Well it seems we got off lightly for a change.... Piston heads are reporting this as well
"The biggest news of all was that the 3p per litre fuel duty rise, which has been postponed for several years and was due to kick in this
autumn, will now be cancelled altogether. To put that into context, 10,000 miles of average fuel consumption in a manual Porsche 911 Carrera S will
cost £46 less than it would have done, assuming today’s average fuel prices. The Treasury also adds that prices today are 13p per litre cheaper than
they would have been under previously-announced plans.
There was more good news for enthusiast motorists, too, with the announcement that the Government’s cut-off date for classic cars’ VED exemption will
now be extended by one year, meaning cars produced in 1973, like the gorgeous Ferrari 365 GTB above, will now be tax exempt. There’s no word yet on
whether this extension will continue to roll forward in future years, though.
One other significant change for motorists is that SORN declarations will no longer have to be renewed each year. From now on, all SORN applications
will be open-ended, and as such will apply until the car’s tax is renewed. What’s more the grace period for failing to display a tax disc once
purchased has been extended to 14 days."
The SORN thing will save the DVLA loads of cash, which is why it was done. Think of all the paperwork and admin that went into sending out renewals
each year, shame our road tax will not decrease to reflect the savings !!!, still what do you expect, could be worse though....!
The line " What’s more the grace period for failing to display a tax disc once purchased has been extended to 14 days." I don't
understand this, if you get a disc at the post office it usually goes on the car right away, and for postal ones may take a max of 5 day to arrive,
are they now saying DVLA are slow at proccessing the discs or that the Postal service is faulty ?
[Edited on 20/3/13 by Westy1994]
I still wonder why we're even bothering with displaying tax discs, they're pretty much meaningless and it's all registered online
anyway. Even a post office purchase can be done electronically and go straight on to the huge DVLA public domain database.
The SORN stuff will certainly make things easier, I do question how many cars are actually long term SORN though.
I have to agree with you on the need for a papertax at all and I am sure I read somewhere ( can't think where) about them stopping them altogether, when my disc was nicked a year or so ago, I asked a cop why I still needed to display one, and he said mainly for folks that walk past !!!, otherwise they are redundant, I can see you are taxed just by logging on at the station.
I agree ... After all there is no requirement to display a piece of paper to prove you have insurance, or an MOT, or even a driving licence which are
all far more important.
I once drove around with an expired tax disc for 6 months due to a cock-up over delivery address. I thought that if anyone asked I could show the
confirmation email on my mobile from DVLA .... But nobody ever did.
Scrap it ... It would save Osbourne a fortune.
I am quite looking forward to the £2000 employer's NI contribution that I won't have to make
The lack of a fuel duty rise is more than made up for by the extra VAT they receive due to the increased price of fuel.
Scrap tax disc then you will still need to show a bit of paper to confirm MOT and insurance, I know these can expire the next day but .....
Also as a buyer, current tax disc registered to the car does provide a bit of reassurance.
From the wording you still have to have paid the tax so that probably means someone somewhere has had a tax disc take more than the current time to
arrive and been fined or someone has made the claim.
I can't wait till they get rid of the tax disc, hopefully while they're at it they can make a years tax expire in a years time rather than
the end of the month like they do now, especially since it's very difficult to buy or sell a car with tax legally as it has to be insured.
quote:
Originally posted by morcus
From the wording you still have to have paid the tax so that probably means someone somewhere has had a tax disc take more than the current time to arrive and been fined or someone has made the claim.
I read somewhere that all parties are in favour of working towards getting rid of them, but I've heard one of the stumbling blocks is contracts with the post office as reductions in post mean they don't want to lose out on work, but that could be BS as I'm not sure where I saw it.
That would not surprise me in the least, since most most decisions are based on politics and not common sense.
I dont know the full ins and outs of it all yet, but so far, from what I've heard, I've not got a single complaint.
What boils my pisss is how whatever milliband it is constantly complains nothings good enough, it was his lot that put us into this, and now tory have
to wee us all off by taking everything away. Well, this seems quite reasonable this time as far as I'm concerned
Outside of the motoring aspect, I hope the 'Help to buy' scheme raises house prices for the rest of us, I guess I am not alone living in a house that is less than what I paid for it only 6 years ago... Someone once told me' You cant loose money with bricks and mortar', how wrong they were... Mind you it is still cheaper than renting...
