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Taxing a car as new keeper
Tammykitty
Posts: 1,005 Forumite
in N. Ireland
Does anyone else notice how difficult it is to actually legally drive away in a car you have just purchased.
Unlike GB, we can't tax a car online as a new keeper, and have to go to the post office with a cover note/certificate of insurance. This creates 2 problems:
1. Finding a post office that is open that does vehicle tax -
I tried 2 different post offices that according to the royal mail website do vehicle tax,
Post Office Number 1 - they have a big post office at the back of the shop that does the vehicle tax, and a small counter at the front of the shop that doesn't - however the website doesn't specify this, and states opening hours up to 8pm, but the big counter is only open to 5.30pm and it was after this I was there.
Post Office Number 2 - Despite Royal mail website saying they do vehicle tax, the post office say they don't
2. Getting a certificate of insurance, a lot of car purchases are trade in's the old car needs to be insured until you take it to the garage, and then the new car needs insured to drive it away, so phone the insurance company and get the insurance cover changed over - but then need to get the actual certificate to show the post office to get it taxed.
Thankfully, this time I was simply transferring a car to a family member, so we could easily keep it off the road until we got the tax sorted - but I think this time this process was simplified or an official grace period is granted after purchasing a car, giving time to tax it!
Unlike GB, we can't tax a car online as a new keeper, and have to go to the post office with a cover note/certificate of insurance. This creates 2 problems:
1. Finding a post office that is open that does vehicle tax -
I tried 2 different post offices that according to the royal mail website do vehicle tax,
Post Office Number 1 - they have a big post office at the back of the shop that does the vehicle tax, and a small counter at the front of the shop that doesn't - however the website doesn't specify this, and states opening hours up to 8pm, but the big counter is only open to 5.30pm and it was after this I was there.
Post Office Number 2 - Despite Royal mail website saying they do vehicle tax, the post office say they don't
2. Getting a certificate of insurance, a lot of car purchases are trade in's the old car needs to be insured until you take it to the garage, and then the new car needs insured to drive it away, so phone the insurance company and get the insurance cover changed over - but then need to get the actual certificate to show the post office to get it taxed.
Thankfully, this time I was simply transferring a car to a family member, so we could easily keep it off the road until we got the tax sorted - but I think this time this process was simplified or an official grace period is granted after purchasing a car, giving time to tax it!
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Comments
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You say "unlike GB". Where are you from?0
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but then need to get the actual certificate to show the post office to get it taxed.
Simply get the insurance company to email you the cert and print it off.
The Post office accepted that from me (Its probably on the system anyhow)0 -
ballyblack wrote: »but then need to get the actual certificate to show the post office to get it taxed.
Simply get the insurance company to email you the cert and print it off.
The Post office accepted that from me (Its probably on the system anyhow)
How are you meant it off when sitting in a garage forecourt, as I doubt many people have a portable printer (In fact I don't even have a printer at home but I know a lot of people do).
I just think its more difficult than it needs to be - its all the DVA now, so why does NI need a different process than GB? (Sedulous - I am from Northern Ireland, that's why I posted it in the NI forum)0 -
Tammykitty wrote: »Does anyone else notice how difficult it is to actually legally drive away in a car you have just purchased.
Unlike GB, we can't tax a car online as a new keeper, and have to go to the post office with a cover note/certificate of insurance. This creates 2 problems:
1. Finding a post office that is open that does vehicle tax -
I tried 2 different post offices that according to the royal mail website do vehicle tax,
Post Office Number 1 - they have a big post office at the back of the shop that does the vehicle tax, and a small counter at the front of the shop that doesn't - however the website doesn't specify this, and states opening hours up to 8pm, but the big counter is only open to 5.30pm and it was after this I was there.
Post Office Number 2 - Despite Royal mail website saying they do vehicle tax, the post office say they don't
2. Getting a certificate of insurance, a lot of car purchases are trade in's the old car needs to be insured until you take it to the garage, and then the new car needs insured to drive it away, so phone the insurance company and get the insurance cover changed over - but then need to get the actual certificate to show the post office to get it taxed.
