taxing my new car advice?

[TheInsanity1234]

Hello all.

Bit of a strange situation.

Basically, I'm due to pick up my new car (only a '07 Clio, but it's new to me) on the 7th September. I have arranged for the insurance policy on my current car to be transferred to the Clio at 1pm on that date.

Now I'm disabled and claim PIP, and I have the standard mobility component, which means I am entitled to a 50% reduction on VED.

Now, the website says that one can only apply for this 50% reduction via post. No problem, except they want payment by cheque, and I have to wait for my new chequebook to show up (hopefully sometime this week). As soon as my cheque book shows up, I'll send off the application and the evidence they require to support it.

However, I understand currently they're a bit slow at processing things via post because of the pandemic and social distancing and all that. Therefore, there's a small chance they won't have processed my tax application by the time I am picking up my car.

What should I do in this situation? I plan on just checking online on the 7th to see if the tax is validated or not. If it is not showing as taxed, what should I do in this situation? Should I keep a copy of everything I've posted off to the DVLA (I intend to anyway, and post it by recorded delivery) in the car and if I get stopped by the police for no tax, will it be okay to simply explain the situation and that I have indeed paid for the tax, it's just subject to processing delays at the DVLA? Or will it be better to just pay for the tax online on the 7th and hope the DVLA refund it once they've processed the cheque and reduction application?

I just don't want to receive a massive fine for driving a SORN/untaxed when I've made attempts to tax it! The Clio is registered as SORN by current owner and I presume that once the registered keeper transfer goes through, the Clio will just revert to 'untaxed' rather than SORN, but please do clarify what I could expect?

[martinbiz]

I would just tax it online to be safe, if you choose 6 months instead of a year, then if you can't get it a refund it won't be too much of a hit

[TheInsanity1234]

martinbiz said:

I would just tax it online to be safe, if you choose 6 months instead of a year, then if you can't get it a refund it won't be too much of a hit

Would it not be more sensible to set up a monthly direct debit, then I'll only pay for the tax on a per monthly basis until the paperwork at the DVLA gets sorted, and then the DD can be cancelled, presumably?

[martinbiz]

TheInsanity1234 said:

Would it not be more sensible to set up a monthly direct debit, then I'll only pay for the tax on a per monthly basis until the paperwork at the DVLA gets sorted, and then the DD can be cancelled, presumably?

You can cancel it anytime and get a refund whether you've paid up front or not. Or just let it run out and then re tax it in 6 months time when you can hopfully get your discount at the beginning. You can't be talking about much money here. What's the VED rate for the 6/12 months?

[oblio]

Our last 2 cars were road tax exempt. We had to tax them for 6 months and then take the V5 etc to the PO and change the taxation class from normal to exempt. I think we were refunded less one month.

I think you can do it on the day if you have the right documents...

https://www.gov.uk/change-vehicle-tax-class/tax-du...

[TheInsanity1234]

martinbiz said:

You can cancel it anytime and get a refund whether you've paid up front or not. Or just let it run out and then re tax it in 6 months time when you can hopfully get your discount at the beginning. You can't be talking about much money here. What's the VED rate for the 6/12 months?

Not a huge amount, £150 is the annual rate, paying for 6 months is something like £80 if you include the surcharge. So about £12 a month or something! I just don't want to send a cheque to the DVLA for £75, and then have them take another £80 from me and not refund it because of some processing error! Think best bet is set up the monthly DD on the day I get the car if it's still showing as untaxed, as that'll 'tax' it for the ANPR cameras on the way home, and then just cancel the DD when the DVLA sort out the discount, they take 7-10 working days to actually take the DD payment, so there's a chance they'll sort the discount and cancel the DD before they even take the first payment!

oblio said:

Our last 2 cars were road tax exempt. We had to tax them for 6 months and then take the V5 etc to the PO and change the taxation class from normal to exempt. I think we were refunded less one month.

I think you can do it on the day if you have the right documents...

https://www.gov.uk/change-vehicle-tax-class/tax-du...

That's the issue, the 50% PIP discount can only be applied for by post, can't take it to the PO and do it there. Very annoying!

[NGee]

TheInsanity1234 said:

Would it not be more sensible to set up a monthly direct debit, then I'll only pay for the tax on a per monthly basis until the paperwork at the DVLA gets sorted, and then the DD can be cancelled, presumably?

NO! You can't do that. You can only buy tax for 6 or 12 months. The fact that you are paying monthly does not mean you are buying one month at a time, it means you have bought 6 months worth of tax and are paying for it by 6 installments.
Might sound similar but there is a massive difference and cancelling DDs does not cancel the tax.
The OP would then not be able to re-tax it at the reduced rate and would be chased for the missed payments and might be liable to any extra administration costs involved.

However what you can do is buy your 6 months of tax and then cancel it, when required, by contacting DVLA (NOT by cancelling DD!), then you can re-tax the vehicle at the reduced rate. You will then get any refund you are due for any complete unused months.

[TheInsanity1234]

NGee said:

NO! You can't do that. You can only buy tax for 6 or 12 months. The fact that you are paying monthly does not mean you are buying one month at a time, it means you have bought 6 months worth of tax and are paying for it by 6 installments.
Might sound similar but there is a massive difference and cancelling DDs does not cancel the tax.
The OP would then not be able to re-tax it at the reduced rate and would be chased for the missed payments and might be liable to any extra administration costs involved.

However what you can do is buy your 6 months of tax and then cancel it, when required, by contacting DVLA (NOT by cancelling DD!), then you can re-tax the vehicle at the reduced rate. You will then get any refund you are due for any complete unused months.

Gotcha! Thanks for clarifying

[anonymous-user]

You can just declare the car SORN and it stops the DD, I do it every year for one of mine as I pay tax Apr - Sep / Oct.

Set the tax up on Sep 6th, you can’t pay for a partial month nor claim a partial month back.

[TheInsanity1234]

Thanks for all the advice.

Decided to try ringing the DVLA, and after some trouble finally got through to an actual human being who advised the best thing to do would be to pay for the full year up front, and then send a letter to the refunds department with details of my car, and attach a copy of my PIP letter confirming that I am eligible for the discount, and they'll post a cheque back for a 50% refund.

He said the issue with posting a cheque in, and then taxing online if they hadn't processed the cheque by 7th September, then when they finally get to my letter with the application, they'd check the tax status on that day and if the car was showing as taxed, they'd just post everything back without issuing a partial refund, as it wouldn't be that particular department's responsibility to issue refunds!