New car tax rules - paying twice when selling and buying?

cappy

Hi. I'm sort of looking for a second opinion about the way buying and selling a car will work when the new rules are introduced ...

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/vehicle-tax-changes

"From 1 October, when you buy a vehicle, the vehicle tax will no longer be transferred with the vehicle. You will need to get new vehicle tax before you can use the vehicle."

So the seller will "automatically get a refund for any full calendar months left on the vehicle tax." and the buyer must "get new vehicle tax before you can use the vehicle."

By my reasoning (2nd opinion required ) this means when you buy/sell a car you will overlapping the tax purchased as the seller can only claim back the outstanding tax from the start of the next full month but the buyer has to tax the vehicle from the start of the month it was bought in.

Can you get round it if you sold the car on the very last day of the month then the buyer can tax it next day on the 1st day of the new month and no-one loses out? But I'm not sure how time and date critical this new system will make things??

Either way it sounds like a Government money making win win all round!!

motorguy

Yes.

Covered before

Not hugely different than before. Most sellers reclaim their tax, and you have to tax a car back to the start of the current month anyway.

Will the government get some extra revenue from this? Yes.

Is it worth getting upset about and trying to orchestrate the purchase of your new car specifically on the first day of the month when you otherwise wouldnt? No.

Average tax these days is probably around £120 a year (mines £30 a year), so we're talking about perhaps a tenner you "might" be out, if you were otherwise buying privately AND the previous owner was going to sell you the tax.