DVLA is screwing us again

missile

:mad: Vehicle tax will no longer be transferable between owners from October 2014. As... the DVLA plan to introduce a paperless vehicle tax they have also revealed vehicle tax will not carry over to new owners if the vehicle is sold.

The DVLA will be scrapping the paper tax disc in October 2014 and along with the move to axe the 93 year old proof of vehicle tax, any remaining months of tax leftover will no longer be able to carry on to the new owner like it currently can. If you sell a vehicle you will be able to get a refund on the remaining full months, but if you're buying then you could be in a bit of a pickle.

Come October, once a vehicle is sold to someone else it is no longer taxed and is therefore no longer road legal. Of course this raises the problems of you not being able to get your new purchase home without a trailer until the ownership documents have been processed by the powers that be. The DVLA is currently looking at ways of getting around the issue of being unable to tax a vehicle until the new owner has been officially registered, a process which can take days, and will potentially be giving buyers a short grace period to allow the changes to take place and the new owner to tax the vehicle.

The 'Draft Clauses and Explanatory Notes' for the 2014 Finance Bill, which included the revisions to the vehicle tax system stated the reasons for making vehicle tax non transferable: “It will no longer be possible to transfer the benefit of a vehicle licence when there is a change of registered keeper. As a consequence of this, where there is a new registered keeper he/she will be obliged to take out a new vehicle licence when the vehicle to which the vehicle licence relates is transferred to him/her.

The reason for now preventing vehicle licences being transferred from registered keeper to registered keeper is to avoid a new registered keeper unknowingly keeping an unlicensed vehicle. For example, in the absence of a paper licence a vehicle may be purchased supposedly with the benefit of a vehicle licence. The new keeper would believe that the vehicle was licensed, but the former keeper could apply for a refund of VED without the knowledge of the new keeper resulting on the new keeper having an unlicensed vehicle.” While the reasoning behind the policy seems to make sense at first, the fact that you are able to check the tax status of any vehicle simply by heading over to www.taxdisc.direct.gov, is likely to see people raising their eyebrows. Yeah right - perish the thought that DVLA is out to make even more money

While you are able to get a refund on your tax if you sell a vehicle, this will only be for the remaining full months. So, if it's January 2nd and your tax runs out in march you will only be able to get a refund for February and March, meaning you're paying for 29 days of road tax that you won't even use. While this has been the case for some time now, the fact that you now have no choice in the matter means that the tax man now stands to make a fair few pounds from non-refundable part-used months of tax. Figures show that roughly seven million vehicles change ownership each year and, while there aren't any figures on how many of those are sold with any tax remaining, if even a quarter of them, 1.75 million, are sold part-way through a month (for this example we'll assume that they're all sold at the half way point of a month) and we assume that the average road tax per month is about £13 (so for half a month it's £6.50), then that's an extra £11,637,500 raised through road tax that people haven't even used.

source here> http://www.adventurebikerider.com/news/1002-vehicle-tax-will-no-longer-be-transferable-between-owners.html

thenudeone

missile wrote: »

Come October, once a vehicle is sold to someone else it is no longer taxed and is therefore no longer road legal or insured.

Insurance is completely unaffected by whether a car is taxed or not.

I suspect that if you're very bothered about it and buying from a trader you'll probably declare your car off the road on the last day of the month then drive it to be traded in and pick up your new car on the first day of the month, thus avoiding the problem, whilst technically breaking the law for the final journey.

Joe_Horner

Don't forget that on each transfer the new keeper will also have to pay for tax from the START of the month.

So every sale will net the Government a full month of extra tax, split between the seller and buyer depending on when in the month the sale happens.

rs65

missile wrote: »

Come October, once a vehicle is sold to someone else it is no longer taxed and is therefore no longer road legal or insured.

The lack of road tax will not invalidate insurance.



Edit, thenudeone beat me to it.

Johno100

The OP, no doubt inadvertantly, missed the attribution for the vast majority of his post, so here it is.

http://www.adventurebikerider.com/news/1002-vehicle-tax-will-no-longer-be-transferable-between-owners.html

Anyway, hopefully this will be a short lived situation if as rumoured the scrapping of the paper disc will be the precursor to getting rid of VED and adding it to fuel prices.

londonTiger

oops read it wrong.

missile

Johno100 wrote: »

...Anyway, hopefully this will be a short lived situation if as rumoured the scrapping of the paper disc will be the precursor to getting rid of VED and adding it to fuel prices.

I doubt that will happen. That would be a political hot potato.

The cost of fuel and especially diesel is already higher than any other EU country. To further increase excise duty on fuel would further disadvantage our haulage industry. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2107374/Fuel-tax-British-motorists-pay-60-duty-VAT-petrol.html

Our VED system is very complicated. If we introduced a simpler system we might be able to spend less on administration and more on the roads.

In Spain, the owner on January 01st is liable for IVTM (their equivalent of VED) = simple. IVTM varies by region and is less than VED in UK :T They are not burdened with SORN !!!!!!!! and DVLA fines for failing to submit B.. S paperwork in a system which appears to be designed primarily to keep pen pushers in a job generating revenue.

Moto2

I'd simplify the whole system by tying it in with the MOT, you get your MOT done and have to pay the VED at the same time, as it works out a lot of people do this anyway as the dates invariably collide.
New cars would have to have 3 yrs VED added to their cost.

I'm sure I haven't thought that out properly but it's only 7am

Joe_Horner

One thing to bear in mind, of course, is that it's not actually the DVLA doing this. The rule changes are down to the Government, DVLA just implement them.

Not that I want to defend DVLA, but in this case the blame isn't with them. Remember this when elections come calling!

Prothet_of_Doom

So, when you go to buy a new car, (privately), how do you all get it home legally now ?

I pay a small deposit, go home, sort out the insurance, and go and pick it up the next day. If it's not taxed, I (pre) book it into an MOT somewhere on route, (getting an appointment card with date on it), and drive it legally without tax.

Prothet_of_Doom

Moto2 wrote: »

I'd simplify the whole system by tying it in with the MOT, you get your MOT done and have to pay the VED at the same time, as it works out a lot of people do this anyway as the dates invariably collide.
New cars would have to have 3 yrs VED added to their cost.

I'm sure I haven't thought that out properly but it's only 7am

I'd go the other way. I'd employ unqualified do gooding 'talent spotters' from Brake and the BNP (for a 2 sided fairness) to stand on the corners of busy junctions, and write down the reg numbers of people they didn't like the look of, and they'd get an automatic Road tax debit from thier account.

Actually YOUR idea is fairer, and more sensible, which is why the DVLA are now actively considering my idea. :rotfl: