Tax a car when you buy or when home?
Tax a car when you buy or when home?
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Discussion

jondude

Original Poster:

2,441 posts

246 months

Tuesday 10th March 2020
quotequote all
Have agreed to buy a car from a chap about 100 miles from me. I can take care of the insurance through a one day policy to get me home and if the deal falls through it's not that much to lose.

Problem is the tax - I'd like to pay that when home but if I am stopped is that a no-no with the police? After all, paying anytime this month has the DVLA take for the whole month anyhow but yes, we all know how easily fines are given out these days so I'm unsure.

I cannot tax it until he hands over the V5 supplement and being an elderly chap, he says he does not have the internet at home. (I asked if I could tax it there before I left)

What to do? Is this a 'serious' offence or would the police say just get it done when home?

Superleg48

1,525 posts

162 months

Tuesday 10th March 2020
quotequote all
Do you not have a 4G mobile? You can tax a car on your phone anywhere you can get 4G. (3G may work too but I find it takes ages to load pages)

jondude

Original Poster:

2,441 posts

246 months

Tuesday 10th March 2020
quotequote all
Superleg48 said:
Do you not have a 4G mobile? You can tax a car on your phone anywhere you can get 4G. (3G may work too but I find it takes ages to load pages)
Thanks but nah, I am in the dark ages there - still have the Nokia basic model, no net.....nothing.

jondude

Original Poster:

2,441 posts

246 months

Tuesday 10th March 2020
quotequote all
Think I may have solved it ....Post Office doing tax only half a mile from him, so will walk there and tax if before driving home smile

Superleg48

1,525 posts

162 months

Tuesday 10th March 2020
quotequote all
jondude said:
Superleg48 said:
Do you not have a 4G mobile? You can tax a car on your phone anywhere you can get 4G. (3G may work too but I find it takes ages to load pages)
Thanks but nah, I am in the dark ages there - still have the Nokia basic model, no net.....nothing.
The take someone with you that does. If you buy a car, you must tax it immediately before driving it away.

V8fan

8,524 posts

297 months

Tuesday 10th March 2020
quotequote all
It's not really such a panic.

DVLA have no idea that change of owner has occurred until they are notified. Since you say the seller does not 'do' the internet, he'll presumably be posting the old V5c off so it'll be several days before you have to tax it. You could offer to do the transfer of ownership online for him but you'll need write down or take a photo of the certificate number off the front (he will correctly probably not wish to surrender the whole V5c in case you don't do it. Some dodgy people don't...)

You can tax it straight away using the slip of course, but if it were me, I'd wait til I got home and tax it then. It's half way through a month so there's no monetary gain in waiting a few days in your case.


Vickers_VC10

6,759 posts

234 months

Tuesday 10th March 2020
quotequote all
V8fan said:
It's not really such a panic.

DVLA have no idea that change of owner has occurred until they are notified. Since you say the seller does not 'do' the internet, he'll presumably be posting the old V5c off so it'll be several days before you have to tax it. You could offer to do the transfer of ownership online for him but you'll need the certificate number off the front (he will correctly probably not wish to surrender the whole V5c in case you don't do it. Some dodgy people don't...)

You can tax it straight away using the slip of course, but if it were me, I'd wait til I got home and tax it then. It's half way through a month so there's no monetary gain in waiting a few days in your case.
Is the realistic answer but it's breaking the law if you do this. If you get caught you get caught, if not you'll be fine wink

V8fan

8,524 posts

297 months

Tuesday 10th March 2020
quotequote all
And how do you get 'caught?' Until the DVLA process the change of owner, it remains taxed with the previous owner. The OP doesn't say if the car is presently SORN in which case it would definitely need to be taxed BEFORE driving it in case of ANPR.

I was stating what I would do if I couldn't do it on a phone or nearby post office, the OP has no 4G phone.

littleredrooster

6,374 posts

225 months

Tuesday 10th March 2020
quotequote all
V8fan said:
It's not really such a panic.

DVLA have no idea that change of owner has occurred until they are notified. Since you say the seller does not 'do' the internet, he'll presumably be posting the old V5c off so it'll be several days before you have to tax it. You could offer to do the transfer of ownership online for him but you'll need write down or take a photo of the certificate number off the front (he will correctly probably not wish to surrender the whole V5c in case you don't do it. Some dodgy people don't...)

You can tax it straight away using the slip of course, but if it were me, I'd wait til I got home and tax it then. It's half way through a month so there's no monetary gain in waiting a few days in your case.
^ ^ This. I've bought cars from private sellers and driven them a short-ish distance home and then sorted the tax, but from a dealer you really have to tax it before driving away as it will definitely show as untaxed every time it passes an ANPR camera.

Mr Tidy

31,427 posts

156 months

Tuesday 10th March 2020
quotequote all
littleredrooster said:
V8fan said:
It's not really such a panic.

