Getting rid of the 93-year-old vehicle paper tax disk has left the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) searching for a solution to the issue that occurs after a bike is sold and the tax on it remains, which is something that was not considered when the end of the current system was announced.

The move was announced in October last year, but there are still issues that the DVLA are looking to solve. From October this year onwards, vehicles will no longer need to display a paper tax disc as the current platform will be replaced with an electronic system, which will probably be good news for bikes as they are prone to tax disc theft.

Nevertheless, it has become clear that the tax belongs to the owner, not the vehicle itself, so people will be unable to sell a bike if it has tax remaining on it, which is currently possible. If an owner sells a bike, he or she will be eligible for a refund on outstanding tax after the bike is sold to someone else via the DVLA, and it will be possible for the tax to be transferred to another vehicle. However, this creates another problem: if the motorcycle is sold to someone, it is no longer taxed and for this reason it will be illegal to be ridden after the sale and will be considered uninsured until the new owner pays to tax it.

The agency is looking for ways to provide new owners a short period of time to allow the electronic insurance system to register the ownership changes, while the new owner will be able to tax the motorcycle and make it legal.