Petition to stop the extra charges on Vehicle Tax

Chappers77

Hi

I've started a govenrment petition to remove the extra charges when paying vehicle tax in installments. We can all pay council tax in installments and it costs nothing more than paying in one go, but for some reason with vehicle tax, the DVLA are charging extra to do this.
I get the reason it was started - they had people filling out and posting bits of paper, but these days we don't even get that so I don't understand why we need to pay up to 10% more per year.

In my opinion this works out as an extra tax on the poorest members of society who can't necessarily afford to pay the whole amount in one go.

I can't post links yet, but if you agree you can find the petition by searching for "Abolish the extra charges on vehicle tax for paying in instalments" on the petitions website.

Thanks

Matt

JamoLew

thanks but no thanks

Chappers77

Hi JamoLew.
Out of interest can I ask why?
I can see a lot of people have seen this post but only 1 person has signed and if I'm honest I'm not sure why more people don't think these charges are unwarranted.
Matt

badmemory

It costs money & personel to administer.  Council tax has always been paid in installments, even in the days when it was always only 2 installments, therefore doesn't need an extra charge to pay for it as it has been included from the beginning.

JamoLew

badmemory said:

It costs money & personel to administer. 

This is why 
Plus - most car tax rates aren't exactly budget busting and if they are then maybe owning a car isn't the right decision (or buy a cheaper one to tax)
My last car was £400+ - current one is £20 or so

Chappers77

@badmemory - thanks. Vehicle Tax has also always been payable in installments and this cost more because of the extra overhead in creating tax disks and sending them out, but they don't do that any more. From an administration side, there's arguably less overhead than there used to be as everything is now automated. Yes I get a reminder once a year but if I paid by direct debit then this wouldn't be needed meaning even less overhead and should be cheaper than paying yearly? Other than the reminders, what admin is there for my car whether I pay yearly, 6 monthly or monthly?

@JamoLew - Fair point, most tax rates aren't big money in the grand scheme of things but that's easily said when you have the money to afford it. Yes, people can buy cars which are cheaper to tax, but then the cars that are low tax don't suit everyone's personal circumstances (e.g. need a larger car for a large family or work purposes).

I'm not trying to be awkward or annoying here, just trying to understand 

JamoLew

You can get a pretty big car and not be in 3 digits - current car Audi A4 = £20 a year, plenty big enough for most 

Willa actually be interesting to see if peoples car owning habits change with the recent(ish) changes in VED

Chappers77

Well, that's blown that argument out of the water then   
I still don't agree there's any extra admin for paying monthly though. I guess I've got till December to try to persuade another 99,985 people round to my way of thinking 

It will be interesting to see, minimum of £140 p/a for anything except full electric. I know I can't afford one of those yet and I wouldn't class myself as struggling...

JamoLew

Totally agree about the electric pricing - most of the cars that would suit/appeal to me are at least £5-10k more than i would be comfortable paying. - Love the new Mustang mach-E for example
The more "affordable" ones are just little twee boxes - and they still aren't cheap
Untill electric vehicles cost the same as their equivalent diesel/petrol models they won't/can't catch on to the masses.
Once that happens, the government will undoubtedly find a way of recouping all the VED from the fossil burners (VED on electricity anyone!!)

Chappers77

I'm just looking now and the ones I actually could afford I wouldn't want. To be honest, I'm a bit of a car snob (freely admit that) and I like bigger cars - a Renault Zoe for example just isn't going to work for me...
I suspect that when they do catch up the government will be going back to the black box idea for tax so we'll end up with letters such as "here's your tax for the month, of and at this point you slipped above the speed limit by 2 miles an hour for 30 meters, so here's your speeding fine too"

Chappers77

Plus, I have the added issue of living in an apartment with no charging points in the car park yet. Something tells me I wouldn't be popular if I trailed a power cable out of the window!!