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[Rog]

So, George want to dump the familar tax disc in favour of an electronic system.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25223631

We all know that with ANPR and electronic records it's very possible for plod to see if a car is taxed electronically along with insurance status etc.

My question is, is this just technology for the sake of it ? Small post offices will suffer further, will there be an incentive for an increase in plate theft and/or cloning ? Is plod really going to check every car he sees online instead of just eyeballing the windscreen ?

I can certainly see some advantages, but overall I'm just not sure 


.

[Kevin Wood]

With ANPR the piece of paper is pretty much irrelevant and a waste of money to produce, so makes sense to ditch it.

Paying 5% extra to pay monthly for a service that's used throughout the year is a bit of a cheek, IMHO. Won't be taking that up.

[Sir Tigger KC]

It won't make any difference whether we have a disc or not as there are no Bobbies walking the streets anyway! and if you get pulled over I expect that by the time Mr Plod gets out of his car, he will already know your tax, MOT and insurance status. 

Paying by direct debit isn't a bad idea, although I'd have thought it will create extra administration sorting out all those returned DD's! 

[Shackeng]

With ANPR the piece of paper is pretty much irrelevant and a waste of money to produce, so makes sense to ditch it.

Paying 5% extra to pay monthly for a service that's used throughout the year is a bit of a cheek, IMHO. Won't be taking that up.

...which according to the Times today: "The Treasury believes that motorists who choose to do this will collectively save £20 million a year"

Huh? I don't think so. But perhaps for the taxpayers in general.

[05omegav6]

The returned DDs just mean more money for the wbankers...

It would be nice to think that the money saved from posting all the tax discs bought online would buy some common sense at the Department of Very Lacklustre Apathy... at they very least they should employ another call centre I suspect however, it will be more a case of 'Oooh, look how much money and effort we've saved'...

Also technically my car doesn't require an MoT, the Council certify the fact that it is tested to above MoT standards every six months, so if I have an argument at the Post Office in the same town as the Council, what hope would I have on line

(As it happens, I have it Motd as well, for that very reason )

[cleggy]

It will certainly seem strange without a disc on the windscreen after all these years, anyone want to buy a holder

[omega3000]

Should do away with the road tax altogether an stick it on fuel  Runs off and hides 

[Sir Tigger KC]

I wonder if we will still be able to pay the tax at the Post Office or will it have to be done online. 

I always try to pay at the PO to give them a bit of support. Use it or lose it, you know? 

[biggriffin]

Should do away with the road tax altogether an stick it on fuel  Runs off and hides 

if they put road tax on fuel duty,watch the prices in the shops go up.
99.9 percent of everything is delivered by road.

[aaronjb]

As long as the ANPR works better than the cameras at the local shopping centre car park which, for some reason, never seem to recognise my plate on the way in..

..still, free parking Maybe I don't want them to be any better after all!

[biggriffin]

I wonder if we will still be able to pay the tax at the Post Office or will it have to be done online. 

I always try to pay at the PO to give them a bit of support. Use it or lose it, you know? 

i do like to use my lokal post office, but when its car tax time i steer well clear,
there's the old duffers who take all day to find the mot certificate they don't need as its all on the system,or the mummy with her kids trying to convince the post worker that the zafira is insured because here husband said it was.,
online for me takes 5 mins.
still use post office for parcels n letters.

[05omegav6]

Should do away with the road tax altogether an stick it on fuel  Runs off and hides 

Let's say you buy a tank of fuel a week...so 90x52=4680 at an average of 1.33. So that's £3600. The extra tax should only be 1-2p, but then that means you might pay £36-72 for your road tax. Someone driving a small diesel might manage to only pay half that...

The government would very quickly realise that this amount earns them very little revenue. So they make it 10p on the litre price. Suddenly, you're paying £360 pounds a year, an extra £100

Using the same numbers for myself, the first example I would pay £65-130. In the second, more likely scenario, that's £650 a year...

Applying the same numbers to trucks and buses, that would cost the transport industry about £6000 per vehicle each year, about 7 times what it costs to tax an artic at the moment. Great you might think, that'll mean all those foreign trucks will have to pay as well...

Wrong, they come here carrying 1000+ litres of fuel already, no reason for that to change, so we get shafted all round

I'll let you mull that over... then you can pop the idea somewhere warm and dark

[biggriffin]

I can remember when French lorries use to come to England to fill up,and uk trucks were charged tax upon entering France and the fatherland depending on how much fuel was in the tank, and woo betide any one trying to sneak tro with a.belly tank and not saying owt.

[05omegav6]

I can see the current lot saying a quarter tank limit, and just checking the gauge tbh

If we started insisting trucks came in with less than 1/4 tank, then the French would kick off, Calais would become a ghost town, as all the ships would go to Oostende and Zeebrugge instead... As would all the immigrants, and I have no idea what the Belgians would say about that!

[Sir Tigger KC]

I think it was Hungary, before they opened the borders in 2004, where you wern't allowed to go in with more than 100 litres.  They physically dipped the tank and would charge duty on any excess fuel you were carrying.