware of, about keeping & using a motor vehicle on the public highway?

Being responsible for, and driving, a motor vehicle has Duties & Responsibilities in Law.
We seem to have become a society where Duties are deemed inconvenient.....how long before 'ignorance is no excuse in Law', becomes exactly the opposite?

Oh yes, we're there already!!

VT82

alastairq wrote: »

All the excuses for folk ''not being aware'', makes me wonder, what else these drivers and registered keepers are unaware of, about keeping & using a motor vehicle on the public highway?

Being responsible for, and driving, a motor vehicle has Duties & Responsibilities in Law.

To borrow an expression from the Twitter - that is a rather blatant example of whataboutery.

EdGasketTheSecond

Bureaucracy gone mad!

Herzlos

Paul_DNAP wrote: »

It's always confusing when you get an invoice for £0, how do you pay nothing, do you even have to pay it?

Good point. No other invoice I've seen for £0 requires any action.

Patty641

I envy those whose cars are eligible for nil tax. My car is 500cc and belt-driven petrol. DVLA won't accept it for zero tax and I have to pay the same rate as myhuband's 2000cc Peugeot! Despite much correspondence with DVLA, I'm assured that this is correct!!