car tax heads up

[LobbyLudd]

Just think! There is now a large number of a new generation of drivers emerging (in particular with second hand modern cars) who really do regard their annual MOT as their annual service.

[TFM150K]

If you develope a good relationship with your MoT tester, it becomes a good annual oportunity for all the work that you or your mechanic(s) have done during the year to be thoroughly checked for safety. I make a point of taking all my vehicles (2,3 and 4 wheeled) to a garage that is not involved in any way with the car over the rest of the year but where I have known the two testers for donkey's years and if I ask, both will look at anything that causes any concern to me (or them) - and that includes things that do not come in to the MOT.

[kennatt]

If you use a PROPER mot garage,not one of those quickbuck,fail it for a loose screw or dirty windscreen type that are springing up all over the place .You can usually develop a good relationship,The one I use has always let me under the car on the ramp so I can get a good poke about to see the condition of the underside .Totally contrary to VOSA guidelines but hey ho.
My tester tells me that a there is discussion at the moment for centralizing ALL mot stations ,and setting up regional centers. Now that's going to be REAL progress NOT.

[MrIan]

Read about it here .... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... l-facebook

Yes others are getting caught out too. I like what the spokesman for the DVLA says, how can they just lie, unless as far as the spokesman is aware that's how the system works.

"""
A DVLA spokesman said: 'The changes have been widely publicised and we write to every vehicle keeper to remind them of the new rules before the vehicle tax expires.
'We also write to every new vehicle keeper when they buy a used vehicle to inform them that they must tax the vehicle before they use it.
'In addition, if a driver does not tax their car we will send a warning letter to remind them to tax as they are at risk of enforcement action.' """

Writing to remind before tax expires does not help the new owner.
They write to the new keeper to say they need to tax it before they use it ?? that is utter rubbish. All I got was a little flyer in with the returned Log Book which after buying the car on the 22/3 has only just arrived 3 weeks later.
I won't know about the warning letter as i've now taxed Boris Minor as I checked online after reading an article. BUT for 3 weeks I was driving a car that said it was taxed as an historic vehicle till August 2015 yet in reality it wasn't taxed and liable to be clamped and towed without warning.

[mike.perry]

Hell, I don't know if one of my Minors is taxed or not. I changed the ownership from my wife's name to my name and at some time, I can't remember when as I have no tax disc to remind me, the old tax disc expired and it was re taxed. If the ownership was changed before the tax then it is OK, If the tax was changed before the ownership then it is still "un" taxed in my wife's name.
I think that makes sense

[bmcecosse]

Just look it up on the DVLA website! My new modern had it's private plate fitted (it's only taken them 6 weeks...) , and I wondered if the 'tax' from the original reg number would transfer over to the private plate - and a quick check on DVLA site showed me that indeed it did!

[perkinsp3]

I'm not so sure that tax on a sold vehicle is automatically returned... In fact I know it is NOT - having recently traded in a car with a couple of months tax on it - and not a penny has come back. Since it was only £30 a year to tax it - i didn't bother to claim - but nothing has come back 'automatically'.

My daughter sold her KA at the end of March and worried about the automatic refund.
Refund came through yesterday, she's very pleased

[MrIan]

[quote="perkinsp3].My daughter sold her KA at the end of March and worried about the automatic refund.
Refund came through yesterday, she's very pleased [/quote]

Not bad going there then as your daughter got her refund back quicker than I got my Log Book. I waited over 2 months for a refund at the end of last year when I sent a valid disc back.
So maybe there's hope for the system after all ?
I still think it's a bit harsh clamping and towing when the system has only just recently been put in place.

[neilmorey]

As far as I can see with normal taxed vehicles all it does is increase their income via sales of used taxable cars. On each car sale ortransfer the seller looses out and only gets full months value of the disc refunded. The buyer will loose out too by having to pay for the same month that the seller wasn't refunded for !! .
It's nothing but a big money making con and nothing else, has nothing to do with insurance and unless I had checked I could very well have had my car that was displaying a current tax disc impounded.