I agree, this budget is pretty good given the state the country was left in by Labour when the coalition took over combined with the ongoing struggles
in Europe which keeps sucking away any seeds of growth in the UK. As a conservative voter I'm obviously biased but I really admire the ability of
David Cameron and George Osborne to stay the course despite serious short term unpopularity amongst those who don't have a clue what they are
talking about, and I include Milli-Balls in that statement. I mean, does anyone seriously think that Balls and Milliband would do a better job? God I
hope not! We would be in sooooo much trouble with them in charge of the finances!
We need at least three parliaments of debt reduction before we let Labour loose with the credit cards again... In the meantime, businesses and public
sector need to learn to spend within their means just like the rest of us.
quote:
Originally posted by mark chandler
Scrap tax disc then you will still need to show a bit of paper to confirm MOT and insurance, I know these can expire the next day but .....
Also as a buyer, current tax disc registered to the car does provide a bit of reassurance.
I am biased I just don't like Osbourne, and don't trust any member of the current lot -- although I do love the way
"Ming" Campbell occasionally pulls the rug from under them and is them forced to toe the line.
I think the current cabinet have a clue about real life and if they did wouldn't a tinkers curse for anybody but their tight little
clique.
I am astounded by the farce of taking a token penny off the price of beer when there is pressure to introduce a minimum price for a unit of
alcohol (having worked in Buckfastville aka Coatbridge where teenage drinking is a major problem I can only hope this in introduced soon.
The minor changes to Sorn and car tax law are mainly due to the fact the existing system was generating too much chaos at Swansea I now have
waiting 4+ weeks for a road fund refund. I suspect that fact more than a few VSCC members are also Tory party members or donors may also
have influenced these minor measures.
I he had really wanted to do something positive about vehicle licensing he could shift some of the fuel tax burden from petrol engined cars on to
diesels, we now have too high a percentage diesel cars on the road. By shifting I mean reducing fuel duty on petrol by a small amount and
increasing the road tax on diesel cars (nb not trucks or other commercial vehicles) particularly larger SUVs it would reduce the number of
polluting diesels on the school run without affecting those high mileage diesel users.
[Edited on 21/3/13 by britishtrident]
quote:
Originally posted by britishtrident
I think the current cabinet have a clue about real life and if they did wouldn't a tinkers curse for anybody but their tight little clique.
[Edited on 21/3/13 by britishtrident]
I was surprised to see on my V11 tax renewal form that " From 18 November 2012, vehicles manufactured or registered before 1 January 1960 will no
longer need an MoT "
Doesn't apply to me but you would think the vehicles that old really would require an annual check, if not six-monthly, like London private hire
taxis.
On the subject of diesel prices, drivers of such vehicles have had it easy for years, it costs far more to produce it and only constitutes half of
what petrol you can get from a barrel of oil. Petrol users have been subsidising diesel users for years, in reality it 'should' cost roughly
twice the cost for diesel as it would for petrol.
Yes, I was taken aback at the MOT cert I got last year - just a piece of white A4 which could be reproduced quite easily, and as for insurance certs,
I have to ask them if they still send paper ones as I don't use a printer and need the paper one for taxing at P.O., looks like it won't be
long before everything is electronic, i just hope that the Gov are working on good hack-proof software - if thats possible. Imagine being a hackler
and taxing your own car again for free !!....... or perhaps update the MOT records... It doesn't bear thinking about really.
I also think there may be some truth in the governments decisions about old cars with rich flash owners of classic / vintage cars who
'donate' to the parties concerned, I have mixed feeling regarding the free MOT for pre 1960 as well, on one hand the owners of such cars are
probably more into their cars than we are, but then I have seen some pretty rotten cars around as well ( take the thread on that old Triumph for
instance)
I am not really into politics, with their bitching at each other all the time about who did what and when, I just want someone with some common sense
to see whats happening outside , in the real world, not some jumped up wannabe 'thinks' he / she knows best. Whilst they have made some
pretty hard cuts to you and me recently regarding taxes and benefit stuff, perhaps, just perhaps we may have a gov that can sort things out.
I await to see if its true - but I wont hold my breathe !!, lol.
On a personal note; my pension has yet again been increased. This time by 1%. The reality is, yet again it is worth less this year than last year as inflation is running at rate more than that. Well f*~ck 'em!
I can't be bothered with politicians....
A wise man once wrote(douglas adams) :-
Anyone capable of being voted into power should not be allowed into power for precisely this reason.