NEW CAR TAX METHOD

The 'new electronic system' is just what they've had for years. Its easy to forge a tax disc. A cheap, widely available printer will do it these days. Coppers know this and don't rely on the presence of a tax disc. The patrol cars all have ANPR built in, and it beeps at the driver if it picks up a reg plate that doesn't link up to a valid tax record, insurance and MOT etc or if the car has been reported stolen. That's been the case for years.

The only thing that changes in practical terms is that you'll no longer have to display a piece of paper in your windscreen.

I believe they said that in the short term, you'll still be able to use the post office if you can't do it online, but also they have the awful automated telephone system.

 

It wouldn't be really though. It would mean that the likes of me, who use a lot of fuel just to get to and from work, would be penalised for being willing to take a job that's not right on their doorstep.

If fuel cost much more than it does, it would mean I'd be stuffed. With my current car it wouldn't be worth me going to work, but I couldn't afford to change my car for a more fuel efficient one because I'd either not be working (because I couldn't afford to get there) and so not bringing any money in to buy a different car, or spending all my money on fuel, in which case I couldn't afford to buy another car. The only viable option then would be for me to just go on the old king cole, which means I wouldn't be able to pay my mortgage, so I'd lose my house.

It would be fair if the government introduced some sort of rebate for when the car is being used for commuting, but that would be an administrative nightmare for the government (who lets face it, just can't manage even the most simple things), so it wouldn't happen.

Now what they could do, is employ someone like me, ie your average software developer, to build a system that adjusts your tax code, within bands, depending on how far from home your job is. Then they could charge everybody the same rate of fuel duty, thus keeping it simple, but you get it back in the form a reduction on your income tax.

As it stands, we pay tax on our income, tax on the fuel we use to enable us to earn that income, tax again for the privilege of simply owning the vehicle that enables us to get to work, tax again on the mandatory insurance we have, and in the case of the fuel, the double whammy of also paying VAT as well as fuel duty.

 

Wouldn't work, full stop.
Some of us actually use ours cars for recreation
And we even change jobs

 

Personally I think it all went wrong when road tax was based on emissions, my next door neighbour pays nothing for his Fiesta.
I pay £475 for my mondeo.
I wouldn't mind paying a bit more than him, but that is ridiculous.

Say we all bought what he is driving?

What would happen then?

 

Try this https://www.gov.uk/check-vehicle-tax

 

But its not exactly there, in yer face, for everyone to see, is it?

 

I use my car for recreation too. It would work, because you'd only get a rebate based on a fixed travel allowance coming off your income tax. I do about 300 miles a week just travelling to and from work. Lets say there were bandings, <100 miles per week, 100-200, 200-300, 300+. Lets say then that 20p per mile, based on the lower figure in the band that you fall into, gets added to your tax free allowance.

So for me, I'd be in the 200-300 miles per week band, so they treat it as 200 miles per week. Multiply by 48 (the number of weeks in a year minus the mandatory holiday allowance), gives 9600 miles that you can claim back at 20p per mile. That means that on top of my tax free allowance of whatever it is (about £10k I think), there'd be another £1920 on my tax free allowance.

That means I'd be more able to afford to get to work. But if I then go on to clock up more miles for leisure, as I would and do, then it makes no difference to my tax break because no matter how much I use the car, I'm in the same commuting mileage band.

It doesn't matter if you change jobs, because revenue and customs knows all about your work anyway because its tracked when your P45 changes hands, and quite often they re-check your tax code every time you change jobs anyway. They know where you live and where you work, so its easy enough to work out the mileage band.

It falls down when the job itself is a driving job, but then I guess with a small amount of uncomplicated software development (and the only reason software projects fail for governments is because of all the red tape they put in themselves), would soon sort that.

 

Toooo many people tooo many variants, it wouldn't work, especially if you worked at different sites at different days,or travelled from one job to another during one day.
You would need to inform the revenue of your every move via car.

It needs simplifying not making more complicated.

 

No, you'd just need to tell revenue what your typical annual work mileage was, and there'd have to be an element of trust. Exactly as is currently the case when they don't question tax offsets for reasonable mileage expenses when you actually get sent somewhere that is not your normal place of work.