End of the Road for Vehicle Tax Discs

Changes to Vehicle Tax discs came in from October 1. From this date you won’t have to display your paper tax disc on your vehicle and you can remove your disc even if you’ve got some time still left on it to run.

New technology, such as number plate recognition, now allows the authorities to check whether a vehicle is taxed without the disc having to be displayed.

It is very important however to realize that to drive or keep a vehicle on the road you will still need to get vehicle tax. The DVLA will still send you a V11 or V85/1 renewal reminder when your vehicle tax is due to expire.

Equally, when you sell a vehicle after 1st October and you notify DLA, the tax won’t transfer to the new owners and you should automatically get a refund for any time you’ve got left to run. The refund will be sent to the keeper’s details on DVLA records so you need to make sure that these are correct. DVLA will automatically issue a refund when a notification is received from the person named on DVLA vehicle register that the:

• vehicle has been sold or transferred

• vehicle has been scrapped at an Authorised Treatment Facility

• vehicle has been exported

• vehicle has been removed from the road and the person on the vehicle register has made a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN)

• person on the vehicle register has changed the tax class on the vehicle to an exempt duty tax class

As well as being able to tax your vehicle on-line or by using the automated phone service, it can still be done at your local Post Office which will also, from 1st November, offer direct debit as a way of budgeting for the cost. Payments can be made annually, 6 monthly or monthly (in the case of 12 month road tax)

Vehicles must still have a valid MOT in place

More about the road tax changes can be found on the GOV.UK website at www.gov.uk

For further information and advice, contact your local Citizens Advice Bureau or see www.adviceguide.org.uk.

Your local bureau – South Worcestershire Citizens Advice Bureau is open:

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 10am – 4pm, Wednesday (Specialist Debt Advice – by appointment).

Tel: 01684 563611.