Tax disc rant

MrFunex

MrFunex

MrFunex

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Just renewed my tax disc for 12 months today at a quite extortionate price of £245.

This isn't the rant though! Why, if you renew for just 6 months is the cost £134.75?!?! That's far in excess of half the charge for a whole year's tax!

Why have the government decided to screw over people who might not be able to afford a whole 12 months tax on their cars? I appreciate that two tax discs would be required instead of one, along with the appropriate admin, but an extra £24.50 is ridiculous! Bar-stewards! :mad:
 
I make it £12.25 added on. That is 10% of the cost of the 6 month tax disc.
I wonder if that's the answer? I agree it isn't fair as the cost of issuing a tax disc is the same regardless of the amount charged for it.
 
Its like anything, the less you buy the more it cost.

Try a 1 month insurance policy.
 
markweatherill said:
I make it £12.25 added on. That is 10% of the cost of the 6 month tax disc.
I wonder if that's the answer? I agree it isn't fair as the cost of issuing a tax disc is the same regardless of the amount charged for it.
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Yeah... £24.50 per year. It's ridiculous.
 
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The paperwork has to be done twice, I don't see what the problem is. If someone can't afford an extra £25 for tax, then get a car with a smaller engine. A car pre-2001 with a 1.6 engine is considerably cheaper than £245 /year to insure and I would bet the difference between 6 months and 12 months is smaller too.
 
ci_newman said:
The paperwork has to be done twice, I don't see what the problem is. If someone can't afford an extra £25 for tax, then get a car with a smaller engine. A car pre-2001 with a 1.6 engine is considerably cheaper than £245 /year to insure and I would bet the difference between 6 months and 12 months is smaller too.
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A pre 2001 1.6 engine car would cost £205 per year to tax.
 
Lakeland said:
at least the money goes into a big pot to help fund the upkeep of our roads, oh sorry, i meant speed cameras, potholes and dangerous junctions are not a high priority
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Nope. Road and related infrastructure maintenance comes from Grants issued from general taxation.

Road Tax hasnt existed since 1934 iirc. VED is not ringfenced for road maintenance.
 
You have to pay tax everywhere.
In most European countries there are two, registration tax and an annual tax based either on emissions, or engine size, or output, or a combination, etc..

In the UK you only have to pay registration tax once, in other countries, every time the car changes hands a registration tax must be paid.
 
vonhelmet said:
You're right, those are the only overheads the DVLA has...
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But we're not debating the other overheads of the DVLA here, the only difference between renewing your tax every 6 months as opposed to every 12 months is that another small, round bit of paper needs to be produced. This is the only extra cost here and something's extremely wrong if this does indeed equal £24.50.

I'm not saying most other companies don't do this, or arguing about the morality of the issue, just that in this particular instance, the percentage difference over the year is rather high. I'd not noticed this before.
 
Its probably a set amount for 6/12 months pus a fixed fee per disc, i.e 6 months is £110 + £25 = £135 whereas 12 months is £220 (2x£110) plus the same £25 = £245

that's my guess anyway, you only pay half for the use of the roads because your only using them half as long, but the admin work/etc for the disc is the same for either disc, I mean they don't pay less for their website/call centre if the people using them are only registering for 6 months, and if you only register for 6 months at a time they go through 2x the paperwork, postage, etc
 
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ubersonic said:
Its probably a set amount for 6/12 months pus a fixed fee per disc, i.e 6 months is £110 + £25 = £135 whereas 12 months is £220 (2x£110) plus the same £25 = £245

that's my guess anyway, you only pay half for the use of the roads because your only using them half as long, but the admin work/etc for the disc is the same for either disc, I mean they don't pay less for their website/call centre if the people using them are only registering for 6 months, and if you only register for 6 months at a time they go through 2x the paperwork, postage, etc
Click to expand...

This man makes sense
 
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