The Locksmith Journal Jan-Feb 2014 - Issue 30 | Page 26

INDUSTRYNEWS SPONSORED BY ADVANCED KEYS End of the road for the ‘tax disc’ From October 2014 motorists will no longer have to display their road tax disc in the windscreen of their vehicles. Motorists will still be paying Vehicle Excise Duty but the Treasury claims there will also be savings of £20m for Britain’s hard-pressed motorists as a result of changes to the way car tax can be paid. The number of windscreens checked for tax discs by officers has dropped 75 per cent in the last five years, thanks to the electronic vehicle register that is used by both traffic police and the DVLA. A police source said: ‘the tax disc is no longer needed for enforcement purposes; the police use number plate recognition equipment. If they pull you over they can immediately tap into this database and see whether the car is taxed and insured and what the driver