A Taxing Time

It seems a cruel fate that my car's Road Tax runs out at the end of December, during one of the most expensive times of the year. I have always renewed it at the Post Office, partly because it keeps the branch in business when so many have been closed, and for the certainty, with the new disc in my hand, that the process had been completed.

But I no longer need to provide proof that my car is roadworthy, by showing a valid MOT certificate, nor need I show my insurance certificate as these details are recorded on the computer and displayed at the swipe of a barcode. 

And, instead of that disc that needed a careful trimming round its perforations and fiddling into its holder on the windscreen, to show the world that the car is indeed entitled to use the road, the only evidence I have is a simple printed receipt of payment to file away and no casual observer can tell whether I have paid or not. So it it hardly surprising that  tax revenues have fallen under this wonderful computerised system.