Tax disc

For those who do not know about the new laws ,Well September is here and at the end off it us in England at least will not be having any more tax discs , also you will not be able to advertise for sale that the car has tax on it , because any tax you have left on the car when you sell it will come strait back to you ,and the next owner will have to tax the car , I am wondering about this ,is it that the person has the tax and not the car? I wonder, is this another Government cock up.

I taxed my car last month for a year will this still be valid as it's a paper disc, i'm not paying twice.

It's going to be interesting. I think the motivation behind the changes is that it encourages the seller to update and send off the V5 as soon as they have sold the vehicle as they will get a refund for every full month of TAX left on it, the longer they leave it the less they get. The quicker sellers do the V5, the easier it will be to clamp down on uninsured/unregistered drivers - or that's the theory.

The new keeper has to tax the car immediately - via a 24 hour website or phone line. So whenever you are looking at cars now, you have to factor in road tax into the purchase price. From 1st November you will be able to pay by direct debit but I think you still have to commit to 6 or 12 months. But it is a small move towards a pay as you drive system.

However it causes absolute chaos for the motor trade, especially the smaller one-made bands who don't have trade plates as they won't be able to keep cars on the road or do test drives now (unless they register them and tax them). It also causes problems when buying cars without MOT and documents (e.g. finance repo's) which is quite a normal set of circumstances.

digi said:

I taxed my car last month for a year will this still be valid as it's a paper disc, i'm not paying twice.

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Yes, you can continue to display the tax disc if you wish but you don't have to after 1st Oct.

If you sell the car after 1st Oct, when you send the V5 in you will automatically receive a refund for all full months left on the tax. If you sell the car on the 2nd of the month, you won't get a refund for that month.

Tannaton said:

Yes, you can continue to display the tax disc if you wish but you don't have to after 1st Oct.

If you sell the car after 1st Oct, when you send the V5 in you will automatically receive a refund for all full months left on the tax. If you sell the car on the 2nd of the month, you won't get a refund for that month.

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Therefore, when you sell your car, the government get 2 months road tax.



No comment.......

The gov is going to make millions out of this with people loosing a couple of weeks tax when selling, not everyone is going to sell right at the end of the month, and the new owner having to back date the tax to the beginning of the month
Rip-of-Britain again

This could fundamentally change the motor industry - everyone buying and selling second hand cars at midnight on the last day of the month.

Getting rid of the tax disc and going to an online system I understand - it's only what they did with MOT certificates a few years back.

I also get why they will not allow tax to transfer when the car is sold - this will encourage sellers to send the V5 off immediately, even when trading to a dealer.

But (extra revenue apart) why not refund/charge the tax daily? If you sell a car on the 4th of the month - you're going to want to lie and backdate it to the 29th of the last month or something. Equally if you buy a car on the 24th - you will probably hold off taxing it until the next month. It still encourages the wrong behaviour.

And if you are a small dealer with no trade plates - how do you drive a car home from the auction? It's going to cost you a months tax?

I was assuming that when you buy a car your tax starts from that day rather than the start of the month, but then either HMRC still gets double tax for the rest of the month, or the tax starts when the previous one ends, which means you might be paying for time when you didn't own the car!

Any way you look at it, it's unfair. But then when was HMRC fair?

never!

Tannaton said:

Getting rid of the tax disc and going to an online system I understand - it's only what they did with MOT certificates a few years back.

I also get why they will not allow tax to transfer when the car is sold - this will encourage sellers to send the V5 off immediately, even when trading to a dealer.

But (extra revenue apart) why not refund/charge the tax daily? If you sell a car on the 4th of the month - you're going to want to lie and backdate it to the 29th of the last month or something. Equally if you buy a car on the 24th - you will probably hold off taxing it until the next month. It still encourages the wrong behaviour.

And if you are a small dealer with no trade plates - how do you drive a car home from the auction? It's going to cost you a months tax?

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How is anyone going to drive a new car home, unless they tax it in advance of buying it.

The direct debit thing is going to be interesting too. I quite like the idea of monthly payments to spread the cost and as I'm not doing any buying or selling I'll be happy to run with that (assuming there's no extra cost?).

I assume the payment will come out on the first of every month? If you're selling on the last day of the month you'd have to remember to cancel the direct debit because I'm sure they'd take it and by the time the V5 was processed they'd say it was too late and you wouldn't get it back !!!

Alternatively if you've bought a replacement car I assume the direct debit would just roll over and be adjusted to the different class of vehicle?

19NMC said:

The direct debit thing is going to be interesting too. I quite like the idea of monthly payments to spread the cost and as I'm not doing any buying or selling I'll be happy to run with that (assuming there's no extra cost?)

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From a recent Auto Express article;

Drivers paying in monthly installments from their bank accounts will be subject to a 5% surcharge on top of the road tax price itself. That’s less than the 10% that’s added when you pay for six months tax, an option currently used by 23% of motorists. Only the one-off annual payment comes with no extra charges.

Read more: Death of the car tax disc: UK road tax changes and how they affect you | Auto Express

Dougden said:

From a recent Auto Express article;

Drivers paying in monthly installments from their bank accounts will be subject to a 5% surcharge on top of the road tax price itself

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So I've to pay around another £20 to pay by direct debit............