Luxury Car Tax

uknick

I'm just about to buy a used car which attracts the luxury car tax.  It was originally registered in May 2018 and DVLA say it attracts the tax until end of April 2024.
When I tax it this month, August, I know I'll have to pay the £140 hybrid tax plus £325 luxury tax.  My question is this; if I keep it past April 2024, is the last year's luxury tax only 9 months worth from August 2023 to April 2024?

treeroy

Car tax is done by month so yes if the DVLA have told you the tax ends in April 2024 then the tax will end in April 2024.

foxy-stoat

I would think that when you pay the VED + luxury tax in August 2023 then you wont need to pay the luxury part in August 2024 when your 12 months VED ends.

Grumpy_chap

In August 2023 you will pay 12 months at the premium rate.

uknick

I'm not sure I'm any the wiser.  Two answers say I pay the full 12 month's £325 luxury tax from August 2023 thus paying past April 2024 and one says I should only pay to April 2024 as it's done on  a monthly basis.

Logically, it should be monthly and either I only pay 9 months up front or I get a 3 month refund in April 2024.  But, when did logic have anything to do with DVLA?

AdrianC

uknick said:

I'm not sure I'm any the wiser.  Two answers say I pay the full 12 month's £325 luxury tax from August 2023 thus paying past April 2024 and one says I should only pay to April 2024 as it's done on  a monthly basis.

Logically, it should be monthly and either I only pay 9 months up front or I get a 3 month refund in April 2024.  But, when did logic have anything to do with DVLA?

It's very simple...

Any tax you buy before the car is 5yo has the premium added to it.
If you SORN the car, you get that premium back pro-rata, too.

So you tax the car from August until July, paying the base + premium.
You can then either SORN it in late April and retax it again from the start of May paying just the base, or you can shrug and decide that reclaiming three month's-worth of the premium (3/12 x £325 = £81.25) isn't worth that minor hassle.

uknick

AdrianC said:

uknick said:

I'm not sure I'm any the wiser.  Two answers say I pay the full 12 month's £325 luxury tax from August 2023 thus paying past April 2024 and one says I should only pay to April 2024 as it's done on  a monthly basis.

Logically, it should be monthly and either I only pay 9 months up front or I get a 3 month refund in April 2024.  But, when did logic have anything to do with DVLA?

It's very simple...

Any tax you buy before the car is 5yo has the premium added to it.
If you SORN the car, you get that premium back pro-rata, too.

So you tax the car from August until July, paying the base + premium.
You can then either SORN it in late April and retax it again from the start of May paying just the base, or you can shrug and decide that reclaiming three month's-worth of the premium (3/12 x £325 = £81.25) isn't worth that minor hassle.

Thanks.  That is what people are doing to reclaim the tax on pure electric cars since the changes but I wasn't sure if it was applicable in my case.

I'm not sure if it is simple in practice though; simple for me would be for DVLA to only charge 9 months to April 2024.  But, it is what it is.

AdrianC

uknick said:

I'm not sure if it is simple in practice though; simple for me would be for DVLA to only charge 9 months to April 2024.  But, it is what it is.

DVLA's computers simply aren't set up to allow you to buy tax in quantities other than 6 or 12 mo.

Mercdriver

uknick said:

AdrianC said:

uknick said:

I'm not sure I'm any the wiser.  Two answers say I pay the full 12 month's £325 luxury tax from August 2023 thus paying past April 2024 and one says I should only pay to April 2024 as it's done on  a monthly basis.

Logically, it should be monthly and either I only pay 9 months up front or I get a 3 month refund in April 2024.  But, when did logic have anything to do with DVLA?

It's very simple...

Any tax you buy before the car is 5yo has the premium added to it.
If you SORN the car, you get that premium back pro-rata, too.

So you tax the car from August until July, paying the base + premium.
You can then either SORN it in late April and retax it again from the start of May paying just the base, or you can shrug and decide that reclaiming three month's-worth of the premium (3/12 x £325 = £81.25) isn't worth that minor hassle.

