Car tax refund - is this right?

[MitchT]

Sorry, don't know which section this should go in. Feel free to move mods.

The OH has just had a refund for her car tax. She paid for six months tax from July to December at a cost of £139.13. She sold her car in August, meaning she should get a refund for the four months from September to December, which would be £92.75, however, she's received £88.33 which is the amount that would be due if she'd bought 12 months tax in January at the cheaper rate. Is this yet another instance of the government deliberately scamming people or have they made a mistake and refunded her for the wrong rate? I can't find anything that explicity states that you'll be refunded at the 12 month rate even if you've paid the higher six month rate.

[gotoPzero]

10% surcharge on 6 months duty is non refundable.... yep they know how to work us!

[MitchT]

Thanks. Couldn't find anything when I Googled.

[Ron240]

It's not a scam, it has always cost more to tax a vehicle for two 6 month periods rather than one 12 month, and you do not get the surcharge back if cancelled.
It is clearly stated on government website -

You will not get a refund for:
any credit card fees
the 5% surcharge on some direct debit payments
the 10% surcharge on a single 6 month payment

[carspath]

So if you know that you are only going to be using/taxing a car for 3 months only, then is it cheaper in the long run to buy 12 months worth of tax rather than 6 months of tax , and then wait for the 9 months rather than 3 months tax refund ?

[InitialDave]

carspath said:

So if you know that you are only going to be using/taxing a car for 3 months only, then is it cheaper in the long run to buy 12 months worth of tax rather than 6 months of tax , and then wait for the 9 months rather than 3 months tax refund ?

Yes.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

If the govt were out to scam us out of money by short refunding on VED, I'd hope they'd have the sense to do it for more than £4.42.

[InitialDave]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

If the govt were out to scam us out of money by short refunding on VED, I'd hope they'd have the sense to do it for more than £4.42.

When they changed from being able to pass the tax on to the next owner, I calculated how much extra revenue they'd make per year from the double-dipping of the crossover month, and it was millions.

[carspath]

So if you know that you are only going to be using/taxing a car for 3 months only, then is it cheaper in the long run to buy 12 months worth of tax rather than 6 months of tax , and then wait for the 9 months rather than 3 months tax refund ?

[MitchT]

Thanks for the comments. I'm not that bothered about £4.42. It was the OH's car and she was giving me earache about it so I needed some definitive information to pass on so she'd drop it. As clear is it might be on the government website, I couldn't find it when I looked.

[Ron240]

An example of what is a scam in regards to VED is the additional rate which applies to vehicles with a full retail price of more than £40k when new.
This has increased every year since its introduction in April 2017 and currently stands at £425, yet the £40k threshold has remained the same.

[66HFM]

I went down the monthly direct debit route for our current car as least that way when you sell it it automatically cancels, unless you've sold it in the last couple of days of the month and it 'too late' to cancel the DD... quickly refunded though on a previous car I sold on 30th of the month...

[Mr Tidy]

Ron240 said:

An example of what is a scam in regards to VED is the additional rate which applies to vehicles with a full retail price of more than £40k when new.
This has increased every year since its introduction in April 2017 and currently stands at £425, yet the £40k threshold has remained the same.

That's cheap! And it does decrease each year.

The biggest scam is post March 2006 registered cars in Band M that currently have to pay £760 a year, which will only ever increase.

[Ron240]

Mr Tidy said:

Ron240 said:

An example of what is a scam in regards to VED is the additional rate which applies to vehicles with a full retail price of more than £40k when new.
This has increased every year since its introduction in April 2017 and currently stands at £425, yet the £40k threshold has remained the same.

That's cheap! And it does decrease each year.

You will need to explain that, because the way it is written it does not make sense.