Should Tax Discs Make a Return?

It hasn’t been long since the car tax disc was abolished. While some people are simply attached to their tax discs for sentimental reasons, there’s actually a very good reason why they should return.

It was thought that by getting rid of the discs, the government would save around £14 million a year, it has now been shown that this simply isn’t the case. The problem is, many people are now simply not taxing their cars and are getting away with it too. It is believed that this is costing the government about £93 million a year. This obviously far outweighs the savings made by abolishing the discs.

This is backed up by the statistics regarding the revenue from car tax. Before the discs were scrapped, revenue was at £6.1 billion per year. Since the discs were abolished, this has taken a massive nose dive and now stands at £5.7 billion. While any criminals avoiding paying their car tax will be laughing as they spend their saved cash, the rest of us are not too happy about this and many people are demanding a return to the old system that had worked perfectly well for decades.

It seems the government are making a lot of mistakes lately. Are they panicking and making rash decisions in an attempt to make savings? It does seem to look that way at times. The Renewable Heating Incentive is one such scheme that probably seemed like a good idea at the time but is estimated to have cost the government £400 million more than expected.

Interestingly, a whistleblower spotted the flaws in the scheme and outlined the shortcomings of it in an email to the Department of Enterprise a couple of years ago. Sadly it was not acted on. It could have saved them millions of pounds!

So what do you think? Do you think a return to tax discs is the way forward? It would be frustrating to think about all the money that must have been spent in setting up the new, current system, but scrapping it before it costs the government even more money might well be the best option. Or do you have any other ideas? The government doesn’t seem to have a huge about of good ideas at the moment so perhaps you could suggest a decent alternative?

Or perhaps you simply loved the old tax discs and just miss them on your windscreen?