Other than private sales isn't that what normally happened anyway? If you traded a car the dealer claimed the tax back and then added the cost of new tax to the vehicle when sold? The cost of any incomplete months was still a gift to the government.

I traded in my everyday car on 3rd April and got a cheque from DVLA for 3 months tax remaining this week of £45.
The new car cost £20 a year to tax. The £25 gain on road tax obviously is insignificant overall in the cost of the car.

I got the impression the whole point of this scheme was to make insurance enforcement more effective.

[MrIan]

Now it also includes a transfer ie from your partners name to yours or vice versa or to children as first car. You loose a months tax when you transfer it to them and they also pay for that same month whereas before the tax disc would just sit there quite happy being in date with no fuss !
So is this also to help insurance enforcement ? If it does I agree it is a good thing, yet all I read about is people getting caught and heavily fined for using a car they honestly believed (like me) was taxed.
The whole point of the thread is just to remind any purchaser of a classic Tax Exempt classic to make sure they tax it as even if the disc is in date you'll still be driving an untaxed vehicle till you do.

[kennatt]

haven't looked into this,but before ,using an untaxed vehicle risked,the offences of failing to display a current tax disc and using an untaxed vehicle on the road.The penalty via the magistrates court was a fine and an order to pay any back tax due on the vehicle. With a tax exempt classic the only offence would be to fail to display a current disc(All be it free) there was no back tax to claim,now that you don't get a disc to display and with an exempt vehicle ,no duty due.I wonder what would be the outcome if you refused to pay any penalty issued by dvla and opted to take it to the magistrates,with the defence that you have no disc to display and not due to pay any duty anyway and that what you were doing was saving dvla time and money.Might just get away with it because theres no point in it,if you don't need to pay and get nothing for just filling in a form.Any one want to test the system, not me,I"m a poor pensioner

[Trickydicky]

haven't looked into this,but before ,using an untaxed vehicle risked,the offences of failing to display a current tax disc and using an untaxed vehicle on the road.The penalty via the magistrates court was a fine and an order to pay any back tax due on the vehicle. With a tax exempt classic the only offence would be to fail to display a current disc(All be it free) there was no back tax to claim,now that you don't get a disc to display and with an exempt vehicle ,no duty due.I wonder what would be the outcome if you refused to pay any penalty issued by dvla and opted to take it to the magistrates,with the defence that you have no disc to display and not due to pay any duty anyway and that what you were doing was saving dvla time and money.Might just get away with it because theres no point in it,if you don't need to pay and get nothing for just filling in a form.Any one want to test the system, not me,I"m a poor pensioner

I think this may answer your question, http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1994/22/section/43A

[MrIan]

haven't looked into this,but before ,using an untaxed vehicle risked,the offences of failing to display a current tax disc and using an untaxed vehicle on the road.The penalty via the magistrates court was a fine and an order to pay any back tax due on the vehicle. With a tax exempt classic the only offence would be to fail to display a current disc(All be it free) there was no back tax to claim,now that you don't get a disc to display and with an exempt vehicle ,no duty due.I wonder what would be the outcome if you refused to pay any penalty issued by dvla and opted to take it to the magistrates,with the defence that you have no disc to display and not due to pay any duty anyway and that what you were doing was saving dvla time and money.Might just get away with it because theres no point in it,if you don't need to pay and get nothing for just filling in a form.Any one want to test the system, not me,I"m a poor pensioner

I think it's now classed as a vehicle has to be either taxed or declared SORN. Even before this latest system came in I got fined for not declaring my Capri (been off road for years) as SORN when it ran out. Because i'd forgotten and it ran out by I think it was 2 months I had to pay a fine. So I wonder if SORN is transferable under the new scheme? If you buy a project vehicle that is already declared SORN does it become unregistered when it changes owners? as the tax becomes void does the SORN?

[MarkyB]

It's worse still, they are clamping cars now;
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/a ... towed-dvla

[MrIan]

It's worse still, they are clamping cars now;
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/a ... towed-dvla

Yes and impounding them too, hence my shock to find my Boris Minor that i'd just bought even though displaying a valid disc was in reality liable to be clamped.