Vehicle Road Tax Disc – Don’t be caught out, know the rules

October 1st 2014 will mark the biggest change in vehicle tax history as we see the end of the paper Vehicle Road Tax Disc. When taxing your vehicle from this date forwards you will no longer receive the iconic little round paper tax disc and our windscreens will be bare. The reason for this change say the DVLA is that the paper vehicle road tax disc has become redundant over time and the police rely on the DVLA’s electronic vehicle register and the ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) technology to check whether a vehicle is taxed or not and getting rid of it will apparently save taxpayers around £10 million every year and removes administrative inconvenience for businesses over the country. The new rules that will come into effect will be:

A tax disc no longer has to be displayed even if the car has vehicle road tax remaining, however you are still legally allowed to display an old tax disc

The vehicle road tax will not now transfer over to the new owner when a car is sold. The seller of the vehicle will be issued with a refund for any full calendar months left on the vehicle tax

A buyer must purchase the vehicle road tax immediately so not only will they have to arrange the insurance they will also have to arrange for vehicle road tax before they can even drive the vehicle away

To buy your vehicle road tax disc you can do this online or by calling 0300 790 6801 or by visiting a Post Office branch.

With no paper tax disc how then can you check a suspect vehicle. To check the MOT and vehicle tax status of any car you can go to www.vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk

If your vehicle is classed as Historic which qualifies for free vehicle road tax disc you will still need to tax it and also vehicles that no longer require an MOT i.e. pre-1960 still need to be ‘taxed’ although it is free and even though there is no longer a disc to show it.

Will this new way forward cause any issues or will it all be easy and hassle free –  no doubt we shall see.