Road Tax Late

_blueberry_

Hi,

Wondering where I stand with this as it feels odd, but likely DVLA will uphold the fine.

On 01/12/23 my road tax was due.  As there is usually some grace time, I wanted to get my MOT done prior to taxing my vehicle.  My MOT expired on 05/12/23.  In the meantime the vehicle was parked off road and not used.

I only managed to get my MOT run on 21/12/23 but it failed and over Christmas pretty much all mechanics were shut so I couldn't get the issues fixed.  In the new year the car was fixed, which took a few days and only managed to get this done on 09/01/24, after which I taxed the vehicle as of 01/01/24.  My logic was that I was not using the vehicle at all in December.  It didn't seem to make sense to declare the vehicle SORN for a few weeks?

Clearly they could argue that I should have just taxed it on or before 01/12 or declared it SORN but it just all seemed like a bit of faff for a month.

I have now been sent a £40 fine + owe £26 for December.  How lenient are DVLA regarding these matters?  Would I be better off just paying it and moving on or is there any point in trying to argue the point?

If its not a huge headache, I can try to fight it, otherwise I feel like just paying the fine would be sensible.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

bluelad1927

What point is it that you are looking to argue?

The rules are clear about taxing or SORNing. Your logic or perception of faff don't come into it.

Pay the fine and move on.

_blueberry_

In essence that I was unable to use the grace period as the mechanics were unavailable to fix the MOT issues found - which is the truth.  Whether that holds weight with DVLA or not is a different matter - I can see that they would just argue the date of 01/12/23 so I am tempted to agree with paying and moving on, just wanted to check if there was any point in attempting to argue the point at all.

BoGoF

There is no longer any grace period - not since it all went online and no paper discs.

CliveOfIndia

_blueberry_ said:

In essence that I was unable to use the grace period

There is no grace period.  OK, in practice you might get away with it for couple of days, but technically it's an absolute - if the car is not taxed then it must be SORN'd.

_blueberry_ said:

the mechanics were unavailable to fix the MOT issues found

That's not the DVLA's fault, is it?  Sorry, not meaning to sound sarcastic, it's just a factual statement.

_blueberry_ said:

I am tempted to agree with paying and moving on, just wanted to check if there was any point in attempting to argue the point at all.

No point in arguing at all - you were in the wrong, no two ways about it, there's no argument to be made.  Suck it up and move on.

Car_54

_blueberry_ said:

I have now been sent a £40 fine + owe £26 for December.  How lenient are DVLA regarding these matters?  Would I be better off just paying it and moving on or is there any point in trying to argue the point?

I believe what you've received is an offer of an "out-of-court settlement".

The name gives a clue to what they will do if you don't accept the offer. In court, the fine will be (much) higher, plus surcharge and costs. 

TooManyPoints

Just to be clear, the heading of your post is misleading. You did not tax your car late, you failed to tax it all for the month of December.

...so I am tempted to agree with paying and moving on

I should be very tempted if I were you. All vehicles must be either taxed (and insured) or declared (and kept) off road. You did neither. If you decline the DVLA's very reasonable offer to settle out of court they will prosecute you. The guideline penalty is a fine of half a week's net income (reduced by a third if you plead guilty), a surcharge of 40% of the fine and a contribution to prosecution costs (I believe the DVLA ask for £100). As well as this you will be ordered to pay the unpaid tax. This means if you earn £500pw, it will cost you £334 (£167 fine, £67 surcharge, £100 costs) plus the unpaid tax. 

There is no "grace period" to which you refer. However, had you renewed your tax some time in December and paid what was due from 1st of that month, I doubt you'd have seen any action. I know you could not have done so after 4th because of the MoT issue, but that is not the fault of the DVLA. There is little "faffing about" involved in declaring a vehicle off-road. It can be done online in a couple of minutes. It would have meant you had to keep the car off the road unless you were taking it to a pre-booked MoT test. An alternative was to have taxed it in late November/early December before the MoT expired. The DVLA and a court will know both these alternatives existed.

sheramber

You can get your MOT up to a month before the due date so if it fails you still have time to ge t the work done and get a pass before the due date.

Better than waiting until the last minute.

Bigphil1474

Agree with above. If my MOT was due to expire on the 5th December, I'd have had it in for MOT around the middle of November. You keep the anniversary if you do the retest within that month of the due date. Road Tax I pay monthly direct debit. I'd rather pay the bit extra for peace of mind. Not sure many government agencies let you off paying fees because it's a bit of a faff to sort things out properly.

Car_54

Bigphil1474 said:

Agree with above. If my MOT was due to expire on the 5th December, I'd have had it in for MOT around the middle of November. You keep the anniversary if you do the retest within that month of the due date. Road Tax I pay monthly direct debit. I'd rather pay the bit extra for peace of mind. Not sure many government agencies let you off paying fees because it's a bit of a faff to sort things out properly.

It's not a fee: it's a tax. Tax evasion has to be paid for by the rest of us.

Mildly_Miffed

Your tax expired at the end of November.
You didn't re-tax it or SORN it.
You re-taxed it in mid January, from the 1st January.

It was unlicensed for the whole of December. That's been an offence since SORN was introduced in the 1990s. "It seemed a bit of a faff" is not a valid defence.

The whole point of SORN was to prevent people taking the mickey by skipping a month's tax when they thought they could get away with it.

There's never, ever been a "grace period" of six weeks with a month's tax being skipped. You might have been able to get away with a week or two back in the day when the only record was the colourful paper in the windscreen, but it's ten years since that was replaced by the computer record.