Evening,

I have just recently sold my wife's car as of tomorrow. Her tax is paid till the end of May, hence she will receive a refund for the months of April and May. Now the new owner will most likely tax the car from Friday, however they will lose the first 10 days of march.

So in a roundabout way the government gains a months vehicle tax for free ?

The whole system is a joke... No to mention diesels and lower emissions cars getting away with no vehicle tax.

Grrrr, breath, beer....

yep. multiplied by thousands of vehicles changing hands every month, ker-ching!!!

Ker fook in Ching

Sooner they drop it and put it on fuel the better

Look at it another way - if they weren't doing this then they would just have to raise tax rates for everyone instead. At least this only penalises those who are in a position to change vehicle, mostly the buyer because the seller can control when the sale takes place.

So the gov't get £10-20 out of a typical sale - I think there are bigger concerns when buying or selling a car privately to be honest. How much fuel is the car will make 3-4 times this difference or if it needs tyres soon or new wipers or any one of thousands of other things. Don't let something like this distract you from something important like an HPI check or conducting the transaction safely.

When it was a pre printed paper disc doing it a month at a time could have been seen as a pragmatic solution.

Now its all computerised they could have done it to the second, minute, hour or whatever but stuck with the month. I'm sure to the day would have been sensible and possible.

I believe around 7 million used cars are bought/sold in the Uk each year. Let's assume average VED is £15 a month and that half have current VED so that's £52.5 million extra into the government coffers. OK sounds a lot but in the scheme of government funding its loose change and the equivalent to about 2 days net payments to the EU. I just think some very un-creative programmers just computerised what existed rather than it being a cunning plan to extricate more tax, the windfall what just a pleasant (for HMG) side effect.

If you want to see how to really do it then a 5 or 6 pence duty increase on a litre of fuel in the forthcoming budget would raise about £2.5 billion.

The government makes money yes however..

When you used to sell a car you could have been giving away months of tax, unless you sold in the last few weeks of your tax expiring so in a roundabout way you could be better off, change your car yearly you may end up paying for 13 months tax worst case.

if it gets more taxed cars on the road that has to be a good thing as it = insurance and MOT at that point in time, the people that do not bother with such trivial things stand a much higher chance of getting caught earlier on.

Make sure YOU send on the v5 details.

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Originally posted by Brook_lands.

Now its all computerised they could have done it to the second, minute, hour or whatever but stuck with the month. I'm sure to the day would have been sensible and possible.
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Originally posted by ReMan
Ker fook in Ching

Sooner they drop it and put it on fuel the better

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But putting fuel duty up causes a real backlash with the big users and "once a week shopping" grannys alike. Put it on VED and nobody worries too much.
Besides, we have bought 2 newish cars this year. First one was zero tax, the 2nd was £20 a year. That isn't exactly breaking the bank. Many newish cars are very low VED, something that is about to change and go (a real step back I believe) to a flat rate of £140 a year after the initial year (or is it 3?)

Of course all this will apply to new cars only. Means I will be keeping our cheap tax cars for a while. As long as teh local council maintain teh half price parking permits for low emissions cars as well (that saves me over £300 a year on my car!!)

Be thankful it is not like the French system. Registering a car with a new owner is taxed based on the engine power. So a couple hundred Euros for something like a Peugeot 106, but many hundreds for a 5-series type. There is much less 'churn' of second hand cars and I imagine less business in flipping cars after a quick tidy up, a la Wheeler Dealers.

Unfortunately it is what it is. Just infuriating that most things are pro-rata these days apart from vehicle tax.
If your mortgage or council tax was rounded up to the month after you sold your home, I'm sure more people would complain and protest.

I will feel much better when all cars pay the correct amount of tax accordingly to a mileage/C02 calculator, however I doubt this will ever happen. The government is fair too keen on diesels and small petrol engines and slowly increasing the tax on older, larger petrol engines.

Diesels don't all "get away with it" Andy.
Mine certainly doesn't.

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Originally posted by SPYDER
Diesels don't all "get away with it" Andy.
Mine certainly doesn't.

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Originally posted by ReMan
Sooner they drop it and put it on fuel the better

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Originally posted by cliftyhanger
Many newish cars are very low VED, something that is about to change and go (a real step back I believe) to a flat rate of £140 a year after the initial year (or is it 3?)

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But your yaris will always be £30 a year, so hang onto it.
Our pug 107 is zero, the toyota is £20, my Zetec spitfire, TR7 powered (triumph) toledo, classic mini all free. The 1990 MX5 is well over £200 so will be going soon. In fact the mini will be too. Just too many cars to look after...