Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) (also known as vehicle tax, car tax and road tax) is a vehicle road use tax levied as an excise duty which must be paid for most types of vehicle which are to be used (or parked) on the public roads in the United Kingdom. Vehicles used on public roads should display a current vehicle licence (tax disc) as proof of payment which will not be issued without prior proof that the vehicle has valid MOT and insurance. A Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) must be made for a registered vehicle that is not being used on the road, and which has been taxed since 31 January 1998. VED, which is collected and enforced by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), raised GB£5.63 billion in 2009.
Vehicle tax was introduced in the 1888 budget and the current system of excise duty applying specifically to motor vehicles was introduced in 1920. This excise duty was ring-fenced for road construction and was paid directly into a special Road Fund from 1920 until 1937 after which it was treated as general taxation. Even during this period the majority of the cost of road building and improvement came from general and local taxation due to the tax being too low for the upkeep of the roads.
Read more about Vehicle Excise Duty: Current Regulations, Rates Since April 2005, Other Terms in Common Use, History
Famous quotes containing the words vehicle and/or duty:
“How strange a vehicle it is, coming down unchanged from times of old romance, and so characteristically black, the way no other thing is black except a coffin—a vehicle evoking lawless adventures in the plashing stillness of night, and still more strongly evoking death itself, the bier, the dark obsequies, the last silent journey!”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)
“I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when they begot me.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)