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Labour MP Brian Donohoe is calling for tax discs to be scrapped suggesting that paper discs affixed to the windscreen is old fashioned and should be unnecessary in the 21^st century, whilst pointing out that the cost of creating the discs is £5 million a year and £14 million to send out suggesting that there must be other ways of displaying whether road tax has been paid including Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras. However, the police don’t agree saying that tax discs are vital for Read more »

The AA has suggested that the way we pay for Road Fund Licences be changed to a monthly direct debit system whilst retaining the option to pay annually, in a similar way to TV licences. As they pointed out through their head of public affairs, Paul Watters, ‘We always favour methods that make payment easier.’ It therefore makes sense to introduce a method that helps to collect more of the overdue licences especially as the latest Government figures show that road tax evasion has increased by Read more »

Insurance and fuel duty increases have been blamed for the inflation busting increase of 6.3% announced by the RAC in their Cost of Motoring Index. The average cost has increased by £346 over last year’s cost taking it up to £6,000. Depreciation has also had an effect although some costs such as Vehicle Excise Duty (car tax) and car finance have dropped. The annual study assesses the running costs of 17 new cars from the Toyota Yaris to the Land Rover Discovery. Each model’s bills are weighted Read more »

Lease rates will have to increase for some of the larger ‘gas guzzlers’ as a result of the new showroom tax. However, there are some winners. If your new car spits out less than 130 g/km of carbon dioxides then you will pay no showroom tax and low road fund licence (car tax). The highest showroom tax is £950 for vehicles throwing out over 255 g/km of carbon dioxides. Aimed at discouraging large environmentally Read more »

The new road fund licence rules come into force on the 1^st April. For some it is good news as those with low emission cars will see the cost of their RFL or road tax reduced, in some cases to zero, but a big row has broken out because drivers have to renew before the 1^st April to ensure that the car is taxed at all times but because the DVLA was having a cup of tea they couldn’t be arsed to change their computer Read more »

As cars become more efficient and manufacturers strive to avoid huge fines that will be imposed upon them by the EU if they don’t hit the CO2 reduction targets set, VW announces its first car to achieve zero VED status (that’s zero car tax to you and me). The new model which is based on the Golf 1.6TDi S 105bhp has the Blue Motion features and includes stop/start system, regenerative braking, longer gear ratios, low Read more »

I mentioned the tax changes that will take place in April 2009 relating to company cars. However, some people are confused over the affects on leased cars whilst others still have concerns over their capital allowances after the changes have taken place. It would of course be wise to seek the advice of your accountant but in order to shed some light on a confusing situation – I hope this helps. First of all one thing will not change and that is the position with regard to ‘Low CO2 Emission Cars’. Whilst the threshold Read more »

After all the public outcry over the Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) reforms that were proposed by the Chancellor, a cross party committee has come out in favour of the proposals. When the Chancellor announced his plans to introduce the green banding retrospectively on not only new cars but also old cars pushing millions of used cars into higher tax bands the Tories and some Labour MPs condemned him for Read more »