earliest you can tax a car so don't lose a month???

chelleyb · 23 September 2008 at 7:49PM

Hi All,
Just bought a car, now need to tax it, at the moment my friend who bought it for me has it at his lock up, so off road, I don't want to tax it and lose a months tax (we are on a budget here!!!!) so does anyone know the earliest I can tax it and not lose out?

or will I have to wait till next Tuesday???? :eek:

thanks all
:beer:

Rikki · 23 September 2008 at 7:56PM

If it currently has no tax it will be the first of the month (Wednesday 1st October) I'm afraid.

Conor_3 · 23 September 2008 at 8:46PM

You can buy a tax disc to start on October 1st from today. HOWEVER you cannot drive it on the road as the tax disc isn't valid until October 1st and if you were caught driving it before then, you would have the car seized and be liable for a fine. The only way you could drive it now would be to tax it from 1st September thus losing 3 weeks.

Wig · 23 September 2008 at 8:55PM

What you should do is

1. SORN it today online

2. Obtain nsurance from the 1st Oct and get certificate

3. Tax it to be valid from the 1st Oct on or after the 25th September but the post office probably don't know there is a restriction of 5 days prior only (where there has been a break in Tax) and they would probably allow it to be paid for from 15 days prior. But they shouldn't really.

redux · 24 September 2008 at 3:00AM

It's worth checking the official website

The paying early is only available for a car already taxed, and apparently it's now from the 5th.

I think that in the past I was told that in those circumstances ( I bought from a dealer), the disc could only be bought one day beforehand. Now it appears to be two days:

If your vehicle has been untaxed, because you’ve just bought it, the tax disc has run out or a SORN is in force, you can tax from the first day of the month in which you apply.

If you want the tax disc to start on the first day of the next calendar month, you cannot tax your vehicle more than two days in advance.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/HowToTaxYourVehicle/DG_069680

I'd get an insurance certificate organised, borrow the MOT, and arrange to officially change the ownership on the last day of this month. Take the transfer part of the registration document to the Post Office, and let them send it off to Swansea.

reduceditem · 24 September 2008 at 7:29AM

I don't know what kind of car it is but I'll take a stab at the tax working out at about £15 a month. If you tax it now you'll lose out on the equivalent of 23 days tax....£11.50.

BUT....if you have already insured it (it's unclear if you have or not), then you should consider that you are, relatively speaking, losing money whilst the car is off the road. If your insurance worked out at £1.50 a day then the days up to the end of the month with the car not in use could easily add up to more than the £11.50 you are saving.

ALSO...the car started depreciating the moment that you bought it (£1 a day?...£2 a day?.....£4 a day?...more?). So if you bought the car for the purpose of using it then I would say that you should tax it now and start receiving the benefits of having a car straight away.

Good luck whatever you decide.

earliest you can tax a car so don't lose a month???

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