New AUTOMATIC fines for car tax dodgers

[Brind]

Car tax dodgers will face automatic fines from tomorrow under a new crackdown by the Government.

From 1 January, a change of law means that non-payers of vehicle excise duty will be identified by DVLA computers and issued with an automatic £80 penalty.

This will be reduced to £40 if payment is made within 28 days.

Offenders who ignore the notices could face prosecution and a minimum £1,000 fine.

The law change has been introduced in order to reduce the number of untaxed vehicles on the road, which is currently around 1.75 million.

It is hoped this measure will also help reduce the number of uninsured vehicles on the road as car tax can only be purchased with a valid insurance and MOT certificate INSERT INTO post VALUES (if required).

As registered keepers of vehicles are now legally liable for paying the tax, it is even more in their interest to inform the DVLA immediately of any change of keeper.

If they do not, they will still be liable for paying the vehicle's tax bill even after they have sold it.

This will result in the DVLA having a more accurate record of vehicle keepers.

In turn, this will make it easier for the police to trace an individual vehicle's keeper - a key factor in reducing car crime.

[Nick Mann]

:eek:

My tax runs out tonight. I was going to wait until friday to sort it out as I work next door to a P.O.

Methinks I am going to find an open one now!! :INSERT INTO post VALUES (

[Brind]

Join the club!!! mine runs out tonight on my other car.

[Nick Mann]

£165 worse off now.

Could have been a sizeable chunk of a boost controller, that.

[Spirit]

I agree with the new laws !

[zedy1]

need to tax my cavalier too

[Brind]

I bet this will catch a few people out!!! people whom simply wait a couple of days after before they do it, I don't think I know anyone personally who taxes their car beforehand, hopefully there will still be a few days grace to compensate for these people or there will be a huge uproar no doubt.
I agree it is a good thing but they should have given more warning!! I swear I wasn't even aware of this change until I read that! I heard something about it ages ago but that was it.
There is going to be loads of innocents caught by this!!!

I guess what with this talk about stopping points from being given to people caught by speed cameras they are going to rake in their money this way.

[Nick Mann]

I agree with the new laws !

As do I. There is nothing worse than people not paying. It is almost as if they consider themselves above the law. However, I am one of those people who is often disorganised enough to be without tax for a few days. I have never not paid. It will create a lot of bad feeling and probably cost a lot of money if everyone who is a couple of days late gets fined.

If that is to be the case, then it would have been nice to have a notice on the renewal form.

Oh well. Best get myself more organised!! :-D

[banjo]

I agree also, either everybody pays or nobody does. My bitch is that firstly most of the tax collected does not get spent on the roads, and let's not forget it is called 'the road fund license', secondly, whether you drive 10 miles or 100,000 miles a year it's the same, the low user subsidises the high user. If the tax was added to petrol then the more you use the roads the more you pay, but that still doesn't address the problem of the majority of tax not being spent on the roads, as it does in Germany.

[ReggieK]

Has this been on the news or in the papers of late? I, like Brind, have not heard anything about fit or ages. Must admit to not buying a paper for a while, and having just got Sky, not watching the news much but I do get regular motoring mags and haven't seen it noted in them either.

I'm as bad as everyone else in waiting until it has run out before replacing it, so hope there's a grace period, but to play safe will get mine in earlier now.

Agree it is a good thing, don't see why I should subsidise those that don't bother.

You would have thought that with todays technology it would be a simple thing to have a database to tell if a car is taxed and insured. And just as simple to have it give you a list of all cars that don't have both. A bit big brother perhaps, but we would all benefit...

[venomboy]

I've got a motorbike thats been in the garage for the last 4 years, do I have to tax this? You can't fill in the SORN declaration every time you put the car on the drive for a few months INSERT INTO post VALUES ( I've got the Mazda on the drive while I fix it up and sell it) this is bloody silly.
VB

[ReggieK]

I've got a motorbike thats been in the garage for the last 4 years, do I have to tax this? You can't fill in the SORN declaration every time you put the car on the drive for a few months INSERT INTO post VALUES ( I've got the Mazda on the drive while I fix it up and sell it) this is bloody silly.
VB

I may have this wrong but....

If it's been in a garage for 4 years then it's SORN isn't it? Also, I would have thought, that if you take it you car "off the road" for a few months that it will only become an issue if the tax runs out during that time? If it does then you SORN it, then when you want to put it back on the road you tax it again. As the VED runs for either 6 or 12 months taking your car "off the road" for a month or two wont normally be an issue will it?

However if you are referring to claiming tax back whilst it is off the road or suspending the tax, that I have no idea about. Don't know if that is possible? But is it is then I take your point that it could get messy if you do it a lot.

[venomboy]

I may have this wrong but....

If it's been in a garage for 4 years then it's SORN isn't it? Also, I would have thought, that if you take it you car "off the road" for a few months that it will only become an issue if the tax runs out during that time?

True, but:
a. I didn't know it would be off the road for four years I look at it every summer and start tinkering with it with a view to selling/riding it.
b; with a view to how long a has taken me the tax is likely to run out.
VB

[Brind]

Just like you venomboy, I wonder how many people find out that their cherished car or bike in the garage they have been tinkering with for ages starts giving their owners fines! or how many people that sold their cars in good faith all of a sudden receive a tax fine because the new owner didn't bother to change details and tax it etc or simply just sold the vehicle and hadn't planned to get tax just yet but kept it off the road from it being seen and hadn't had time to tell the DVLA yet etc.
We waited about 2 months before we got the new ownership details back from the DVLA after the purchase of our VR4, how can you be sure the SORN will reach them in time and they even do it in time and you end up being fined twice..

Sounds like a lot of futue hassle aswell to me. :rolleyes5

[zedy1]

just another way to make money,