Taxing a Vehicle

[azazl187]

OK so correct me if i am wrong here but is the government making a little extra money on the side here?

Basically when you tax a vehicle you get charged from the beginning of the month but when you sell the vehicle you only get a partial refund for whatever was left in that month. Why cant they charge you a partial amount for the reminder of the first month payment.

For example. Ive just taxed a van that costs £262 a year and had to pay a first payment of £43 to cover both the entirety of January and February and then 10 more payments of £21 for the rest of the year.

Now my point is that if i was to sell the van in the next couple of months on the 20th of March i will only be refunded the amount left in the rest of the month and not the full amount of that month unlike when you first pay the tax.

Does anyone else see what im getting at here and does anyone else agree that it is wrong to be charged in this manner.

Im more than happy to accept it if someone can give me a decent reason why it is done this way of course.

 

[Meaker]

To make more money.

 

[Hagar]

As far as I know, I may be wrong, but you only get refunded 'whole months' of tax. Yes they do earn a bit more from you from the overlaps, but it can seen to be cost effective so people do not game the system.

 

[azazl187]

why dont they just use the same logic for payments as they do refunds? Its not difficult and practically already in place. It seems a bit fishy to me.

After reading the website you only get refunded full months that are left and not partial months so you get stuffed both ways!

 

[~Divine~Wind~]

I tax a car for Jan and sell it to you on the 14th, I've lost 2 weeks.
You then have to retax the car for Jan, You've lost 2 weeks as you need to tax it for the whole month

Theyve just doubled their money that month

I don' see why the "month" doesn't start when you make the first payment in all honesty

 

[azazl187]

I tax a car for Jan and sell it to you on the 14th, I've lost 2 weeks.
You then have to retax the car for Jan, You've lost 2 weeks as you need to tax it for the whole month

Theyve just doubled their money that month

I don' see why the "month" doesn't start when you make the first payment in all honesty

Totally agree... why isnt trading standards involved in this?

 

[Basher]

Totally agree... why isnt trading standards involved in this?

I suspect they have bigger things to worry about.

 

[azazl187]

I suspect they have bigger things to worry about.

Well if you do this to the tune of 10 pounds to 100,000 people that's 1 million quid.... Not small amounts of money I'd say

 

[Rroff]

It is a bit annoying - I put off picking up my new vehicle for 2 days as it was a bit silly paying £21 for just two days

I'm not really against them only refunding whole months tho is sucks a bit if you sell only like 2 days into a month but they really need to sort it out when people are buying vehicles.

On another but related note I have to say I've been impressed with the DVLA lately though - when I dealt with them a couple of years back or so the incompetence and delay was incredible - I've recently gone through the processes of buying/selling, updating license details and a load of related stuff and they've been on point on knowledge of the processes and had documents back to me in 2 working days despite the 2-3 weeks advised (previously more like 4-6+ weeks actual). Although still a grey area on one aspect where no one seems to know the answer to.

 

[andicole0]

It's always been lile this hasn't it? Vehicle tax is priced per month or part thereof.
Andi.

 

[Rroff]

Weird you've paid £43 upfront - they've taken £21.93 from me for the first month then 11 payments of £21.87 from the 1st of Feb onwards.

 

[azazl187]

Weird you've paid £43 upfront - they've taken £21.93 from me for the first month then 11 payments of £21.87 from the 1st of Feb onwards.

Thats what i thought. They wont charge me the 43 until the 1st of Feb and then i have to pay 21 on the first of March onwards.