Refund of car tax from DVLA

Sparkle43

I routinely have paid for my annual car tax by monthly direct debit, last month I bought a new car and part exchanged my existing car to the dealership. 

My direct debit for my existing car went out of my bank account about a week prior to myself part exchanging my car. I then had to set up a direct debit for my new car with DVLA which went out almost immediately so I've paid two lots of car tax in the same month but only have owned one car at any one time.

Do I get any money back from DVLA for the period of time I had paid my road tax upto the end of the month but I was no longer the registered keeper. If so how is this processed or do I have to formally request DVLA for a refund of the remainder. 

Am assuming DVLA take payments for the month in advance on the direct debit. 

matt_drummer

Motor vehicles have always been taxed for full months and you only ever get refunds for full unused months.

If you changed cars part way through the month of December then you will have had to have paid VED (the car tax) for both vehicles for that month.

Are you a new driver? 

twopenny

You can try a reclaim on the website.
There will probably be information on what the rules are.

I pay annually and found it easy to do when I swopped cars. Check came in a week or so.
But if you pay monthly then probably the above applies 

jimjames

Sparkle43 said:

Do I get any money back from DVLA for the period of time I had paid my road tax upto the end of the month but I was no longer the registered keeper. If so how is this processed or do I have to formally request DVLA for a refund of the remainder. 

If you've had 2 cars on the road in the same month then you will pay 2 lots of VED (tax). If you've paid for a year's worth of VED then any remaining months will be automatically refunded but it doesn't sound like you are due any money back as you used both cars.

twopenny said:

You can try a reclaim on the website.There will probably be information on what the rules are.

No need to bother wasting time on that. Any refund is automatic but as above no refund due if you have used both cars in the same month.

CliveOfIndia

To echo what others have said, you only receive a refund for any unused full months.  If you pay annually, you'll automatically receive any refund that's due.  If you've been paying by monthly Direct Debit then you won't be due any refund.

Must admit, I've often thought that in this day and age of computerised systems, they could pro-rata refunds so you get back any unused days.  Especially when they changed the system meaning that the new owner doesn't benefit from any remaining tax that's left on the car.  But I suppose, bearing in mind the thousands of cars that must change hands every month, many thousands of "partial months" adds up to a nice little earner for the treasury.

Cynical?  Moi?  

Mildly_Miffed

Quite simply, VED is monthly.

You have the car on the road in the month, you pay for that month.
You had the old car on the road in December, you pay for December.
You had the new car on the road in December, you pay for December.

It has always been thus. The only reason people get excited now is the change to refunding on keeper change that came in with the removal of the old paper tax disc in 2014.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/vehicle-tax-changes

How much are we talking about for the extra month, anyway...? Bear in mind you're already choosing to pay more than you could be, in order to have the convenience of paying by monthly DD... That premium isn't refunded anyway.

facade

CliveOfIndia said:

To echo what others have said, you only receive a refund for any unused full months.  If you pay annually, you'll automatically receive any refund that's due.  If you've been paying by monthly Direct Debit then you won't be due any refund.

Must admit, I've often thought that in this day and age of computerised systems, they could pro-rata refunds so you get back any unused days.  Especially when they changed the system meaning that the new owner doesn't benefit from any remaining tax that's left on the car.  But I suppose, bearing in mind the thousands of cars that must change hands every month, many thousands of "partial months" adds up to a nice little earner for the treasury.

Cynical?  Moi?  

"thousands of cars that must change hands" 

you can put a couple of noughts on the end of that, 7.6 million in 2024, if only half of them were taxed mid month (or sold mid month), even if it is only £5 "they" are doing us out of,  that is over 300,000 x £5 a month, millions of reasons not to pro-rata VED on a daily basis

Mildly_Miffed

facade said:

...millions of reasons not to pro-rata VED on a daily basis

Can you imagine the chaos of everybody taxing their car when they're going to use it, then SORNing it again because they're not using it tomorrow...

facade

Mildly_Miffed said:

facade said:

...millions of reasons not to pro-rata VED on a daily basis

Can you imagine the chaos of everybody taxing their car when they're going to use it, then SORNing it again because they're not using it tomorrow...

Yes, if DVLA/HMRC are still using LEO or something similar  

It would be trivial for a modern desktop PC to apply & refund VED on a daily basis, there are only 41 million vehicles registered in the UK, and I doubt if more than 1% would be SORNing & taxing on a daily basis.

Tbh, I hadn't thought of SORNing my car for the 5 days a week that I don't drive it, (and I could always tax it on the odd day that I need to drive somewhere).  I suppose there would need to be an admin charge of £2 for each refund to cover all that extra electricity and extra bytes sent to all the associated systems like the clamping contractors, plus either a BACS charge or the cost of posting out a cheque and bank charges on it..