Cancelling road tax direct debit payments

[wildone63]

Because iam intending to take my car off the road and declare a sorn at the end of this month before I sell or scrap it,i cancelled the direct debit on the road tax payments yesterday to ensure that no more payments would be taken out of my account next month.
But it looks like by doing so I have also inadvertantley cancelled the road tax itself because I have been sent an email from the dvla saying that I have to either re-tax or declare a sorn on the car immeadiatley . Why the fk should I have to do either when I have paid this months direct debit payment for the road tax already?.
I was only wanting to cancel the direct debit only and not the road tax itself ffs!
Anyone got any idea of how long a grace period I will get before I get fined for not making a sorn declaration?

[wack]

You may as well sorn it straight away because if you've cancelled the tax you can't drive it