The end of the road for Road Tax discs

Paper tax discs have been around a long time. They were first introduced in January 1921, and have been a legal requirement ever since, displayed on the front windscreen of your vehicle. However, this is all about to change. From October this year, there will be no more paper tax discs issued. Sadly, you will still have to pay for your tax, they haven’t abolished that part of the system, but you won’t have a disc to display. All the records will be stored electronically with the DVLA, so a quick search will show whether or not a car is taxed. With number plate recognition technology being increasingly prevalent, systems will be set up to automatically check the tax of passing vehicles.

It’s the end of an era, but it will save you having to remember to change your discs for the new one when they run out. If like me you’ve got a fancy tax disc holder that’s securely attached to your car windscreen, instead of leaving it there with a sad empty space in it, why not use it a photo frame instead for your favourite pics, or get the kids to draw a picture on a disc shaped piece of paper. Your own in-car art gallery!

Photo by Jerry “Woody” from Edmonton, Canada (GREAT BRITAIN 1952-55 vehicle tax discs) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons