Six Months Car Tax Surcharge

flashnazia

I just taxed my car today for six months (usually get one year but hoping to get rid of it).

Had to pay 11% surcharge for disc of six months as opposed to one year.

Am I right to be annoyed?

£115 for six months

£210 for one year.

Rip off?

bris

It's always been like this.

Rolandtheroadie

May be to cover the 2 lots of fees paid to whoever processes a disc and the extra disc you will need?

McKneff

Its not a surcharge, its the price,

Same as tV licence, the more payments you take to pay over the year the more you pay becasue there is more admin.

Whur

McKneff wrote: »

Its not a surcharge, its the price,

Same as tV licence, the more payments you take to pay over the year the more you pay becasue there is more admin.

Actually, it is a 10% surcharge that you pay in order to cover the extra admin costs of producing 2 discs in a 12 months period.

If you return the 6 months tax disc for a refund you receive the amount of unused full months at the rate of a 12 months disc. Therefore you don't receive the surcharge back.

If it were part of the price, you would also receive part payment back on the extra that you pay. It explains this on the documentation that you receive when applying for a disc.

As for paying extra for the tv licence, again it's a surcharge in order to pay for the extra admin, plus any interest. Although, paying by DD or Standing Order there is no more admin for 12 monthly payments as there are for a single payment to cover the 12 months. It's an automated payment that the computers deal with. The administration only comes into effect if a computer flags the payment as being either late or missed.

iolanthe07

It has always cost more to tax a car for 2 X 6 months than one off 12 months. It is to cover the extra admin, loss of interest to DVLA, and encourage people to pay for a year up front. When I started driving (1963) you could buy four months' road tax, but even then you paid more overall, so it is a long standing principle.

Hammyman

McKneff wrote: »

Its not a surcharge, its the price,

Indeed. I went to Tesco and bought a 6 pack of crisps for £1.48. They were doing 24 packs for £4.38 which worked out at 6p per pack cheaper. Maybe I should complain...