Car Tax rant

sirloyneofcowes

Sorry if this has been posted before, however just feel I need to rant by the great car tax rip off.

I bought a used car on the 28th February, and traded in my previous car with it.

On advice of the DVLA I declared the old car SORN on 28th February this way I would get a refund for all complete months (so I would lose one months tax completely, but get a refund on five months). I'm happy with this, I'd used the car throughout February so it's only fair.

Now being a law abiding citizen I have to tax the new car before I can drive it off the forecourt. Again, fair enough, I don't want any more points on my licence, or a fine.

However, when I came to do this online, the car tax that I had to buy to drive the new car away was effective from 1st February 2015.

That's right, I had to pay for one month of car tax for a car that I had only owned for one day in that month.

Is it me over-reacting, or does this not seem right? Especially as on top of that, the previous owner would have also lost a months tax too...

enfield_freddy

this is a thing that was noted when they announced the new idea , its wrong , but its the law , as you are going to drive the car during feb .


under those circumstances I would have collected the new car on the 1st of march , or had it delivered via trade plates to your own private driveway on the 28th

sirloyneofcowes

I know it's the law, but if you multiply that by all of the car sales in the UK it soon starts to add up as a nice little earner for the government. It's just crazy

Perhaps the government could put these little extras towards improving the pot holes... especially the one that crippled my car in the first place

DUTR

sirloyneofcowes wrote: »

I know it's the law, but if you multiply that by all of the car sales in the UK it soon starts to add up as a nice little earner for the government. It's just crazy

Perhaps the government could put these little extras towards improving the pot holes... especially the one that crippled my car in the first place

Never mind that, always worry about yourself 1st.

timbo58

Sods law ain't it though?
If the government had done this in the motorists favour then they'd have had all sorts saying you should have done it the other way.

Any change in taxation/revenue protection or raising has to be in the governments favour surely?

esuhl

The road fund licence doesn't cover the cost of maintaining the roads, so I think it's probably fair that "car tax" is increased. But I can't understand why you have to pay for it in monthly-blocks. It can't be hard to change the system.

enfield_freddy

yup , mot,s can start at any time in the month , so can insurance , gas bills electric bills etc , but the government has got us where they want us (paying over the odds) on car tax and tv licences.


as no disc is issued now , changing the system to a daily one would not be hard , however they will not make as much money

enfield_freddy

did you also know that in the old days , you could get tax in 3 mthly increments


Though known as 'quarterly', they weren't quite.
From www.britishtaxdiscs.co.uk

"The second, third and fourth quarterly licences all expired when you would expect: 30th June, 31st September, and 31st December. However, the first quarterly always expired on the 24th March. Why? Because many more impoverished drivers laid their cars up for winter and put them back on the road for a run at Easter (which can come early some years) and so would have to fork out for another quarter's licence."

harveybobbles

Tax at 00.01 on March 1st?

marlot

If you part exchanged your old car, I'm not clear why you went to the hassle of SORNing it. Just trading it in would have been sufficient, and automatically triggered a refund of unused months.

The only way to beat the system would be to trade the old car in on the last day of the month, and collect the new one on the 1st.

Under the old system:
If the new car didn't have any tax on it when bought, you'd still be in the same position as you are now - having to buy a complete month, just for one day of use.

loskie

Should have just done away with RFL/VED/Tax all together and added a required amount to the cost of fuel. Then those that use their cars most would be taxed most, foreign drivers too and there would have been no cost of the tax collection as it is already being done. Instead they build a new computer system and have a costly avenue to collect money.I imagine the administrative cost well out weighs the tax collected on low VED group cars.
Typical non joined up thinking of our gov organisations.
I deal with it every day as I work for one.