The Vehicle Excise and Registration (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2014

The Vehicle Excise and Registration (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2014

From the Explanatory Note:

Schedule 19 to the Finance Act 2014 amends the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 so that it no longer provides for the issue and display of paper licences, whether they be vehicle, nil or trade licences. These Regulations make consequential amendments to various regulations having effect under the 1994 Act relating to the registration and licensing of mechanically propelled vehicles so as to reflect the changes to that Act.

Regulation 1 provides for the Regulations to come into force on 1st October 2014, which is the date on which Schedule 19 to the Finance Act 2014 will also come into force. Regulation 2 introduces Schedule 1 which contains amendments to the Road Vehicles and Licensing Regulations 2002; regulation 3 introduces Schedule 2 which amends the Vehicle Excise Duty (Immobilisation, Removal and Disposal of Vehicles) Regulations 1997 and regulation 4 introduces Schedule 3, of which Part 1 amends the Sale of Registration Marks Regulations 1995 and Part 2 the Retention of Registration Marks Regulations 1993.

Tax discs go, but not smoothly

The BBC reports that the abolition of tax discs has led to a certain amount of confusion - occasioned by having many more people than usual trying to renew online. That was probably inevitable.


The government is also getting some stick for the "double taxation" that is an inevitable consequence of the change in the vehicle excise duty rules: when a car is sold with VED remaining on it, the buyer has to pay VED from the beginning of the month but the seller gets no refund for the month in which the sale takes place. Will car sales become concentrated at the end of the month - claim a refund on the last day, retax on the first of the next month, keep it off the road in the interim (if that is even possible for the seller)? With everything being done online these days it might be possible to do the business each side of midnight so it is almost seamless.


The government argues that the extra revenue is very small, and that 65 per cent of cars are not sold with VED on them at present anyway, but the impression that they are squeezing a few more pounds out of the milchcow cannot be ignored.