BACK in October, the Government changed the rules on car road tax. We no longer needed to display the paper tax disc in the windscreen. This measure, we were told, was to help save £7 million in printing the tax disc.

But there is a more sinister side to this as I have found out in the past seven months, when I have changed three vehicles. You cannot sell a car with the road tax included as in the past.

You tell DVLA you have sold or transferred it, and they send you a cheque for the unused road tax. But if you sell or buy in the middle of the month, you lose the remainder of that paid tax.

Worse still, the new car you have purchased has to be taxed by you, from the beginning of that month, so the Government gets two lots of tax for one vehicle for that month.

Two of my vehicles I sold had tax of £225 per annum so I lost one month’s tax £18.75 x 2 = £37.50 and another vehicle was £145 per annum, so I lost £12. The total lost to me, but gained by the Government was £49.50.

The AA estimates that the Government will get an extra £40 million out of car owners who were not aware of this.

So, if you change your car, do it at the end of the month, not in the middle.

You can check any if car is taxed online at gov.uk/check-vehicle-tax.

Stuart Wilson, Vesper Drive, Acomb, York.