New car tax rules "make people pay twice"
As the new paperless system for car tax comes in today, the AA is warning that many motorists will be taxed twice when cars are bought and sold.
Under the new system, when somebody buys a car, they won't be able to take advantage of any unused time on the disc and will be required to pay from that date on.
The seller, meanwhile, will be able to claim for the unused period - but not for part of the month. So if a car is sold on the 1st of the month, both parties will pay tax for that month.
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"Someone driving a car that costs £500 a year to tax would lose £41 if they sold it at the beginning of the month. Likewise a buyer purchasing a car mid month would have to pay Vehicle Excise Duty for the entire month," says AA president Edmund King.
The DVLA has a website where anyone can check the tax status of a vehicle by entering its registration number. However, King is worried that, without a paper tax disc on display, it will be harder for recovery teams to check that a car is legal to drive.
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Potential issues
"There are also potential issues for our patrols towing a vehicle which they will not know immediately if it is taxed. Likewise if a vehicle appears to have been dumped on the roadside the lack of a valid tax disc is often an indication that this is the case."
Many people are concerned that the lack of a paper disk will lead to a rise in car tax evasion - currently affecting only around 0.6 of vehicles on the road, according to Department for Transport figures. However, as the RAC points out, there's a danger that this could rise.
"There is real concern that without the need to display a disc, less scrupulous motorists will take a chance and try to evade payment. This already happens with insurance and adds an average of £33 to the premiums of the law-abiding majority who pay their insurance," says RAC chief engineer David Bizley.
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"If a similar number of drivers avoided paying car tax, we could be looking at around £167 million of lost revenues to the Treasury, far exceeding the £10 million that will be saved by no longer having to print tax discs and post them to vehicle owners."
Problems when renewing
Other concerns relate to the reliability of the automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras that will be used to check cars on the road - and whether there are enough of them, particularly in rural areas.
Meanwhile, anybody attempting to renew their car tax today faces big problems. "We're still experiencing exceptionally high volumes on our online car tax service – please try later," reads the DVLA's latest post on Twitter (along with a dozen variations since the moment the site went live).
The DVLA is citing "unprecedented demand" - although it's hard to understand why this should be the case, especially in the middle of the night.
It suggests phoning its automated renewal system on 0300 123 4321 instead, and drivers can also visit the Post Office.
Read more about motoring costs on AOL Money:
Car tax changes - what does it mean for you?
London 'most costly' for car cover
Think-tank calls for big changes to motoring taxation