DVLA have no idea that change of owner has occurred until they are notified. Since you say the seller does not 'do' the internet, he'll presumably be posting the old V5c off so it'll be several days before you have to tax it. You could offer to do the transfer of ownership online for him but you'll need write down or take a photo of the certificate number off the front (he will correctly probably not wish to surrender the whole V5c in case you don't do it. Some dodgy people don't...)

You can tax it straight away using the slip of course, but if it were me, I'd wait til I got home and tax it then. It's half way through a month so there's no monetary gain in waiting a few days in your case.
^ ^ This. I've bought cars from private sellers and driven them a short-ish distance home and then sorted the tax, but from a dealer you really have to tax it before driving away as it will definitely show as untaxed every time it passes an ANPR camera.
Yes, I've done that a few times too. Last time I asked the seller not to notify the change of keeper for a day as he was going to do it online. After all he wasn't going to get any bigger refund of tax because it wasn't the end of the month!

The last time I bought from a trader was on 29/11/14, but luckily it wasn't far away so I took my mate with me and he drove it home on his trade plates. Then I taxed it on 1 December.

But I got even luckier last year when I bought my latest daily in Cambridgeshire as my mate was selling a car at an auction in Kings Lynn. So we took his car up there on his transporter then picked mine up on the way back - didn't even cost me any petrol!

It's not always what you know, etc. laugh

surveyor

18,690 posts

213 months

Wednesday 11th March 2020
quotequote all
V8fan said:
It's not really such a panic.

DVLA have no idea that change of owner has occurred until they are notified. Since you say the seller does not 'do' the internet, he'll presumably be posting the old V5c off so it'll be several days before you have to tax it. You could offer to do the transfer of ownership online for him but you'll need write down or take a photo of the certificate number off the front (he will correctly probably not wish to surrender the whole V5c in case you don't do it. Some dodgy people don't...)

You can tax it straight away using the slip of course, but if it were me, I'd wait til I got home and tax it then. It's half way through a month so there's no monetary gain in waiting a few days in your case.
As long as it’s not SORN

The Mad Monk

11,467 posts

146 months

Wednesday 11th March 2020
quotequote all
V8fan said:
You could offer to do the transfer of ownership online for him
Which offer, I wouldn't accept.

Do whatever it says on the V5.

Fatball

645 posts

88 months

Wednesday 11th March 2020
quotequote all
ANPR cameras would need data to suggest that the car was not taxed. They wouldn’t have this if the car is taxed by the seller and the v5 has not been sent away.

No idea if they search retrospectively though camera data for this to see if they’ve missed one days revenue.

The police don’t bother with people who had cars that weren’t taxed until they’d gone a few months without and then recovery agent would come and you pay them the fine and what’s owing on tax or they took the car until you did. Unless that’s changed recently.


GreatGranny

9,519 posts

255 months

Wednesday 11th March 2020
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BTW, the OP has sorted it before this escalates :-)

mgv8

1,657 posts

300 months

Wednesday 11th March 2020
quotequote all
Nether the DVLA or Police are going to care about one day of new ownership. As long as it has an MOT and is covered then tax just in not a problem on the day.

james_gt3rs

4,816 posts

220 months

Wednesday 11th March 2020
quotequote all
Last time I bought a car I was followed by a police car on the way home. So I'm glad the dealer made me tax it.

Stoofa

959 posts

197 months

Wednesday 11th March 2020
quotequote all
One of the big car supermarkets in London - think it was Car Giant.
Would sell you a car and tell you there was a Post Office a mile down the road that would do your tax.
My brother bought from them and I drove him down to said Post Office to get taxed. On the way we passed two cars at the side of the road that had been pulled and a little further down the road another police car just sat in a lay-by.

Wouldn't personally take the risk.

Bigends

6,156 posts

157 months

Wednesday 11th March 2020
quotequote all
Fatball said:
ANPR cameras would need data to suggest that the car was not taxed. They wouldn’t have this if the car is taxed by the seller and the v5 has not been sent away.

No idea if they search retrospectively though camera data for this to see if they’ve missed one days revenue.

The police don’t bother with people who had cars that weren’t taxed until they’d gone a few months without and then recovery agent would come and you pay them the fine and what’s owing on tax or they took the car until you did. Unless that’s changed recently.
This..as long as the cars taxed at the time of sale / purchase and wasnt SORN'd, then until DVLA get the paperwork for the sale/purchase then the car will show up on any databases as taxed, though personally i'd tax it online at the time of purchase

carreauchompeur

18,321 posts

233 months

Wednesday 11th March 2020
quotequote all
You’ll be reet

93DW

1,437 posts

132 months

Wednesday 11th March 2020
quotequote all
Stoofa said:
One of the big car supermarkets in London - think it was Car Giant.
Would sell you a car and tell you there was a Post Office a mile down the road that would do your tax.
My brother bought from them and I drove him down to said Post Office to get taxed. On the way we passed two cars at the side of the road that had been pulled and a little further down the road another police car just sat in a lay-by.

Wouldn't personally take the risk.
I would imagine that was for no insurance given that expired road fund licence is a non endorsable offence