Changes To Vehicle Tax On 1st October 2014

As of Wednesday 1st October 2014, you will no longer need to display your paper tax disc in your vehicle’s windscreen.

If your current tax disc has any months left to run after Wednesday 1st October, you can still remove it from your windscreen and destroy it. This also applies to those with a Northern Ireland address; however, they will still need to make sure their MoT disc is displayed.

Below there is a DVLA video that explains about the tax disc no longer being issued from 1st October:

You can make an online application to tax or SORN your vehicle by using your 16 digit reference number off your vehicle tax renewal reminder letter — also known as your V11– or by using the 11 digit reference number out of your log book — also known as your V5C.

So What Do These Changes Mean For Me?

You will still need to buy your vehicle tax, as you always have done, to keep or drive your vehicle on the road. You will also still get a renewal reminder letter from the DVLA when your vehicle tax is due to expire.

These conditions apply to all types of vehicles, as well as those that are exempt from paying vehicle tax.

Buying a vehicle

When you buy a vehicle as of 1st October, the vehicle tax will no longer be transferred along with the vehicle. You will need to get new vehicle tax before you can drive it.

You can tax your vehicle using the New Keeper Supplement (V5C/2) section of the vehicle registration certificate (V5C). You can do this online, at your local Post Office or by ringing the automated DVLA Telephone Number, which is open 24 hours a day, 7 days of the week.

Selling a vehicle

If you decide to sell a vehicle after 1st October and you have informed the DVLA, you will be given an automatic refund for any full calender months that are left on your vehicle tax.

Vehicle tax refunds

You won’t need to make a separate application to get a refund on your vehicle tax. The DVLA will automatically issue you with a refund when they are notified from the person named on their vehicle register that the:

• Vehicle has now been sold/transferred
• Vehicle has now been scrapped at an Authorised Treatment Facility
• Vehicle has now been exported
• Vehicle has now been removed from the road and then the person on the vehicle register has made a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN)
• Person on the vehicle register has now changed the tax class on the vehicle to an exempt duty tax class

Paying vehicle tax by Direct Debit

As of 1st October 2014 — or Sunday 5th October if it is being set up at a Post Office — Direct Debit will be offered as an alternative method of payment for vehicle tax.

This option will be available for customers who need tax for their vehicle from Saturday 1st November 2014 for periods of:

• 12 months annually
• 6 monthly
• monthly (12 months tax paid for on a monthly basis)

Assuming that an MOT remains valid, the payments will continue on automatically until you inform the DVLA to stop taking them or you personally cancel the Direct Debit with your bank. You should also make sure valid insurance is in place for vehicles registered in Northern Ireland.

If you tell the DVLA that you no longer have the vehicle, or if you inform them that the vehicle has now been taken off the road and declared as SORN, the Direct Debit payments will be cancelled and the payments will automatically stop

When the Direct Debit scheme can’t be used

You cannot pay via Direct Debit if any of these conditions apply to you:

• First registration vehicles
• Fleet schemes
• HGVs that pay the Road User Levy (all other HGVs can pay by Direct Debit)