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Tax Discs 1921- 1992 – authentic, correctly perforated, traditionally
printed – not computer scans - high quality Tax Discs.
The company has been established for over 10 years, supplying Tax Discs for some of the world’s most interesting vehicles.
These are the only Tax Discs officially licensed, for reproduction, by the Her Majesty’s Stationary Office.
TAX DISCS – Secure online ordering
TAX DISCS – Printed with lightfast and waterproof inks
TAX DISCS – Correctly perforated
TAX DISCS – New looking or aged
TAX DISCS – The perfect gift for the classic owner
TAX DISCS – Every year available from 1921 to 1992
TAX DISCS – Company has been established for over 10 years
TAX DISCS – Admirers can instantly see the age of your vehicle.
TAX DISCS – Displays in Beaulieu Motor Museum and Heritage Motor Centre
TAX DISCS – The only company with an DVLA licence to sell Tax Discs
Improve your concours car with an authentic Tax Disc.
Why not complete the ownership of your Classic vehicle by displaying its very first year's Tax Disc?
In 1920, his Majesty's government decreed that all mechanically propelled vehicles pay duty for the use of the highways within the United Kingdom. This law is still on the Statute Book today, and each and every vehicle from the 1st January 1921, right up to the present day, has been obliged to display a Tax Disc under British Law. more on the history of the tax disc
Now you too, can display your vehicle's own 'Original Tax Disc', adding what will indeed be The Final Touch to your classic vehicle! Just complete the order form here , supplying us with your vehicle(s) particulars ie. Make/Year/Engine capacity/Class (m/cycle, tricycle, private, commercial etc), and we will supply you with your handwritten, personalised 'Tax Disc' as approved by Her Majesty's Stationery Office
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- officially authorised by DVLA
- printed from accurate artwork
- very accurate colours
- style of printing corrrect for each year
- lightfast inks
- waterproof inks
- correctly perforated, as appropriate
- your vehicle details added by hand with a fountain pen or ballpoint, as appropriate
- correct size and weight paper including intaglio background print
- also available from the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu and British Motor Hertiage, Gaydon
The Classic Years, 1921-1974
The display of Tax Discs on vehicles all started back in 1921, with the implementation of the Roads and Finance Act 1920.
This Act decreed that all mechanically propelled vehicles within the United Kingdom pay duty for the use of The King’s Highway, and, although greatly amended, is still currently on the statute book to this very day.
The passing of the 1920 Act greatly tidied up what was at the time an extremely confusing situation, and we must remember that motoring was still a relatively ‘new’ method of transport then.
Prior to this Act being passed, various forms of taxation had been implemented with reference to ‘Locomotives’, number of wheels etc, appearing in both the 1888 and 1896 Acts. The Motor car Act, 1903 led to measures designed to identify vehicles and licence (tax!) them annually. The 1908 Finance Act introduced a 3d. per gallon tax on petroleum spirit. The Finance Act of 1910 introduced the hated ‘Horsepower’ rating which was formulated by the Royal Automobile Club and subsequently became known as ‘Treasury rating’. Unfortunately, this formula did not take account of the length of an engine’s stroke, and in order to keep the Horsepower figure as low as possible, long-stroke engines with small diameter piston areas were the order of the day. Squared and over-squared high compression engines took many years to evolve as a result of this ruling!
However, there was at least, an accepted method of determining an engine’s size for annual taxation purposes, with an initial rule of thumb being that one horsepower would cost £1, the rating being rounded up to the next complete horsepower during the calculation, needless to say.
1921 saw the responsibility for issuing Road Fund Licences change from His Majesty’s Customs and Exercise to the various County Councils that were in existence at that time and thus the Tax Disc as we know it today was born.
During the years the years 1921 and 1922, Tax Discs were by today’s standards quite basic: plain paper, black ink with simple instructions on the reverse and no perforations. Life itself must indeed have seemed simpler in those days.
1923 saw the introduction of background intaglio printing – very fine, repetitive security printing behind the basic design – together with an over-printed broad green band. Various colour changes took place thenceforth for every year’s licence until 1938, when perforation was added to the outside of the circle. Perforation continued to be used until 1942, with 1943’s licence and each of the subsequent years being issued unperforated until 1952, when it was once again resumed. It is alleged that this was due to the relevant machine being lost during an air raid.
The four national Thistle, Shamrock, Daffodil and Rose symbols were removed from the face of the Tax Disc in 1951 to make way for a bolder expiry date, whilst the background intaglio security printing changed in 1938 from ‘Road Fund Licence’ to read ‘Mechanically Propelled Vehicle Licence’
1957 saw a change, in what had been accepted for many years as the normal design for Tax Discs, with the introduction of two solid bands of horizontal colour to the top and bottom of the disc. In 1961, a further change was made with the introduction of what was considered to be at the time further discouragement to forgery. This was a new design consisting of various circular vignettes and bands of solid colour, plus a half-tone background. The years of 1961 and 1962 were however, to the less scrupulous, relatively easy to ‘amend’ to their own advantage – Guinness bottle labels being used to evade payment! Consequently, in 1963, an additional expiry date, printed in a light tint on the lower half of the disc was added and quickly put an end to this practice.
Duty payable to the Government, as mentioned earlier, initially set at £1 per Horsepower in 1920 and over the ensuing years has changed quite considerably (upwards, inexorably!), with odd anomalies here and there. On the 1st January 1948, the infamous Horsepower rating was done away with, replaced by the flat rate for motor cars that has survived until recent years, when the Government has again started to tax vehicles according to engine size but this time to encourage reduced overall emissions from car exhausts.
Earlswood Reproduction has been producing facsimile Tax Discs since 1995. We use the original tax tables and statutes to a complete customer’s facsimile disc with all the correct details. It will show the duty payable for a full year’s use of the road when the vehicle was new. A comparatively simple task for motor cars but more complex for agricultural and commercial vehicles plus showman’s engines etc. where the various weights of vehicle and nature of the tyres has to be considered.
Should you choose to purchase and display your facsimile Tax Disc on your vehicle, on a British public highway, then naturally you are required by law to display a valid DVLA Tax Disc in its designated position upon the vehicle. By the way, whilst we are all familiar with the term ‘Tax Disc’, its use throughout this article is one of convenience and is intended as a generalization for the more correct Road Fund/Vehicle Licences.
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