To SORN or not to SORN?

[westmoorfarm]

Unfortunately our Smart Roadster failed it's MOT last week and needed some extra work done; the current MOT and tax both expire tonight. I cannot currently tax it as it doesn't have a valid MOT on the 1st of April.

The garage assures me they will issue the MOT tomorrow so I will be able to tax it then; however it will be untaxed for a period during the day (at worst 17 hours). The car is off the road at the garage so won't be being driven around.

The DVLA site indicates they will fine automatically if not taxed or SORNed - does that occur at the stroke of midnight or is there some leeway?

So should I SORN it, or am I likely to get away with it

[OutInTheShed]

Costs nothing to SORN it.
One small glitch and it won't be MOt'd until Monday.

[Pica-Pica]

Seems straightforward to me. Today is the month end, so SORN it. In April, when convenient/MOT’d, Re-tax it.

[caley64]

Check, but I seem to recall that once it's been SORN'd, you can't tax online for 5 days ?
Might be able to do it at a Post Office.

[Bill]

I wouldn't bother. The tax system isn't that efficient.

[Arnold Cunningham]

I regularly miss a couple of weeks. As long as you tax it before the end of the month, or immediately when you get a last chance latter, you’re fine in my experience.

[Riley Blue]

Bill said:

I wouldn't bother. The tax system isn't that efficient.

This, if it fails tomorrow SORN it.

[sixor8]

A car doesn't need to have valid VED if you are driving to an MoT test.

If it passes, the database will update in minutes, a lot faster than the VED database! I've had a car declared SORN that was still showing as taxed on the DVLA database for over 2 days....

If you declare it SORN, it will be several days before you can buy VED (as mentioned above) because of the mousewheel that drives that particular database.

[martinbiz]

westmoorfarm said:

Unfortunately our Smart Roadster failed it's MOT last week and needed some extra work done; the current MOT and tax both expire tonight. I cannot currently tax it as it doesn't have a valid MOT on the 1st of April.

The garage assures me they will issue the MOT tomorrow so I will be able to tax it then; however it will be untaxed for a period during the day (at worst 17 hours). The car is off the road at the garage so won't be being driven around.

The DVLA site indicates they will fine automatically if not taxed or SORNed - does that occur at the stroke of midnight or is there some leeway?

So should I SORN it, or am I likely to get away with it

I really wouldn't worry about it, nothing's going to happen if there is a few days between expiry and re taxing, they still get all their money for the month

If you make a SORN, then as someone has already said if you try to re tax it online the system locks you out for 5 days and you will be off the road which will be annoying if it passes the MOT the next day

[Armchair Expert]

I didn't SORN my car for about three weeks - forgot - nothing happened.

[OutInTheShed]

sixor8 said:

A car doesn't need to have valid VED if you are driving to an MoT test.

If it passes, the database will update in minutes, a lot faster than the VED database! I've had a car declared SORN that was still showing as taxed on the DVLA database for over 2 days....

If you declare it SORN, it will be several days before you can buy VED (as mentioned above) because of the mousewheel that drives that particular database.

Not sure about that.
The database will either know it's SORN, or think the tax has expired, in either case it should let you tax it.

I suppose the danger is they might process the tax and the SORN in the wrong order!

It's good to have the tax and MOT out of phase.