Car tax

Any advice from you knowledgeable people?

We have two cars in our household - one for me and one for the wife. Initially we had one, which was registered in my name and insured in my name. Then we bought the second car which was registered and insured in the wife's name. However, she was driving the car in my name and vice versa.

This week we bought a new car - which I will be driving - and got rid of the car in her name. To make things make more sense - and to keep the insurance companies happy! - I changed the insurance so the car she drives is insured in her name and the new one is insured and registered in my name. I also sent the V5 in to DVLA changing the registered keeper details to her name for the car she drives. All sorted I thought and all the cars, keeper details and insurances are in the right names - I appreciate it doesn't make a huge difference but I have more no claims than she does so it makes sense to change the insurances around as it saves money....

However, the DVLA have thrown a spanner in the works!

In the olden days, when there was a paper tax disc, you could choose whether the new owner / registered keeper got to keep the tax by taking the disc out of the car or leaving it in. Now we don't have a tax disc, the 'system' automatically cancels the tax once they receive the keeper change request. This means the car is no longer taxed, instantly, but the refund is not applied until the next full month - December in this case - although the person I spoke to at DVLA said if they don't bother to process the change of keeper details, which can take four weeks, until December, then the refund won't be applied until January, which sounds pretty vague to me and I'm not sure if it's legal!

When calling DVLA today they have INSISTED that I tax the vehicle again straight away. Since it is the 17th November, this means I HAVE to tax the car again from the beginning of November. I have argued with them that whilst I have no reservations about paying the required tax and have done so for many, many years, I do object to paying the tax TWICE for the same month - definitely November and possibly even December as well! Not only that, but is it legal for them to DEMAND that I pay tax twice for the same vehicle?

Basically, DVLA have said tough!

As far as I'm concerned, the car is taxed and will remain so until they process the refund for it - i.e. if they refund from the beginning of December then it is taxed until the end of November.

I've registered a complaint with the DVLA regarding this, but frankly not expecting much from them.

I've heard that their system runs a check every month to see if cars are taxed, but have no idea when this is run. My intention is to pay the tax, but not until December on their online system - unless anyone knows if you can do it online and set the date for it to start as a future date?

Any suggestions?

Suggest it's a neocon Govt trick to get 13 months tax per-year for every car that changes hands during a year...... resistance is futile, this is just the sort of stroke to expect from a gov that purports to be on the side of ordinary hard-working families. I wouldn't try and be clever with it, this has been the law for several years now, your car is technically untaxed (even though you have paid!) and you 'will' be fined if you are caught on a number plate recognition camera without tax.

I think the car has to be taxed by the new owner from day #1. This situation seems to be just another example of the Civil Service lacking any ability to design an effective IT system.

There are loads of complaints about this, it changed when the tax disc became extinct. The tax is cancelled when ownership is changed and the new owner has to tax it before they use it, yours being an unusual case of the car remaining in the family, it would have been best to do it at the end of a month. The question has been raised just how much money DVLA make out of this legal scam but quite simply the road tax cannot be transferred to a new keeper. A rip off thats need changing but will probably never happen.

You could temporarily SORN it, I suppose?

Answer, buy a car that has no road tax. Simple.

I bought my wife a new car in March (16 plate) and me a new car in October (66 plate), both have zero road tax AND I got a road tax refund for the full month, on my old car. I paid monthly by direct debit though, so not sure if that makes a difference?

Answer, buy a car that has no road tax. Simple.

 

I bought my wife a new car in March (16 plate) and me a new car in October (66 plate), both have zero road tax AND I got a road tax refund for the full month, on my old car. I paid monthly by direct debit though, so not sure if that makes a difference?

Not for long. All non electric cars will have to pay tax again from April. However its not retroactive so you'll be okay.

No such thing as road tax or car tax.

No such thing as road tax or car tax.

Alright, MLG