49 replies to this topic

[Ethel]

That's no worse than the situation with insurance, I'm sure collecting road tax via insurers has been considered before.

 

Sugar,

 

Legally property changes ownership when you hand over the cash, but the "Registered Keeper" is different to the owner - I guess that changes when you register as the new one, i.e. when the DVLA receive the V5c. 

 

I can see that the odd person might try to get a refund on a car they're still using, but there's no advantage to paying road tax on a vehicle you don't use. I'd anticipate any difficulty will be for the seller if the buyer is slow in sending off their paperwork and payment, or SORN declaration.

 

There is a little bit of a grey area, but I see no reason why you can't buy a car and drive it away before you become the new registered keeper, liable for the road tax. Is that also not what insurers have always provided cover for?

[lewBlew]

Unsure about the selling and new keeper part, obviously you need to send V5 away to register the new owner, so will the new owner have to wait until this is done and he has the V5 back before he can tax it?

 

The new owner can use the V5C/2 to tax it which is the little slip they get, while the previous owner sends off the large slip to the DVLA.

[SecretSugar]

 

Unsure about the selling and new keeper part, obviously you need to send V5 away to register the new owner, so will the new owner have to wait until this is done and he has the V5 back before he can tax it?

 

The new owner can use the V5C/2 to tax it which is the little slip they get, while the previous owner sends off the large slip to the DVLA.

 

Oh yeah! Thanks! Still having blonde moments lol

[lewBlew]

I really don't see the issue, I've always had to make a phone call to arrange insurance before driving away, so having to do the tax as well isn't really a big deal, especially if it can be done online from a smartphone.

 

True but I'm not liking this idea of it still being in whole months. Seems like a con that unless you buy a car on the 31st of the month both the new and old owner will have to pay for the same month. I hope this is ironed out.

 

Why oh why couldn't they just do away with tax and add it to insurance/petrol...

[lewBlew]

 

 

Unsure about the selling and new keeper part, obviously you need to send V5 away to register the new owner, so will the new owner have to wait until this is done and he has the V5 back before he can tax it?

 

The new owner can use the V5C/2 to tax it which is the little slip they get, while the previous owner sends off the large slip to the DVLA.

 

Oh yeah! Thanks! Still having blonde moments lol

 

 

Or just phone up/go online, which I think will become the norm.

[Artstu]

I really don't see the issue, I've always had to make a phone call to arrange insurance before driving away, so having to do the tax as well isn't really a big deal, especially if it can be done online from a smartphone.

 

Not very convenient for those without a mobile phone or internet access, and yes there are people out there who have neither.

[Ethel]

It may well be whole months, but I don't think it's going to be whole calendar months. If you register the change of keeper on the 15th, you'll pay your direct debit on the 15th. The most you might lose is a month, if you sell the car on the 16th - you could still declare SORN and try and have some choice over when you sell - who knows maybe they'd even let you transfer the balance to a new car.

 

Quite agree it'd be far easier and fairer to scrap the tax altogether and add it to fuel duty.

[Merryck]

Quite agree it'd be far easier and fairer to scrap the tax altogether and add it to fuel duty.

 

It's always amazed me that they keep these two things separate.

[Ethel]

People with money and influence tend to driver further in bigger cars - they'd be the ones paying more.

 

(rightly as they're doing more damage to the roads & planet)

 

 

Apparently road tax (1888) predates fuel duty (1909) by 21 years, I guess taxing coal for traction engines wasn't a viable option. The current system started in 1920, specifically to improve the roads so they were fit for motor vehicles. 

[Harrison541]

Charging the tax on the fuel would make more sense too. At the moment tax is based on vehicle emissions, but the emissions of a vehicle have nothing to do with how much it wears the road. If the tax was on the fuel it would mean the more fuel a car uses and the more distance it covers the more tax it pays. And it would solve some people "forgetting" to renew their tax.

 

Although having said that I think there would be uproar if yet another tax was added onto fuel

[lewBlew]

That's no worse than the situation with insurance, I'm sure collecting road tax via insurers has been considered before.

 

Sugar,

 

Legally property changes ownership when you hand over the cash, but the "Registered Keeper" is different to the owner - I guess that changes when you register as the new one, i.e. when the DVLA receive the V5c. 

 

I can see that the odd person might try to get a refund on a car they're still using, but there's no advantage to paying road tax on a vehicle you don't use. I'd anticipate any difficulty will be for the seller if the buyer is slow in sending off their paperwork and payment, or SORN declaration.

 

There is a little bit of a grey area, but I see no reason why you can't buy a car and drive it away before you become the new registered keeper, liable for the road tax. Is that also not what insurers have always provided cover for?

 

This is a very good point. The goverment/rozzers are often at pains to say the registered keeper does not always mean the owner. Perhaps in this case the tax will remain with the previous owner until the DVLA process the V5 keeper change. Perhaps you won't have to tax it until you receive the new V5?

 

If it's not whole months that would be great. Likewise if you don't have to renew every year this would be welcome, so it's a rolling charge. This would force you to declare a car SORN otherwise you'd still be paying the direct debit.

[Ethel]

Maybe the dvla should have employed TMF to brainstorm this for them 

 

Good point about the rolling tax / SORN incentive. I'd be paying hundreds each month on my ancient collection of V5's.

[evilpen14]

I see the changes as a good thing. They may be because I'm young and the old way is just so slow and frustrating.

[Black.Ghost]

If you put the tax on fuel, it would be really harsh on haulage companies, taxis etc which would just mean increased prices for consumers, unless they gave them allowances which means complicating the tax system even more. And what about company cars? They would surely need an allowance as well? Plus how much extra would they put on the cost of the fuel? I don't think that's the way to do it.

They just need to iron out any little problem areas and it should work. If they keep it as whole calendar months I can see there being a lot of pissed off people.

[Ethel]

Tax on fuel would be a tax at source, so ultimately fairer - you'd be paying relative to the amount you use, on the roads. Yes, it would hit those who use fuel to earn a crust harder, but that would be an extra incentive to be more efficient*, and although the rest of us would have to meet the, remaining, added cost with higher prices; we'd have the cash from not paying road tax towards it. It could even provide a means of levelling the playing field with foreign hauliers by charging them duty on a tank full when they arrive at our ports, if needs be allowing them to claim it back against receipts for up to the same amount bought while they're here.

 

*it wouldn't be a bad thing if more sales staff, consultants, etc. took to the internet instead of the road and supermarkets stopped hauling as much stuff from one end of the country to a distribution hub and back again. It might even create a few jobs by making local labour cheaper relative to centralised economies of scale.