The UK Government is losing out on £107million per year as a result
The number of cars without tax has increased by 1.8% in 2017 and half of all cars with no Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) are over 10 years old.
As a result, the UK Government is losing out on £107million per year because of the number of people who’ve failed to pay the road tax for their vehicle.
According to the Department for Transport (DfT), there’s around 750,000 cars in the UK with no road tax, which has led to a rise in road tax evasion from 1.4% in 2015 to 1.8% in 2017.
The figure has been classed by the DfT as an “upper estimate”, saying “some” lost revenue could have been recovered.
Number of cars without tax increases by 1.8% in 2017 © Copyright Jaggery and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
It also shows that 12% of untaxed vehicle are still being driven even though they’ve been declared as SORN and shouldn’t be on the road – this figure stood at 1% back in 2015.
However, the DfT says the rise of untaxed vehicles “could be due to the effect of major changes to the licensing system which took place in October 2014.”
The paper tax disc was abolished to save on paper and at the same time, the chance for drivers and dealers to be able to transfer road tax from the old owner to the new one also disappeared.
The Department for Transport’s figures also showed that 51% of all unlicensed cars are more than 10 years old, whilst 5.8% of motorbikes were found to be untaxed.
Recently it was revealed that the number of drivers finding their vehicle clamped for not being taxed had almost doubled since the paper tax disc was abolished in 2014.
Last year, over 118,000 drivers had their vehicles clamped for not ensuring they had road tax, an increase from 84,660 in 2015 – in 2014 the figure was almost half of what it was in 2016 at just 60,000.
When a vehicle is clamped for having no road tax, the driver must pay £100 on the day for it to be released, any longer and this could increase to £200.
“Our enforcement teams are out and about on the roads around the UK all year. Their vans are equipped with number plate recognition cameras, so any vehicle that isn’t taxed is at risk of being clamped or impounded,” said DVLA’s national wheel-clamping manager Bethan Beasley.
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