New motorist stealth tax? Again.....

[AndyMac]

With the new law in force on late/non road tax payers, I wondered if anyone had been done for being a few days late getting down to the post office.
The DVLA will check every month on who has not renewed on time and will apparently fine you £80 if you are even a day late taxing your vehicle, reduced to £40 if you get it done within the month.
This scheme will then be extended to MOT renewals next year.
I'm all for clamping down on road tax dodgers, but surely the government are again missing the main target. Road tax dodgers will just not register their vehicles and it will be honest citizens like you & me who will get caught out (as usual).
If you are selling a car you have to tell the dvla who you sold it to, but how do you prove they are who they say they are? As a seller you are liable for the fine if the new owner gives you false details.
Why oh why can't they just add it to the price of petrol and be done with it?

 

[ajmackie]

Good point! Is there any government in the next elections who will give us cheaper petrol / road costs???????????

 

[Bomber1]

Been a few days late renewing both the cars, no "tax" as yet.

 

[audi5e]

In SA, the local licensing departments generaly give a 30 days grace period to pay.

If I sell a car, I insist on the buyer giving me a copy of his ID book/card. That way, i some form of proof of ID. If it turns out to be fake, it is not my fault or responsibility. Ignorance of the law is one thing but I can hardly be expected to be able to recognise a fake ID...

As for more tax on petrol, i have to disagree. In SA 60% of the pump price is government levied tax, supposedly to cover 3rd party claims, fix roads, etc. In other words, 60% of what we pay dissapears into a great big hole (maybe pothole would be appropriate...).

 

[AndyMac]

60%! that's laughable, ours is 80%. We have the most expensive petrol in the world.
Unfortunatley we're not allowed to use ID cards in the UK as it violates our human rights to be a criminal.
It's a very democratic setup which doesn't discriminate against people who have chosen crime as their career. It works very well as law abiding citizens are happy in the knowledge that their hard earned income is funding underprivileged criminals. We also fund universites & colleges, called "prisons", where criminals can develop their skills.
This new law will apparently provide no grace period apart from reducing the £80 fine to £40 if paid within 28 days. It's gonna be fun at the post office on the first of the month.

 

[AndyMac]

One thing that occurred to me is why are the dvla/gov't wasting public money with their poster campaign encouraging people to grass up road tax dodgers, if this system has already addressed the issue?

 

[Khufu]

like their classic advert for clamping dodgers using chitty chitty Bang bang - a car that due to its age is exempt LOL.

My boss bought a motobility car which it also exempt. He bought it 1 week before the end of the month and had to go to the tax office personally. They told him that he would have to have the tax start from the month and not the month starting the next day or he would be fined for the week we had not Tax on it! Told him where to go - we have trade plates, but how lame...

 

[AndyMac]

Eeking out the real criminals

 

[cheechy]

[ QUOTE ]
AndyMac said:
One thing that occurred to me is why are the dvla/gov't wasting public money with their poster campaign encouraging people to grass up road tax dodgers, if this system has already addressed the issue?

[/ QUOTE ]

And that campaign is laughable. One person I know has been grassed up numerous times for having no tax and no insurance but the plod wont take any action (Not me I hasten to add). Totally bizzare /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[imported_maviceuk]

What new law in force on late/non road tax payers ?

 

[kgough]

I recently saw a DVLA camera van at the side of the road. I guess they use character recognition of number plates and compare with the latest database of who has paid! It's a shame that this amount of effort and technology is not used to actually catch criminals and not just making life difficult for mainly law-abiding people. I too know of someone who was banned from driving before he even got a licence. This never stopped him from owning several different cars with no tax, MOT or insurance for ten years or more!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[ajmackie]

That technology is being used in some parts. i watched a police program where they had number plate recognition cameras on police cars in london and the computer would flag up certain cars. some were illegal immigrants and some were not driving with insurance, which is still a crime especially if they crash into you.

 

[AndyMac]

The new law was stealthily introduced in Jan 2004.
This allows the dvla to simply check their database of registered vehicles against road tax applications and send out fines willy nilly to anyone which doesn't have a current disc, no matter what the circumstances. If your car is off the road, you'll still be fined unless you have applied to the dvla with a SORN declaration stating your car will be off the road.
This means they no longer have to catch you on the road without a disc, so god knows why they're bothering to use hi tech OCR/camera's as this is now irrelevant.
MOT's (& possibly insurance) will be handled in the same way next year. So very much Inland Revenue stylie.

 

[ajmackie]

yeah it makes me realise how lucky i am. would be fun to have a car with gas jets, but wouldn't be fun to be in the situation to use them.

 

[Khufu]

aye Audi5e, I saw a program about some of the gangs in Johannesburg. Some real scary stuff, and that was the police LOL

 

[audi5e]

You must be talking about the idiot police who were using their dogs on Mozamibique's finest illegal immigrants?

Personally I have no sympathy for either of them.

 

[audi5e]

So the Scots from the deepest darkest parts of Scotland actually are civilized then?
Believe it or not the police in deepest darkest Africa are about to start using video technology in their vehicles. Surveillance equipment is being used in our major cities now, with an accompanying significant drop in crime in those area's.

 

[Khufu]

hey, we surprised an American tourist once when he found out we had colour TV here! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/lol.gif

 

[audi5e]

That's where you can have some real fun, look at them with a blank stare, then gradually widen your eyes and ask with a sense of awe if they really do have television in America/England.

We once had some numbskull ask if there are lions and tigers still wondering the streets of Johannesburg. I told no but if he waits long enough at a Zebra crossing he should get to see a herd or two..... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/lol.gif