Thankfully, this time I was simply transferring a car to a family member, so we could easily keep it off the road until we got the tax sorted - but I think this time this process was simplified or an official grace period is granted after purchasing a car, giving time to tax it!
You CAN tax a car online using the mainland UK system and have been able to for some time BUT, some older V5Cs dont have the correct format document number to allow that to happen - these are being phased out as cars change hands and new V5Cs with the correct format document numbers replace them. If it didnt work onine, thats the reason why.
You dont need your insurance Cert in hand at the post office - they check online and can see its insured.
Your insurance company can and will email you a cert if required, which you can print off at home.
There is no requirement for a grace period. Just tax it at the first opportunity. No one is going to throw the book at you if you buy a car on Saturday evening and dont tax it to monday (providing you're taxing it to cover ALL the period of ownership)0 -
Tammykitty wrote: »How are you meant it off when sitting in a garage forecourt, as I doubt many people have a portable printer (In fact I don't even have a printer at home but I know a lot of people do).
I just think its more difficult than it needs to be - its all the DVA now, so why does NI need a different process than GB? (Sedulous - I am from Northern Ireland, that's why I posted it in the NI forum)
We used to have a different process as we had the DVLNI in Coleraine. That has since been centralised to the mainland office in Swansea.
If the car is insured that info is stored online anyway so there is no need for a physical insurance cert present to tax the car.0 -
Tammykitty wrote: »How are you meant it off when sitting in a garage forecourt, as I doubt many people have a portable printer (In fact I don't even have a printer at home but I know a lot of people do).
I just think its more difficult than it needs to be - its all the DVA now, so why does NI need a different process than GB? (Sedulous - I am from Northern Ireland, that's why I posted it in the NI forum)
Just tax the car at the first opportunity. Whilst there is no "grace period" theres no issue taxing it on a Monday or Tuesday if you bought it on say a Saturday evening (if you cant get it to tax online)0 -
Just tax the car at the first opportunity. Whilst there is no "grace period" theres no issue taxing it on a Monday or Tuesday if you bought it on say a Saturday evening (if you cant get it to tax online)
When did the new format for the document number for the V5C come in?
The 3 cars I have tried to tax online as a new keeper recently didn't work - one was and 07 car (last changed hands in 2014), one a 2011 car (That had last changed hands on 2016) and one May 2014 car - I was unable to tax any of these online as a new keeper.
If as you say, there is no issue taxing it at the next opportunity, why not actually make this law?
I got my mum to drive me 25 miles to a post office open out of hours to tax a previous car on a Saturday evening as I didn't want to drive it untaxed until Monday.0 -
Tammykitty wrote: »
If as you say, there is no issue taxing it at the next opportunity, why not actually make this law?
I got my mum to drive me 25 miles to a post office open out of hours to tax a previous car on a Saturday evening as I didn't want to drive it untaxed until Monday.
Because otherwise people would deem their "next opportunity" to be at some point in the future so they didnt have to bother.0 -
Tammykitty wrote: »When did the new format for the document number for the V5C come in?
The 3 cars I have tried to tax online as a new keeper recently didn't work - one was and 07 car (last changed hands in 2014), one a 2011 car (That had last changed hands on 2016) and one May 2014 car - I was unable to tax any of these online as a new keeper.
I dont know when exactly but its been in place for a while (as long as you have the correct doc id format)
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/online-vehicle-services-in-northern-ireland-go-live
https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax
https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/external-link/vehicle-tax-and-statutory-road-notification-sorn-govuk-website0 -
Because otherwise people would deem their "next opportunity" to be at some point in the future so they didnt have to bother.
It wouldn't be difficult to add in a law, saying if you buy a car out of hours you have until 5pm the next working day to tax it (and would have saved me and others like me a lot of hassle when buying a new car!)I dont know when exactly but its been in place for a while (as long as you have the correct doc id format)
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/online-vehicle-services-in-northern-ireland-go-live
https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax
https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/external-link/vehicle-tax-and-statutory-road-notification-sorn-govuk-website
The DVLA blog seems to disagree (as at July 2015)
https://dvladigital.blog.gov.uk/2015/07/20/improving-our-online-vehicle-tax-service/#comment-31107
Have you actually managed to tax a new car online before you have a V5 in your own name?0
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