40% of motorcyclists not paying bike road tax
According to a new report just released by the Public Accounts Commitee, almost 1 in 4 motorcyclists are opting not to buy road tax for their motorbike, leading to suggestions that the whole road tax system for motorcyclists is a total joke.
In 2006 38% of rider s selected to flout the road tax rules and ignore buying road tax, a figure which is up 8% on the 2005 figure. This figure compares to 5% of all road users (up from 3.6% in 2005) and combined, the cost to the government in lost revenue is 214 million pounds.
Public Accounts Commitee chairman, Edward Leigh has accused motorcyclists of being criminals and stealing the government's money by refusing to pay for road tax and has even suggested that riders who do not buy road tax are often linked with other forms of crime.
The target for the DVLA to reduce overall road tax evasion to was 2.5% for 2007, and now it looks unlikely that this will be reached.
Its been suggested that motorcyclists to evade the road tax rules and refuse to tax their bikes should have their bike impounded with heavy release costs, and also have a number of penalty points put on their licence. Its even been suggested that persistant offenders ie those that regularly are late or do not tax their bikes, will be made to prepay their road tax in advance.
Its worth pointing out that if you do ride without road tax then your bike insurance is technically invalid as your bike is not legally allowed to be used on the road. This is a grey area, but its worth thinking about, just in case you happen to have a fault accident, or if your bike is stolen at the petrol station for example. For the sakes of the cost of 6 months road tax, is it worth the risk not to spend this amount compared to the cost of losing your pride and joy.
However, maybe if we didnt all feel so ripped off about everything this government tries to do to us then we wouldnt be so likely to break the rules in the first place.
Article by Dan.
Phil said,
February 1, 2008 at 10:13 pm
The Public Accounts Chairman is calling bikers Criminals. After the latest revelations of MPs paying wages to non existent workers, he should get his own House of Rubbish put in order first
jj said,
March 1, 2009 at 4:07 pm
screw the chairman, ita a rip off how can these small cars that are produced atm pay less road tax than a bike its a f~~~~ joke these smaller so called eco cars with 600+cc engines which have 4 wheels and tyres hitting the road only pay £30 a year tax in some cases even less when a bikes tyre contact patch wouldent even span 1 car tyre and yet they charge us 50/60 a year when bikes no no damage to the road and take up no room? its about time the bikers took action and we all stopped paying tax.