The road tax price bands remain the same, as do the existing options of paying for 12 or 6 months tax upfront but from November 1st there will be the option of paying your car tax monthly. This new monthly option arrives in tandem with the facility to pay your road tax by Direct Debit. Only the one-off annual payment comes with no extra charges. The key advantage of paying your car tax by Direct Debit is that the DVLA will continue taking the payments until you tell them to stop. Under the new car tax system, the process of selling your car has changed.
Any remaining road tax will not transfer to the new owner with the vehicle. Instead, the seller can get a road tax refund on any tax remaining on the vehicle, while the buyer has to pay to re-tax the car. Information on whether or not a car is taxed is available online via the Government website. All you need is the make and model of the car plus the registration number.
The problem that's getting motorists riled centres around the refund you get on outstanding road tax when you sell your car.
When ownership of a vehicle is transferred the previous owner gets a refund on any outstanding road tax but that refund is calculated from the beginning of the next month.
You might think the loss of up to a month's road tax when buying a new car might have been a revenue-raiser for the government — but apparently it hasn't. It did not, though, expect a "material" change in the amount of revenue collected overall. It might be that you are mothballing a classic car for the winter or using a vehicle on private land only.
You will need to ensure it is kept off public roads, even if it is parked and no longer used. For example, it will need to be kept in a garage, on a drive or on private land. To make a SORN, you can apply online using either the digit reference number on your vehicle tax renewal letter V11 or the digit reference number on your log book V5C. Most European countries require some form of tax disc or sticker on the windscreen and some motorists have expressed fears that foreign police might look askance at vehicles not displaying any tax documentation.
The British government says that the European authorities have been told about the changes. You will still be sent a renewal reminder when your vehicle tax is due to expire, although some drivers facing fines have complained that they were not notified of the new rules. Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as road tax: the correct term is vehicle excise duty or VED.
However, few people outside Whitehall refer to the charge as anything other than road tax, and the slip of paper that acted as proof of payment was universally known as the tax disc.
The first tax discs appeared in and were remarkably similar to the system in use until a few months ago. Although black and white, they consisted of a circular certificate bearing the make, model and registration number of the car. Perforations did not appear until , and then disappeared again in , to return in The most substantial change in the administration of the system came in , when drivers were able to buy a month disc at any time of the year.
Until then, all discs had expired on 31 December, whenever they had been purchased. Over the years, various colours and an increasing array of security features were added, and it became possible to renew discs online. Nevertheless, by the time it was abolished last October the tax disc system was fundamentally unchanged from what had been introduced almost a century earlier.
Skip to header Skip to main content Skip to footer. In Depth. Tax discs were abolished on 1 October Getty Images. What happens when I buy or sell a car? Vehicle tax refunds If you tell the DVLA you no longer have a vehicle or it's off-road, you'll get a refund for any full months of remaining tax. The refund is calculated from the date the DVLA receives the information and the payment will be sent to name and address in the vehicles registration document.
You must tell the DVLA if your vehicle has been:. Paying vehicle tax by Direct Debit As well as paying your car tax every 6 months or yearly, you can now pay by monthly direct debit. Valid insurance should also be in place for vehicles registered in Northern Ireland.
Checking the tax status of a vehicle You can check the tax status of any vehicle online. This can also be used for rental vehicles. Enforcement Just because you don't have to display a tax disc doesn't mean you can get away with not paying it, if anything you're more likely to be caught now than before. The DVLA has a digital record of payments and a paper tax disc is no longer necessary as proof. Already subscribed? Log in. Forgotten your password?
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