Road fund ripoff

wotme

I notice that as from the 1st October 2014 the requirement to display a tax disc will cease. Furthermore when you sell a car you cant pass on any remaining tax. When you sell your car you get a refund for any whole months left since you taxed the car. The new owner will have to apply for a new licence.
It appears that for every car sale after October 1st gov.uk will be quid's in, because the seller who sells will get a refund, but will not get a refund for the current month, that will be "lost" in much the same way as a tax disc is refunded now.

The catch is the new owner will have to tax the car from the beginning of the same month so its win win for gov.uk for every second hand car sale in the UK. I have seen figures which suggest this could amount to some £300,000pa, not a bad little earner!

Apart from selling the car at a second to midnight and buying one second after midnight on the last day of a month :-) Does anybody have any ideas how to deal with this.

cajef

You are a bit late with that one, already been discussed at length here, try doing a forum search before posting:-

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4983726

Iceweasel

I agree - it was a total rip off when a certain Mr W Churchill - the Chancellor of the Exchequer - decided that motorists were priveleged to have the tax on cars - the Road Fund licence - spent on the roads.

So he abolished it in 1937 - so nothing new now that we are to be cheated again.

Here is WC's reputed comment:

"Entertainments may be taxed; public houses may be taxed… and the yield devoted to the general revenue. But motorists are to be privileged for all time to have the tax on motors devoted to roads? This is an outrage upon… common sense."

I think you meant to say VED rip-off.

But we've already discussed that - as cajef said.

wotme

sorry I missed that thread, I did search, but obviously missed it. However I've read through the thread and it appears nobody is particularly bothered, and think that extra revenue isn't high.


However official figures show that around 7 million used vehicles get a change of ownership each year. If, on average, each has half a month’s worth of VED remaining, that’s 3.5 million extra months of VED being paid each year. The equivalent of 291,666 years’ worth. If we estimate that the average annual VED cost per vehicle is £200 (a fair guess given the spread of rates), then that’s somewhere in the region of 58.3 million pounds windfall to the tax man. Every year.


Also my question was, has anybody figured out way to circumnavigate this situation

pvt

wotme wrote: »

Also my question was, has anybody figured out way to circumnavigate this situation

Yes. Sell your car at the end of the month

pvt

Anyway - just chill out and treat it as a small fee for changing car ownership.

motorguy

wotme wrote: »

sorry I missed that thread, I did search, but obviously missed it. However I've read through the thread and it appears nobody is particularly bothered, and think that extra revenue isn't high.


However official figures show that around 7 million used vehicles get a change of ownership each year. If, on average, each has half a month’s worth of VED remaining, that’s 3.5 million extra months of VED being paid each year. The equivalent of 291,666 years’ worth. If we estimate that the average annual VED cost per vehicle is £200 (a fair guess given the spread of rates), then that’s somewhere in the region of 58.3 million pounds windfall to the tax man. Every year.


Also my question was, has anybody figured out way to circumnavigate this situation

Its not terribly different from at present - most people when they sell their car reclaim the tax, and when you buy a car you have to tax it.

If an average tax is as you say £200, then its £16 per month. So someone may or may not be "out" an extra £16 when purchasing their car.

If people change their cars on average every three years, that £5.33 per year.

Not really worth getting terribly excited about i would have thought.

wotme

if the car I buy is sold at the end of the month, that is no good to me, this is the strangest forum I've ever visited, I thought it was about money saving, obviously not. Over and out

specialboy

cajef wrote: »

You are a bit late with that one, already been discussed at length here, try doing a forum search before posting:-

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4983726

Bit of a rude reply to a new poster who may not know how to search through old threads, yes it has been done before but it any still be of interest to new users of this site.

Iceweasel

Are you really surprised that the government has screwed us all - again?

All you can do is sell a car as near the end of a month as possible, and buy one as near the beginning of the month as possible.

Most of us spotted this weeks ago - but as usual there is damn all we can do about it.

Fancy sending a tweet to George Osborne - he doesn't even know his seven times table?

This means nothing to the ruling bureaucrats.

As you correctly say they will rake in more money from us - and save money on not having to print the discs or post them to us.

To me it means that I could be out of pocket up to £12 every 3 or 4 years.

motorguy

wotme wrote: »

if the car I buy is sold at the end of the month, that is no good to me, this is the strangest forum I've ever visited, I thought it was about money saving, obviously not. Over and out

Put it in the road from the first of the month then.

Its a money saving forum not a tax evasion forum.