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Foreign vehicles with no road tax in the UK

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I don't know about you but I am growing sick of the number of foreign registered vehicles on UK roads.  I teach English as a Foreign Language and many of my students have told me that they have Polish, German, Latvian registered registrations because it is cheaper to pay road tax there.

Seven years ago I moved to Germany where I stayed for four years.  You may or may not have noticed that German number plates have two discs in the middle after the letters which indicate their town.  The police can scan these discs with a gun and find out instantly whether the car is taxed, MOT'd and insured.  Needless to say foreign vehicles are routinely stopped and notices are always served to re-register the car.  Obviously as a law-abiding citizen I did this as it was German roads I was using and not British ones, so it was only right that I contributed money to their upkeep.

However the Germans' tougher, meaner neighbour Austria have a completely dodge-free system and we, as good Europeans should borrow it from them.  Upon arrival in Austria all foreign vehicle must purchase a Vignette which is a temporary road tax sticker.  Up to 100km away from the border in Germany there are places to buy this dotted along the motorways and you can buy it on the border itself too.  It costs about 15 EUR for 10 days and is used so that private and commercial vehicles contribute to the roads that they are using - which is especially wise as most foreign vehicles in Austria are not-resident, they're simply passing through on the long drive between Istanbula and Paris or London.

... foreign vehicles may remain foreign registered for up to six months legally

There are very clear picture instructions telling you specifically where to place it on the windscreen so that police cameras can pick it up.  If it is wrongly displayed you have to pay a hefty fine and if your car doesn't have one, the police can and will impound your car.  They don't mess about in Austria!  You either do it their organised and efficient way or you pay the consequences.  There are no grey areas.

A foreign number plate One day after feeling personally aggrieved with a UK-Road tax dodger I went to police and asked what could be done about it as I knew that the car in question had been in this country for over two years.  I was told that foreign vehicles may remain foreign registered for up to six months legally.  I naturally explained that this car had exceeded this limit and then some.  The police officer said that it must be an uninterrupted six months - yes you guessed it!  That means if they take the car on a day trip to Calais or Dublin and then bring it back the whole thing starts again.  This is completely outrageous and sadly completely British - disorganised, vague and wishy-washy.

The police officer also told me that it wasn't a police matter unless the vehicle in question was breaking a law.  She advised me to tell a traffic warden but the problem with this is that in Kirkcaldy where I live, traffic wardens only patrol the town centre and only work between Monday - Friday 9am till 5pm.  Incredible on the downside it means that any Polish person that works in a factory with a car park and lives outside the town centre can get away completely Scot-free.  On the plus side though, it means now that I can utterly ignore all maximum 20 minute parking signs after 5pm and all day on Saturday and Sunday!  If you can't beat them, join them I say!

By: Jimmy Beaver


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meandmyself

meandmyself

Yup agree totally round the bend
Found a company that hired Camper Vans in the UK
all on Polish Plates!!!!
14/02/17 meandmyself
0
Bulldog

Bulldog

186 Sort:
Police round up dozens of homeless Eastern Europeans in central London immigration crackdown - but just TWO end up being put on flights home

If the uk border agency need a hand - let me know I've got a good honest team around ready to move these people on !

I THINK DAVID KNOWS HES OUT NEXTYEAR " let's do something quick to get votes in "
29/08/14 Bulldog
1
grumpyoldwoman

grumpyoldwoman

"We'll well learn English you joker"

To expand the contraction "we'll" - "We will well learn English", so you are including yourself in this KTSO?
31/03/14 grumpyoldwoman
-1
Keep the scum out

Keep the scum out

Im in Uk from 2001 never had british car always had foreign registred ,never pay any road tax and stupid insurance prices in stupid insurance company never pay any fine for speed or from trafic warden always park car on double line but never pay fine uk , not my problem british people are stupid and want pay but not my . in my country i have british bmw x5 with no uk tax , no uk , insurace , no uk mot is not my problem police in uk and my country are stupid i safe tousends pound for road tax and expensive insurace

We'll well learn English you joker - and may a ask where you stole the x5 from ?
Go home & stay there with the New police ANPR system they will soon be able to fully check vehicles from Europe too & all these Eastern European scum will have their cars crashed if not correctly insured !
31/03/14 Keep the scum out
0
Nick

Nick

nobody can calm the fook down when it comes to such issues. Britain is just being too lenient and we are the SOFT TOUCH of EU let's face it. Our politicians and police are fookin useless and highly corrupt.
18/02/14 Nick
5
ivan

ivan

Im in Uk from 2001 never had british car always had foreign registred ,never pay any road tax and stupid insurance prices in stupid insurance company never pay any fine for speed or from trafic warden always park car on double line but never pay fine uk , not my problem british people are stupid and want pay but not my . in my country i have british bmw x5 with no uk tax , no uk , insurace , no uk mot is not my problem police in uk and my country are stupid i safe tousends pound for road tax and expensive insurace
17/02/14 ivan
-1
Yodeller

Yodeller

Whatever the sentiments show here you really need to get your facts right.
The vignette in Austria is a motorway tax. Everyone in Austria, resident or not has to pay this to use motorways (and then extra to use some parts that have long tunnels).
They sell 10 day, 1 month or 1 year Vignettes. And yes, if your one is out of date the fine is Euro 120 (I know as I forgot to renew one last week). The road tax is included in the car insurance premium.
Having got that bit straight, if you live here you can keep a car for only 1 month, or if not a resident for 1 year. And they do check on motorways.
08/02/14 Yodeller
-1
Handyman

Handyman

You've all missed the point as far as I can see.
Firstly, you adopt the classic selfish attitude and motivation - I'm paying taxes so why shouldn't they?
Let's look at taxation.
As it stands, regardless of what you've been told to believe by our fantastically corrupt Government, paying tax is now a crime in this country - why?

Because doing so "constitutes crimes of murder, conspiracy, terrorism, genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes against peace and aggression under common law and under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, sections 51 and 52 of the International Criminal Court Act 2001, the Terrorism Acts 2000 and 2006, the Accessories and Abettors Act 1861 and the Criminal Law Act 1977."

Why? Because the UK Government has forged several illegal wars (and can be proven to be such) in foreign countries.

And your road tax DOES NOT GO MAINTAINING ROADS - it's yet another form a slave taxation, for people still too blind to wake up to the Corporate take-over of our once fine land.

Legislation/statute are all rules of society - but they're not the only things that govern life on this land - there's the common, natural, immutable laws of nature that are God-given. The only person to give those away is YOU, and by playing ball with this screwed and skewed system, you are both lowering your status in life to nothing more than a corporate slave 'driving under license' (begging for permission to do something you already have an inherent right to do). Paying your tax road, income or otherwise constitutes a crime - full stop. You are feeding the dying Empire in its death throes as it rolls over to international bankers and the elite families.

And you think foreign cars is the problem....tsk tsk.
31/01/14 Handyman
0
nick gooding.

nick gooding.

People complain about the foreign plated cars not pay road tax blah blah blah. Having lived in spain for the last 10 years I know of many uk plated cars not displaying tax disc or even displaying out of date discs. I have even witnessed people saying they get their mots by post! So its the same where ever you go and what ever you nationality.
Whats the difference?
03/01/14 nick gooding.
0
Bulldog

Bulldog

Road tax & insurance ! Well I watched a documentry about the police stop young Saudis driving lovely sports cars ,
They where stopping them for no reason - oh we wanna tax these rich Saudis !
What about all the Eastern European scum ? They don't have any documents !
The Saudis are oil rich they would make sure their documents are in order .
Start stopping the Eastern European scum first ?
Criminals the lot of them !
01/01/14 Bulldog
-5
The foreigner

The foreigner

The police have a duty to check if the car is legal or not. No insurance company will provide cover for over 3 months in a foreign countries, so therefore the cars have no insurance. There is also the duty to pay tax, if a car is being used in this country must pay road tax as eny other British car.
30/09/13 The foreigner
2
The equaliser

The equaliser

Stop moaning about it and get on with your life. You seem happy enough to take money off the same people when it comes to teaching them English (probably with some dubious qualification that took you about 6 months to get). How would you feel if any time you cut a corner, someone reported you to the Police. We don't live in a Facist Police state (yet), but it's small minded Nimbys like you that seem to want us to end up with no personal freedom and no quality of life.
23/06/13 The equaliser
-10
councillor

councillor

I have overheard foreigners brag that they don't pay Tax,Insurance or bother with anything like a MOT, talk about a two tier system! Perhaps this is another good reason to pull out of Europe!
16/06/13 councillor
-6
Not a rat

Not a rat

Jimmy Beaver. What is wrong with you? Why on Earth would you want to hurt one of your students this way? Feeling inadequate are we?

Pathetic.
26/12/12 Not a rat
-6
steve

steve

If you are living and working in another country for years, then you are a resident of that country. So your primary residence is not in your home country. To get insurance you mostly have to state that it is your primary country of residence, so to get insurance in your home country for use of a vehicle in the country you are currently residing , you are not being honest with the insurance company. So the insurance could be negated as the information was not correct. so primarily , you are not insured.
I am from the UK and living in Austria. Here you must register your car within a month of claiming residency(which is a legal requirement), so you must insure the vehicle in the country that it is being used on a primary basis.
Not all countries are the same. As a tourist you can go wherever you want for whatever amount of time. As soon as your primary residence changes, then you should follow the law, and not complain how expensive it is or risk that your insurance could be invalid.
14/10/11 steve
-4

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