About to buy new car - questions about how it's taxed

teh_klev

I'm about to buy a replacement (used) car but I'm unsure about the new VED steps...so...

1. I see some listings from dealers on Autotrader saying the price of the car includes the car tax (not MOT). I didn't think this was possible now. Is this just a mistake and is it my responsibility to organise my new car's road tax?

2. My existing car's VED is on monthly direct debits. If I tax my new vehicle online do you just pay for the first month or do you need to pay three or six months up front (bit like the way TV licensing works when you go monthly). I ask this because when I taxed my current car I had to do this in a post office because the logbook that came with that car was quite old and only had a 10 digit reference number which the DVLA website wouldn't accept. I taxed for six months then signed up for monthly D/D upon it expiring but don't remember what the initial payment was.

Thanks,
Kev

AdrianC

teh_klev wrote: »

I'm about to buy a replacement (used) car but I'm unsure about the new VED steps...so...

1. I see some listings from dealers on Autotrader saying the price of the car includes the car tax (not MOT). I didn't think this was possible now. Is this just a mistake and is it my responsibility to organise my new car's road tax?

It means that, when you buy the car, they'll put tax on it for you. You are, obviously, paying for the tax yourself - just indirectly, within the purchase price...

2. My existing car's VED is on monthly direct debits. If I tax my new vehicle online do you just pay for the first month or do you need to pay three or six months up front (bit like the way TV licensing works when you go monthly).

One month.

teh_klev

Adrian, appreciate the quick reply.

> It means that, when you buy the car, they'll put tax on it for you.

Sorry if I'm being a bit dim here. How does that work in the absence of a paper disc these days? Do they just pay it for you over the DVLA website like you or I, or do traders have some kind of special arrangement with DVLA? How do I know that a rogue trader couldn't just cancel the tax after a couple of months and claim back the remaining value?

Thanks,
Kev

AdrianC

teh_klev wrote: »

Sorry if I'm being a bit dim here. How does that work in the absence of a paper disc these days? Do they just pay it for you over the DVLA website like you or I

Yes.

How do I know that a rogue trader couldn't just cancel the tax after a couple of months and claim back the remaining value?

Because they do it "in your name", with the new keeper reference number, so any refund would go to you as the keeper.

reeac

teh_klev wrote: »

I'm about to buy a replacement (used) car but I'm unsure about the new VED steps...so...

1. I see some listings from dealers on Autotrader saying the price of the car includes the car tax (not MOT). I didn't think this was possible now. Is this just a mistake and is it my responsibility to organise my new car's road tax?

2. My existing car's VED is on monthly direct debits. If I tax my new vehicle online do you just pay for the first month or do you need to pay three or six months up front (bit like the way TV licensing works when you go monthly). I ask this because when I taxed my current car I had to do this in a post office because the logbook that came with that car was quite old and only had a 10 digit reference number which the DVLA website wouldn't accept. I taxed for six months then signed up for monthly D/D upon it expiring but don't remember what the initial payment was.

Thanks,
Kev

I don't understand the "too old" remark. All my three cars are taxed via the Internet despite being 11, 19 and 58 years old. I can't remember how I got them into the system bu that 's how it is.

AdrianC

reeac wrote: »

I don't understand the "too old" remark.

The V5C was too old, not the car. It would have been an older blue one, with 10-digit Doc Ref, rather than the current red with 11-digit (and 12-digit on the new keeper slip).

reeac

Well my 58 year old car has with it a green, cardboard VE60 continuation book dating from 1970 plus a blue V5 dating from 1998 (when we moved house) and yet, as I said earlier, I retax the car via the Internet. At some point I switched into that system which is much more convenient as the nearest PO is about 10 miles away.

AdrianC

reeac wrote: »

Well my 58 year old car has with it a green, cardboard VE60 continuation book dating from 1970 plus a blue V5 dating from 1998 (when we moved house) and yet, as I said earlier, I retax the car via the Internet. At some point I switched into that system which is much more convenient as the nearest PO is about 10 miles away.

It should also have had a blue/green V5C, issued in or around 2004/05, and a red V5C, issued in or around 2010/11. If you do not have a red one now, you should contact DVLA and arrange for one forthwith. Previous formats may well be of historical interest, but no more than that.

It is not up to you to "switch into the system". DVLA are the ones who define what forms of documentation are issued and are valid - and there have been several complete reissues of V5C format in the last year, which should have been issued to all registered keepers.