Roland Perry ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they
were saying :

I was merely pointing out, in the context of setting motoring expenses
against tax, that we have the MOT here, just as the American poster
said he has an annual auto inspection (the latter is generally only a
fraction of the cost of an MOT, incidentally).

Is the MOT a "tax", though? We have established that it doesn't incur
sales tax (aka VAT).

I really don't see how it can be, since it's not paid (even indirectly) to
the Exchequer.

It's a fee, set with reference to a maximum chargable, by the garage who
perform the test and payable to the garage. I doubt much (if any) of it is
paid on to VOSA by the garage.