Selling car and Dvla tax refund

looking_forward

Good afternoon everyone ,


I have recently discovered something which has annoyed me somewhat.

My 2 children decided to swap cars due to one needing a more civilised car. This was towards the end of November , what they decided to do was fill in the paperwork on the evening of 30/11/14 and become new owners on 1/12/14 to make things simple and enable them to get road tax refunds and start the new road tax from 1/12/14 )

It now transpires that DVLA have issued the refunds for both cars but have not refunded for December , now here is the kicker - although DVLA have not refunded either of them for the month of December , when they went to tax the cars again it shows they are untaxed and DVLA require the tax to start from December . So I presume that this is now how the new DVLA system works - DVLA will be always be required to be paid twice for the month's tax during the sale period.

I rang them and explained the position but they said that the new regulations mean that this is what happens , even the lady I spoke to there was not very impressed . I have no problem in my children paying the over priced road fund licence once but to require it twice is not on , this only became apparent as they were both doing the same thing and the situation was transparent but any people involved in buying and selling a car will face this duplication of charge and will not realise that it is happening - either the seller or buyer will lose . Has anyone else had any experience of this ?

bod1467

looking_forward wrote: »

So I presume that this is now how the new DVLA system works - DVLA will be always be required to be paid twice for the month's tax during the sale period.

On a vehicle sale/transfer of ownership, yes.

looking_forward

bod1467 wrote: »

On a vehicle sale/transfer of ownership, yes.

I think that's poor , as what they were stating is perfectly acceptable - car was sold on sunday night and collected Monday morning .


I presume that's why DVLA have changed their system - to make more money out of us.

BeenThroughItAll

Wow, already three posts on a vehicle tax thread and no one's come on to complain that it's not been called RFL for however many years.

AdrianC

You have NEVER, ever been able to receive a refund for a partial month. To get a refund for a month, the refund has always had to be started before the end of the previous month.

If the date of keeper change had been 30/11, they'd have got December back. But, since it was in December, you don't get the rest of December back.

Iceweasel

They made the mistake of becoming the 'new owners' on the 1st of December.

Had they fully completed the exchange and dated the paperwork on the 30th November (i.e. before the end of the month) the situation would have been as you wished.

This was always the case - new VED rules have nothing to do with it - other than the refund is automatic and mandatory rather than being optional and having to be requested.

looking_forward

AdrianC wrote: »

You have NEVER, ever been able to receive a refund for a partial month. To get a refund for a month, the refund has always had to be started before the end of the previous month.

If the date of keeper change had been 30/11, they'd have got December back. But, since it was in December, you don't get the rest of December back.

I have always been aware of that - if that was the case then the new owner would be required to tax vehicle from start of November , so they would be penalised - so they point I am making is that how it is setup now is that dvla require 2 people topay for the same month's tax ! :mad:

BeenThroughItAll

looking_forward wrote: »

I have always been aware of that - if that was the case then the new owner would be required to tax vehicle from start of November.

No, it wouldn't. You can purchase tax a couple of days before the end of a month and choose for it to start at the beginning of the next month. It would just mean one of the people involved has to (god forbid) go without the car for a couple of days.


Alternatively, sign documents on 30th, immediately declare SORN, then tax the next day. Same outcome.

looking_forward

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

No, it wouldn't. You can purchase tax a couple of days before the end of a month and choose for it to start at the beginning of the next month. It would just mean one of the people involved has to (god forbid) go without the car for a couple of days.


Alternatively, sign documents on 30th, immediately declare SORN, then tax the next day. Same outcome.

I don't think the first way would work now with the way DVLA have things setup .


You are right , the SORN would have been the best way to go , it is a shame we didn't think of it at the time . Just goes to show how difficult DVLA have made things. Used to be able to put the tax in the post or sell it with the car - that obviously wasn't earning them enough !

JimmyTheWig

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

You can purchase tax a couple of days before the end of a month and choose for it to start at the beginning of the next month. It would just mean one of the people involved has to (god forbid) go without the car for a couple of days.

I don't see how this would work without SORNing them.
If the car is sold on the 30th then the new owner needs tax for November.
If the car is sold on the 1st then the old owner needs tax for December.

Alternatively, sign documents on 30th, immediately declare SORN, then tax the next day. Same outcome.

This is what I was thinking.
Or SORN on 30th and sign date documents 1st.
Either way it needs to be SORNed the night of the 30th.

Though this requires having somewhere off-road to keep the cars for that night.

looking_forward

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

I don't see how this would work without SORNing them.
If the car is sold on the 30th then the new owner needs tax for November.
If the car is sold on the 1st then the old owner needs tax for December.



This is what I was thinking.
Or SORN on 30th and sign date documents 1st.
Either way it needs to be SORNed the night of the 30th.

Though this requires having somewhere off-road to keep the cars for that night.

Thanks for all the replies ,

In essence that was done as both cars were parked on driveways anyway , worth knowing all this for future reference as it seems to be a lot more complex now.