Thanks.  That is what people are doing to reclaim the tax on pure electric cars since the changes but I wasn't sure if it was applicable in my case.

I'm not sure if it is simple in practice though; simple for me would be for DVLA to only charge 9 months to April 2024.  But, it is what it is.

If they allowed what you are suggesting then they would be selling RFL by the month, which they do not do.  They sell by 6 or 12 months and give you the opportunity to pay the 12 months in instalments with an admin charge on top.  That's why they will not do 9 months at luxury rate and then 3 by normal.

AdrianC

Mercdriver said:

uknick said:

AdrianC said:

uknick said:

I'm not sure I'm any the wiser.  Two answers say I pay the full 12 month's £325 luxury tax from August 2023 thus paying past April 2024 and one says I should only pay to April 2024 as it's done on  a monthly basis.

Logically, it should be monthly and either I only pay 9 months up front or I get a 3 month refund in April 2024.  But, when did logic have anything to do with DVLA?

It's very simple...

Any tax you buy before the car is 5yo has the premium added to it.
If you SORN the car, you get that premium back pro-rata, too.

So you tax the car from August until July, paying the base + premium.
You can then either SORN it in late April and retax it again from the start of May paying just the base, or you can shrug and decide that reclaiming three month's-worth of the premium (3/12 x £325 = £81.25) isn't worth that minor hassle.

Thanks.  That is what people are doing to reclaim the tax on pure electric cars since the changes but I wasn't sure if it was applicable in my case.

I'm not sure if it is simple in practice though; simple for me would be for DVLA to only charge 9 months to April 2024.  But, it is what it is.

If they allowed what you are suggesting then they would be selling RFL by the month, which they do not do.  They sell by 6 or 12 months and give you the opportunity to pay the 12 months in instalments with an admin charge on top.  That's why they will not do 9 months at luxury rate and then 3 by normal.

And, if they started on that, people would moan they can't tax daily.

You'd see people tax their car in the morning, Sorn it in the evening, have a day off, tax it again... Then moan it couldn't be hourly.

iainscomputer

AdrianC said:

Mercdriver said:

uknick said:

AdrianC said:

uknick said:

I'm not sure I'm any the wiser.  Two answers say I pay the full 12 month's £325 luxury tax from August 2023 thus paying past April 2024 and one says I should only pay to April 2024 as it's done on  a monthly basis.

Logically, it should be monthly and either I only pay 9 months up front or I get a 3 month refund in April 2024.  But, when did logic have anything to do with DVLA?

It's very simple...

Any tax you buy before the car is 5yo has the premium added to it.
If you SORN the car, you get that premium back pro-rata, too.

So you tax the car from August until July, paying the base + premium.
You can then either SORN it in late April and retax it again from the start of May paying just the base, or you can shrug and decide that reclaiming three month's-worth of the premium (3/12 x £325 = £81.25) isn't worth that minor hassle.

Thanks.  That is what people are doing to reclaim the tax on pure electric cars since the changes but I wasn't sure if it was applicable in my case.

I'm not sure if it is simple in practice though; simple for me would be for DVLA to only charge 9 months to April 2024.  But, it is what it is.

If they allowed what you are suggesting then they would be selling RFL by the month, which they do not do.  They sell by 6 or 12 months and give you the opportunity to pay the 12 months in instalments with an admin charge on top.  That's why they will not do 9 months at luxury rate and then 3 by normal.

And, if they started on that, people would moan they can't tax daily.

You'd see people tax their car in the morning, Sorn it in the evening, have a day off, tax it again... Then moan it couldn't be hourly.

Now that the car tax is computerised there is no reason why your car tax couldn’t be taxed daily, we have MOT & insurance that runs from any date in the month. It would be very easy to do the refunds on a daily cost especially when the car status has been changed online.
Lots of drivers don’t really like the way VED is split into calendar months & the way tax is purchased twice for the same month when a car is sold.