Pubs Landlord has no car tax

[giggles321]

To cut a long story short........the landlord of the pub has no car tax, it expired May 2010. Who other than direct gov.uk would be interested in knowing this? the people that own the pub that he runs?? the council??

[bednobs]

it's all on a database

[lardhelmet]

The general public report loads of vehicles to us as "abandoned" knowing full well they're not, but they are untaxed. We investigate all the vehicles they've called in and report all untaxed ones to the DVLA at the end of every month. Don't know what good is does though.

[AlBags]

Justifies some peoples jobs
Generates revenue (yes, that old favourite again!)
: )

TBH, I always think .. Let them do their own dirty work.

[Hopkirk]

Unless he has SORNed the car, they will send him a fine anyway,even if no one reports him.

[New Judge]

A strange point of view, AIBags.

Yes, such action does generate revenue – that’s precisely the idea of Road Tax and those seeking to avoid it (like those seeking to avoid any other form of tax) should pay a premium if caught. They are simply passing their savings on to all the others who do pay.

As for members of the public doing their “dirty work” – the work is not at all dirty, no more than that of a member of the public who helps the police catch a mugger is. In fact, a far more useful facility would be if some method of reporting uninsured motorists were easily available. At present it is difficult to establish if a vehicle is covered by insurance if you are not involved in an incident with it (unless you break the Data Protection laws and look in up on the Motor Insurers’ database). It is even more difficult to get the police to take any action, and uninsured vehicles present a far greater hazard that untaxed ones ever will.

[jake-the-peg]

Not really like catching a mugger though is it NJ - that is after all a crime of violence or at least of threat of violence.

More like reporting someone who's not telling the truth on his income tax return or doing cash deals to avoid paying VAT

[Dodger666]

Motorists should have to display a current insurance disc as well as a tax disc.

[oldhamfan]

The Police DO deal with out of date car tax; but it must, as in this case, be more than a complete month out of date. They can have it recovered.

[New Judge]

No, you are quite right, jake. Of course there are degrees of seriousness and my comparison was not perhaps very well chosen. However, I do not see tax evasion as a “victimless” crime because to a greater or lesser degree we are all victims of it.

The issue I have is that helping the authorities in such a matter is somehow seen as “dirty” work. Of course people should be free to help or not as they wish. But those who choose to help should not be accused of somehow undertaking “dirty work”.

Your idea of an insurance disc, Dodger, is a good one. It has been suggested in the past but rejected because of the complications caused by the fact that drivers are often insured to drive cars other than their own, so they may be insured to drive a vehicle although that vehicle may not be specifically insured in its own right. However, with the Road Safety Act 2006 comes a provision that all vehicles kept on the road must be continuously insured, so that objection is largely overcome.

[Davethedog]

Ring up your local council and tell them the car has been abandoned they will say there is nothing they can do, when you tell them the tax has expired and it hasn't been moved for months, they will be there whithin the week.