Girlfriend's VED band A (no tax) car clamped for having no tax

[Skeeter]

Isn't it easy to just check online if its taxed using the reg and make?

https://www.vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk/

That will see if she's correct or not.

 

[HangTime]

It also looks like £0 is about to become £140 for most low emission cars, only true zero emission vehicles will be £0 from 1/4/17.

AFAIK that only applies to new registrations, so anything registered prior to that date should retain £0 tax (although doubtless this may be revised in future).

 

[Tute]

AFAIK that only applies to new registrations, so anything registered prior to that date should retain £0 tax (although doubtless this may be revised in future).

Wish they'd just bin the stupid tax and roll it into fuel already.

 

[Jamesyboyjim]

You do. My wife has an A-band car and renews it every year. Given that you no longer need to display a tax disc nor pay any money for this band I can kind of see why people might overlook it, but you still have to go through the process (can be done online and they send you something through the post).

edit: sounds like she's done that via phone anyway so should be nothing to worry about other than the annoyance of being clamped.

Hangtime is correct, you have to go through the process even though its free. If memory serves, doesn't it still give a 6 months / 12 months option too

 

[Diagro]

Wish they'd just bin the stupid tax and roll it into fuel already.

yea no

 

[kissenger]

yea no

The problem with rolling it into fuel is that it penalises people (and businesses) who do a lot of miles for work and effectively rewards people who own multiple vehicles. Although it would save lots on administration costs.

 

[HangTime]

You could argue that people who do a lot of miles should be 'penalised' in the sense that they are both using more of the national infrastructure (roads) and probably those using more fuel will be polluting more (if this tax is intended to influence that). Currently you could have a Band A car doing 20k miles a year paying zero tax compared to a 'gas guzzler' doing 1k miles a year and paying £505 or whatever.

I guess one potential issue with taxing fuel is potentially leaves tax revenues open to future scenarios where fuel types change or vehicles become massively more efficient, compared to currently where for a given type of vehicle you know what the revenue will be. That said, the changes are likely to be gradual and kind of happening already with more and more 'low emission' vehicles around that require the regulations to be revised.

 

[Logsi]

My better half had a letter from the DVLA for her VED exempt Zetec S. She still has to go online and "Tax" the car or SORN it.

 

[Freakbro]

Hangtime is correct, you have to go through the process even though its free. If memory serves, doesn't it still give a 6 months / 12 months option too

Does it cost more for the D/D option?

 

[Evo8]

AFAIK that only applies to new registrations, so anything registered prior to that date should retain £0 tax (although doubtless this may be revised in future).

This!!!

 

[DXP55]

Looks like no birthday nooky for Kissenger tonight then.

 

[Phemo]

Hangtime is correct, you have to go through the process even though its free. If memory serves, doesn't it still give a 6 months / 12 months option too

Not sure if it'd do that on the band A vehicles. Tax on my 320d ED is only £20 for a year and that only gives me the option of 12 months. It does give me the DD option though for a whopping £1.75 a month. Pointless, but I bet some people still do it.

 

[VaderDSL]

My better half had a letter from the DVLA for her VED exempt Zetec S. She still has to go online and "Tax" the car or SORN it.

Ditto, got mine the other day, went online and sorted it.

 

[Jonnycoupe]

Yep you still have to apply for vehicle excise duty. Even if £0 it's that or SORN. I do on mine and only have the option of 12months.

 

[Gaygle]

I don't really get it.

If the DVLA confirmed they made a mistake and would unclamp it today - why did they tell her she'd have to pay £260?? Surely if it's a big mistake, they'd be apologising and releasing the clamp immediately?

 

[joeyjojo]

Not sure if it'd do that on the band A vehicles.

Correct, annual was the only option when I did the gfs car last October (band A, smart fortwo cdi).

 

[-westy-]

I don't really get it.

If the DVLA confirmed they made a mistake and would unclamp it today - why did they tell her she'd have to pay £260?? Surely if it's a big mistake, they'd be apologising and releasing the clamp immediately?

Exactly. Mentioning that you're refusing to pay given that it was their mistake, and that the clamp would be "removed by a third party ()" by the end of the day would probably move them along a little faster..

 

[Nasher]

They made a mistake and expect her to pay (and it will most likely be a nightmare getting the refund!)? I think I'd just go and cut the clamp off after hearing that

Afterall it was clamped wrongly.

 

[kissenger]

I don't really get it.

If the DVLA confirmed they made a mistake and would unclamp it today - why did they tell her she'd have to pay £260?? Surely if it's a big mistake, they'd be apologising and releasing the clamp immediately?

I think it's because it's not quite cut and dry. On their system they have it down as not taxed, but they acknowledge receiving a call from her back in Feb when the tax was due. I'm hoping they accept it was a fault on their end after receiving the paperwork, but I wonder if they just said it to get the money off her and are going to try to say she should have acted when she didn't receive any confirmation in the post. It strikes me as very harsh to not refund given that it's a £0 VED car anyway, and she did make an honest attempt to try to tax it.