Tax Away!

taxdicsved1Today (17th July 2014) sees the closure of Driver & Vehicle Agency (DVA) offices in Northern Ireland. This is because the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) in Swansea will now take over full responsibility for all vehicle licensing services from Monday 21st July 2014.

Stating the obvious, this means that you will no longer be able to tax or register vehicles at these offices either face-to-face, by telephone or by post.

From Monday 21st July 2014, after this weekend, if you wish to tax or register a vehicle you have the option to do this online or at a post office.

Now if you wish to tax a car/motorcycle tomorrow Friday 18th July 2014, you will need to go to the Post Office.

If you are using a Post Office, 175 branches will be offering tax services, some with Saturday opening, you will also need an insurance certificate or cover note.

We suspect that this may change if the current consultation proposal to introduce continuous insurance to Northern Ireland is introduced. Your insurance would be as in GB – checked from the record of an insurance data base, which includes in the consultation the removal of (i) the vehicle insurance check when taxing a vehicle and (ii) the need to return motor insurance certificates if a policy is cancelled mid term.

What are the new services on offer?

One of the major changes for us folk will mean that we will also have access to DVLA’s online vehicle tax service which will allow us in Northern Ireland to declare their vehicle off the road – Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) – if you don’t use or keep your vehicle on a public road (e.g. you keep it in a garage, on a drive or on private land) 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Other services include:

The ability to buy NI and GB personalised registration numbers through DVLA’s Personalised Registration sales scheme DVLA’s fleet scheme will be made available to fleet operators in Northern Ireland

Movement of vehicles between NI and GB will be simplified

The facility to retain NI registration numbers will be introduced which will allow people to hold a registration number on a Certificate of Entitlement, for future assignment to an alternative vehicle

The transfer of registration numbers between NI and GB vehicles will be streamlined, creating a UK-wide market for NI and GB cherished number dealers

People with a right to access vehicle and keeper information will be able to obtain GB and NI data from a single source

While we are reporting these new services as matter of fact, this is not forgetting the lead up to this decision to move DVA services. This was through what might be seen as a “lip-service” consultation although there were strong words and involvement of Northern Ireland Ministers, politicians and unions regarding the loss of jobs and major changes to DVA staff.

Certainly there will be a few changes and we know how we all hate changes, but these are here to stay and try to understand.

We have listed below information and links and a video explaining the changes.

Now we just have to wait for the withdrawal in October of the “Tax Disc” that we currently have to display on vehicles and perhaps for Northern Ireland the withdrawal in the “near” future of the MoT disc.

Original Source -Driver & Vehicle Agency (DVA) – Click Here

Information & Links

For an in-depth explanation of these changes view NI electronic Vehicle Services project (NIEVS) newsletters – Click Here
Vehicle tax and registration from 21 July 2014 – Click Here
List of Post Offices – Click Here
Renew a tax disc on-line – Click Here
Make a SORN Declaration – Click Here
Changes to vehicle registration and licensing services for Northern Ireland motorists

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