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From next month a big change in the car industry will dawn in a new era for the car industry. It has been confirmed that from October 1st the tax disc for your vehicle will no longer be needed, and is getting scrapped. The idea behind getting rid of the tax disc is that it will now be easier to pay for your road tax and the system in general will be a lot to cheaper to run overall. It will be easier to now check if your vehicle is taxed as number plate recognition will now be used to check this information out. Cameras are being brought in that can recognise your license plate and tell if you have road tax for your vehicle. From the first of October you can legally take you tax disc out of your windscreen and get rid of it altogether. This change is not affected if you still have time left to run on your tax so the same rules apply. The tax disc removal does not mean price margins for tax are altered as it has been confirmed that these will stay the same although from November road tax will have the option to be paid monthly. The option of paying your road tax via direct debit will also be brought into play.
How will this new tax system alter your experience ?
With the introduction of direct debit payments for your road tax, the DVLA can continue to take payment for your road tax on a monthly basis until you notify them not to. This means that you will no longer have to remember to do this yourself which could be a nice benefit. There will also be some changes to the way selling vehicles is done. It has been confirmed that whereas in the past and current time if you sell a vehicle the tax will carry over to the new buyer, it has been stated that now road tax can not be carried over with the vehicle being sold. The DVLA must be made aware of the sale and the seller of the vehicle will be entitled to a refund on the remaining amount of money left on the tax. The buyer of the vehicle however will be required to purchase new tax on the bought vehicle. When a car is sold and the DVLA are notified a tax refund is automatically issued to the seller. If the DVLA are not notified of the sale, the seller could be faced with a £1,000 fine and if speeding tickets or fines are produced on the vehicle after the sale, the original driver will receive these charges.
What does this mean for the future of the tax payer ?
This brand new system that will be brought into place from October will introduce a saving of around £10 million a year for the tax payer. The police at this moment in time often use cameras and number plate recognition devices already to check road tax on vehicles rather than checking out the actual tax disc. So a lot in that respect will remain the same into the future. New changes that will affect you if you are buying a vehicle is that to check whether the car in question is currently taxed or not you can visit the governments website and enter the registration number of the car which will then tell you what you need to know regarding the cars tax. From October the first there is not a lot you need to do except for get rid of your tax disc altogether, everything else is already taken care of.