Help with this Road Tax quandary!

hopperdennis

Unfamiliar territory for, I’m inheriting a car at the weekend and selling it a week later (Aug 1st or Aug 2nd very latest). I would like to drive it for the week or so I have it and have just road taxed it there. This won’t be collected by D/D until Aug 3rd and both payments for July and August appear to be collected then. It’s around £95 and I’m only looking to tax it for the week however I appreciate I have to pay it for the full month, in this case is the £95 correct, or do I have any other options? What if I wanted to take it off the road on the 31st July, would I then only be liable for July (£47), and if so how would I put that in place? Any insight or direction would be very much appreciated 

Ant555

Are you able to store the car off the public road after 31st July?   If so then you can easily 'SORN' the car online.

I think you are saying that you have taxed the car from 1st July and if this is the case then you will get a refund for August if you sell/sorn online on or before 31/7/21.  If the DD comes out then you will get a cheque to the registered keepers address, I hear of staff shortages at DVLA so if any of this is a manual process at their office then there is every chance the DD will be taken.

PS - I guess the car is still in the name of the person you are inheriting the car from - have you done anything about changing this? If you dont already have the car registered to you then I would be tempted to hold off on the application.  Officially I dont think you can declare a car sorn that isnt 'yours' using the online service but in this instance there is nothing untoward due to the short timescales involved

AdrianC

If a car is SORNed, it must be on private land.

The minimum you can tax a car for is per calendar month.
You tax it any point in July, that's July paid for.
You SORN it any point in August, that's August needing to be paid for.
The one exception to that is that you can tax it "from next month" in the last couple of days of the preceding month.

If you pay by monthly DD, then it works out slightly more expensive than paying for 6 or 12mo at one go and reclaiming.

hopperdennis

TAnt555 said:

Are you able to store the car off the public road after 31st July?   If so then you can easily 'SORN' the car online.

I think you are saying that you have taxed the car from 1st July and if this is the case then you will get a refund for August if you sell/sorn online on or before 31/7/21.  If the DD comes out then you will get a cheque to the registered keepers address, I hear of staff shortages at DVLA so if any of this is a manual process at their office then there is every chance the DD will be taken.

PS - I guess the car is still in the name of the person you are inheriting the car from - have you done anything about changing this? If you dont already have the car registered to you then I would be tempted to hold off on the application.  Officially I dont think you can declare a car sorn that isnt 'yours' using the online service but in this instance there is nothing untoward due to the short timescales involved

Thanks! Yes I’m able to park it up off road on 31st July before being collected by the buyer on the 1st or 2nd. The D/D for July/Aug isn’t even being collecting until the 3rd of Aug so not sure how that will impact things before I SORN it. I am the registered keeper as of today so have been able to road tax it remotely with the details provided and it’s being delivered to me this weekend. Essentially if I wish to drive it off keep it off private land on Sun1st it will cost me £45. What if I were to cancel the D/D, as by the time it’s taken it will be under new ownership?

hopperdennis

AdrianC said:

If a car is SORNed, it must be on private land.

The minimum you can tax a car for is per calendar month.
You tax it any point in July, that's July paid for.
You SORN it any point in August, that's August needing to be paid for.
The one exception to that is that you can tax it "from next month" in the last couple of days of the preceding month.

If you pay by monthly DD, then it works out slightly more expensive than paying for 6 or 12mo at one go and reclaiming.

Damn, have already committed to pay by DD as assumed it would be easier to cancel vs trying to get a refund from paying so much in advance 

AdrianC

hopperdennis said:

AdrianC said:

If a car is SORNed, it must be on private land.

The minimum you can tax a car for is per calendar month.
You tax it any point in July, that's July paid for.
You SORN it any point in August, that's August needing to be paid for.
The one exception to that is that you can tax it "from next month" in the last couple of days of the preceding month.

If you pay by monthly DD, then it works out slightly more expensive than paying for 6 or 12mo at one go and reclaiming.

Damn, have already committed to pay by DD as assumed it would be easier to cancel vs trying to get a refund from paying so much in advance 

https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax-rate-tables/rates-for-cars-registered-on-or-after-1-march-2001

+5%. Not ridiculous, but if you're in a fairly high band like it sounds this car is...

hopperdennis

Do you think it’s worth cancelling the D/D? The alternative is paying 6 months up front and then claiming a refund for 4/5 months, right? Also, what day should I SORN, the 31st or Aug on the day or am I able to do it in advance for that pre determined day? (hopefully that makes sense)

AdrianC

hopperdennis said:

Do you think it’s worth cancelling the D/D?

No, it's done now. More hassle to try and change it than 5% of a month or two's tax is worth.

The alternative is paying 6 months up front

Paying 6mo upfront still carries a premium over paying for 12mo upfront.

and then claiming a refund for 4/5 months, right?

The refund comes automagically on SORNing.

Also, what day should I SORN, the 31st or Aug on the day or am I able to do it in advance for that pre determined day? (hopefully that makes sense)

If you SORN it in July (31/7, 23:59 or before), you get August back.
If you SORN it in August (1/8, 00:00 or later), you do not.
No, you can't do it "in advance".

born_again

Why sorn it if new owner is picking up 01/02-08? As change of owner will trigger refund. Or is that the date you are starting to sell the car?

hopperdennis

born_again said:

Why sorn it if new owner is picking up 01/02-08? As change of owner will trigger refund. Or is that the date you are starting to sell the car?

It will be sold on Aug 1st, 2nd latest, but not before! I would like to drive it when it arrives, have insured it etc however for the sake of parking it up on the driveway (SORN’ing) it on the 31st July, I think I’ll get out of paying for August, or I’ll be paying for it as discussed above but can expect a refund 

hopperdennis

AdrianC said:

hopperdennis said:

Do you think it’s worth cancelling the D/D?

No, it's done now. More hassle to try and change it than 5% of a month or two's tax is worth.

The alternative is paying 6 months up front

Paying 6mo upfront still carries a premium over paying for 12mo upfront.

and then claiming a refund for 4/5 months, right?

The refund comes automagically on SORNing.

Also, what day should I SORN, the 31st or Aug on the day or am I able to do it in advance for that pre determined day? (hopefully that makes sense)

If you SORN it in July (31/7, 23:59 or before), you get August back.
If you SORN it in August (1/8, 00:00 or later), you do not.
No, you can't do it "in advance".

Thanks for all of this!

How would the refund work if I am SORN’ing’ late on Jul 31st before the first D/D on Aug 3rd is collected? 

Also, what would happen if I cancelled the DD and never SORN’ed, would they see I owned the car for a week and seek payment manually for the month of July?