New road tax rules a PITA

[ZARDOZ]

Only found out yesterday that the new road tax rules mean you have to take off the road tax when you sell a car.
I.e. the buyer has to apply for new road tax in their name and you a refund.

How is this progress? It's just more red tape.

Drivers warned to brush up on new tax disc rules or face a £1,000 fine | This is Money

[lilelvis2000]

Its how it works in other countries, so I suppose that is progress.

Another thing that may catch some people out is that if you insure a vintage, but it is kept SORN (like I used to do) that is also unlawful.

And in a bit of progress, insurance companies will soon ask you for your driving licence number and check your driving history themselves, rather than rely on a self-declaration. Something I had in Ontario 20 years ago.

[tractor]

Only found out yesterday that the new road tax rules mean you have to take off the road tax when you sell a car.
I.e. the buyer has to apply for new road tax in their name and you a refund.

How is this progress? It's just more red tape.

Drivers warned to brush up on new tax disc rules or face a £1,000 fine | This is Money

IIRC, you don't get a refund for part months so they will get up to 30 days extra depending on when you claim and when the new owner taxes it. Don't know how that works when you sell to a garage and they keep in on their forecourt though, I guess there's no difference from now.

[northernladuk]

How often are you going to have to do that? Once every couple of years? The pay off is you don't have to dick about with paper disks anymore so no complaints on the theory of it for me.

[kevpuk]

Call yourselves contractors? Surely you just buy a new car every year, and then don't have to worry about the taxing thing?!
OK, I suppose one would probably still have to do something when you return it to Mr Dealer or Mrs WeBuyCars et al...

[ZARDOZ]

How often are you going to have to do that? Once every couple of years? The pay off is you don't have to dick about with paper disks anymore so no complaints on the theory of it for me.

You can already apply for road tax online up to a day before it's due and they post the disc to you. What this seems to me is an attempt to raise more revenue through fines. Plus they will only refund whole months, that's quite a lot of money in extra tax when you mulitply it by the millions of cars on the road. Most people didn't surrender tax discs unless scrapping the car.

Getting a few months tax was a bit of a bonus when buying a used car especially at the lower end of the market.

But looks like I'm in the minority here.

[original PM]

You can already apply for road tax online up to a day before it's due and they post the disc to you. What this seems to me is an attempt to raise more revenue through fines. Plus they will only refund whole months, that's quite a lot of money in extra tax when you mulitply it by the millions of cars on the road. Most people didn't surrender tax discs unless scrapping the car.

Getting a few months tax was a bit of a bonus when buying a used car especially at the lower end of the market.
But looks like I'm in the minority here.

Completely agree - taxed and MOT for 10 months etc means that when buying a ropey used car you knew you could use for at least 10 months before having to go through MOT and get some potentially big bills.

[vetran]

If they really want to make cash then charging cars here for more than a month or Lorries registered abroad a fee might be a good money spinner

[SueEllen]

If they really want to make cash then charging cars here for more than a month or Lorries registered abroad a fee might be a good money spinner

Better still would be pay on the spot fines for foreign vehicles that break driving regulations, or the vehicle gets impounded and scrapped.

[vetran]

Better still would be pay on the spot fines for foreign vehicles that break driving regulations, or the vehicle gets impounded and scrapped.

all for that, should be levied at the ferry terminal.