Any days grace on tax?

[Yazza54]

Long story short I'll be getting a new car end of this week, mine is out of tax, I need to use it for a couple more days then it can be SORN.

Is there any actual period after it running out that you're relatively safe or would I be daft not to tax it even if only for a few days?

[Cat]

There is no a grace period where you can use an untaxed vehicle on a public road. There used to be a period of 14 days where you could use a vehicle without displaying a tax disk, providing you had renewed and we're waiting for the disk to arrive in the post. Since the scrapping of tax disks this is no longer relevant.

If you choose to use the car without tax you run the risk of getting caught and fined. Your decision as to whether you want to chance it.

Cat

[Yazza54]

st, better tax it!

[StottyEvo]

Cat said:

If you choose to use the car without tax you run the risk of getting caught and fined. Your decision as to whether you want to chance it.

I thought this was now civil so the police wouldn't be interested?

I am also wondering as I bought a car and waited a week to tax it. As it was within the same month as purchase it makes no difference expect the paperwork sales date of sale is a week prior to the date it was taxed on the system. I'm wondering if I will get a fine through for this!

[Yazza54]

I've just done it online the monthly payments way, for the sake of 20 quid it's not worth the hassle and can cancel it at the weekend. Cheers

[Cat]

StottyEvo said:

I thought this was now civil so the police wouldn't be interested?

Nope, the police can still report drivers to the courts for no tax. Alternatively they can send the details to the DVLA who will then decide whether to prosecute or go after any back tax which they think they may be owed.

Cat

[L1OFF]

Yazza54 said:

I've just done it online the monthly payments way, for the sake of 20 quid it's not worth the hassle and can cancel it at the weekend. Cheers

I've just done this as we pick up the new car next week and I need to keep the Alfa on the road untill then. For £20 it's not worth the hassle.

[StottyEvo]

Cat said:

StottyEvo said:

I thought this was now civil so the police wouldn't be interested?

Nope, the police can still report drivers to the courts for no tax. Alternatively they can send the details to the DVLA who will then decide whether to prosecute or go after any back tax which they think they may be owed.

Cat

Ahh interesting. Thank you

[jbsportstech]

If you dont sorn or retax its an £80 fine I believe.

If you sorn and get caught using it you can be fined and pay the back tax, what 6 months tax on the car?

[ging84]

I'd risk it for 2 days unless it was going to spend time parked on the street somewhere near a town centre or on a main road where it might get picked up by one of those anpr patrols

[gus607]

There never was a 14 day grace period, old wives tale.

If you parked without a disc or expired disc the offence of "Not Displaying Current License" came in.

[SK425]

gus607 said:

There never was a 14 day grace period, old wives tale.

If you parked without a disc or expired disc the offence of "Not Displaying Current License" came in.

Yes there was.

There was no grace period for making payment, but there was a grace period for not displaying the disc if, for example, you had made payment on time and were waiting for the disc to arrive in the post.

As said above, all irrelevant now the disc doesn't exist.

[Who me ?]

gus607 said:

There never was a 14 day grace period, old wives tale.

If you parked without a disc or expired disc the offence of "Not Displaying Current License" came in.

Up till a couple of years ago , DVLA would take no action up till 14 days.

[Gafferjim]

Depending on which police force you get caught in, some forces will seize the car (£150 tow fee, + storage after 24 hrs) you then have to find your own way home, and return with proof of back dated tax & new tax paid, before you get it back.

[357RS]

I asked DVLA about renewing tax as mine will expire during a long holiday later in the year.
Their reply contained this:

[i]If you intend to renew your vehicle tax you should do so before your vehicle tax expires. However, we appreciate that this is not always possible.
If, for example, If you are waiting to get an MOT test for your car, you may be unable to renew your vehicle tax on time. By law you will not be committing an offence if you either tax the vehicle or make a Statutory off Road Notification (SORN) within 14 days of the date of expiry of your current vehicle tax.

Important - You must however, keep your vehicle off the road during this time as it is an offence to use your vehicle on the road.[/i]

[Countdown]

So a slight variation on the above.....

My cousin has his Road Tax set to be paid via Direct Debit. The DD gets taken as long as the vehicle has valid MOT and Insurance.

He has valid insurance and he had his MOT done on Friday 29th September. As of today no DD has been taken and his car is showing untaxed on the DVLA website. When he tried to pay the VED online it said that this was due to be paid automatically via DD and he might be charged twice if he continues with his application.

In short, despite his best efforts, is there a risk that he's going to get done for driving with no VED?

I've suggested that he waits to see if the DD is taken by Tuesday and, if not, then cancel the DD and pay it online. He's got a printout from the GOV.UK website confirming that the DD is set to auto renew on 1st October so would that be a sufficient defence in case he did get caught...?

[sim16v]

DD normally gets taken from the bank on the first working day, so likely tomorrow.

It can also take a couple of days to update on the Tax website.

If it doesn't, there might be a problem between the DVLA tax and MOT links.

Does it show as MOTd on both the Tax and MOT database?

It can sometimes take a couple of days to update on the MOT website and 3-5 days on the Tax website.

[Countdown]

Yes - MOTd on both databases.

i think you're right about the money being taken out on the first working day, none of my DDs which were due to go out on 1st of the month have been taken out yet so it suggests that his were the same.

[AlexRS2782]

As above payment should go through tomorrow. I had similar last year when my MOT crossed over with month end which also happened to be a Bank Holidayweekend.

Tax on the DD paperwork stated it would be taken on Monday but the MOT was booked for and passed first thing Tuesday AM. Because it was a Bank Holiday weekend the DD payment was delayed until Tuesday and by that time the new MOT was valid so it still went through without issue.

[Gavia]

Countdown said:

So a slight variation on the above.....

My cousin has his Road Tax set to be paid via Direct Debit. The DD gets taken as long as the vehicle has valid MOT and Insurance.

He has valid insurance and he had his MOT done on Friday 29th September. As of today no DD has been taken and his car is showing untaxed on the DVLA website. When he tried to pay the VED online it said that this was due to be paid automatically via DD and he might be charged twice if he continues with his application.

In short, despite his best efforts, is there a risk that he's going to get done for driving with no VED?

I've suggested that he waits to see if the DD is taken by Tuesday and, if not, then cancel the DD and pay it online. He's got a printout from the GOV.UK website confirming that the DD is set to auto renew on 1st October so would that be a sufficient defence in case he did get caught...?

There is absolutely zero chance of him “getting done for driving with no VED”. The paranoia on this website is quite incredible at times. The worst thing that would happen is that he’d get a letter asking him to tax his car and even that isn’t going to happen in such a short timeframe.

Do you really think that a computer issues court papers at 00:00:01 on the day after the tax expires? Whilst the offence may technically be absolute, there are always reminders built into a process to give the person time to rectify their error.