Tax Disc Renewal

[Gafferbill]

For the first time, I will be abroad next year when my Tax disc runs out.

I will be returning to Dover on the 4th of the month and see no alternative to undertaking the 80 mile journey home without a disc.(I could buy one in Dover I suppose)

I will buy one once home, where the renewal documents will no doubt be waiting.

This would not deprive the government of any money of course, but would be a technical offence.

Has this happened to you and what did you do?

 

[BrianStAlbans]

Why not surrender your old disc and re-tax before you go?

 

[Parksy]

You can renew your excise license (tax disk) on the 5th day of the same month that the old one expires.

Have a look on their website to see if there's a solution.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/index.htm
You can renew your excise license online and it will be posted to your address so you could buy it and then the worst that could happen is that you'd get done for not diplaying a current excise license.

 

[Lutz]

Alternatively, you can declare a SORN (Statutory Off Road Notification) when you leave the country as you are not obliged to have the vehicle taxed while it is used abroad. Then, of course, you would have to tax it again as soon as you re-enter. This may be a bit of a hassle but if you are leaving the country for a significant length of time, it may be worthwhile. Be sure to check your insurance policy first, though, whether the car is still covered while abroad if it is untaxed.

Why should you be paying tax to the UK government for a vehicle that is not used in the UK? The police abroad are not interested, just as long as the vehicle is still covered by insurance and MOT. When I left the UK, I drove abroad for 18 months on UK plates without paying any tax. However, I did have to change insurance company in order to maintain coverage during that period.

 

[Guest]

And will the UK insurers go along with the car not being taxed?

I always thought that an untaxed UK car was uninsured.

Would also guess that an insurer would soon use not having UK tax to get out of the expense of a claim made for a touring incident outside the UK!

 

[ValA.]

We were stopped coming back from Dover - in exactly these circumstances. The difference was that the car in question had been loaned to us, as a goodwill gesture, by Ford head office whilst ours was in for investigation of an air-conditioning infection. We explained the circumstances to the police - who weren't interested, but in the event Ford stumped up and paid the fine!

If you can get one before do it - and if you can't ask someone else to buy it whilst you're away and post it to you at a campsite somewhere. Even if you can't get it posted to you, then you've paid the tax, and that way it will be on 'THE DATABASE' as being taxed, and so the police are less likely to pull you over in a roadside check.

 

[Zafiral]

One slightly easier method of getting around this problem is that you buy a new tax disc now (covering you until 30.11.09) and then send your old disc back. You will loose a month (as you will only get Jan onwards refunded), but at least there is no dispute that you will be legal.

You need to do it this month however as owing to the rates increasing from April for some cars refunds for unused discs that are not sold or SORN'd I have heard will not be accepted.

 

[Lutz]

Re your question, Euro, a car must be insured before it can be taxed, but it does not (necessarily) have to be taxed to be insured. Otherwise, one would be going round in circles and the dog would be biting its own tail.

 

[Gafferbill]

Thanks for so many prompt replies......

For the reasons Civical outlines, I am not going to surrender my current disc for a refund and get a new one.

This I am told is not possible if you are not selling or sorning nowadays.

In actual fact my insurance is up for renewal on the same day, but I can get round this by renewing and paying early.

You are not able to renew your tax disc online in such circumstances, because the computer thinks you have no insurance. The database shows it to have run out and there is a time lag before it is updated by the insurance company, on renewal.

I have to go to my local post office for this reason every year.

My MOT also runs out but I can renew this 28 days early before I leave.

 

[Surfer]

Is there anything preventing you logging on line and buying the tax disc while you are abroad. The disc gets sent to your home address and in the event you are stopped, the police can check to ascertain whether the vehicle is taxed or not. Alternatively I suppose you could get a relative or friend to post it onto you at your overseas site.

Either way the fine for not displaying is a lot less than no road tax. I am sure both these are listed as criminal offences so be careful as the record is held against your name forever and a day!

 

[Lutz]

Just a note to add. You cannot be fined while abroad if you do not display a tay disc (or an expired one), unless your insurance policy is such that coverage ceases automatically if the vehicle is not taxed.

It may be difficult, however, to find an insurance company that will cover you if the vehicle is not taxed. When I was in the same predicament, I insured my car through an American underwriter that specialises in world-wide insurance coverage for people using their vehicle in a country where they have no permanent residence, such as export home delivery cars which are tax-exempt or those touring for extended periods abroad. Surprisingly, the premium was competitive, especially bearing in mind the saving in road tax.

 

[BobT1]

DVLA now give you the first 7 days at start of month to renew your roadtax.

 

[Guest]

DVLA do not give first 7 days to renew your road tax. And Lutz I believe to be wrong with the advice he is giving.

When I had a UK registered car in France I was told that I had to be insured and taxed in the UK or re register in France, the car had to be legal on UK roads at all time.

My daughter and son in-law were told the same when they moved to France last year. My son in-law kept his Mercs until end of year was coming up and sold them back in the UK and now they have French registerd cars.

Advice to Brits who move between UK and homes in Spain is that a car has to be taxed and insured and MOT'd (if required) in the UK or be re registered etc in Spain.

Advice from PLND (police national legal data base)

"Question Q370

Have I got 14 days grace to get my new tax disc when it runs out?

Answer

No, however there is an exemption for the first 5 working days of the month from displaying a valid tax disc. The exemption will only apply in the month when the tax disc commences and where an application for a new tax disc has been made before the old one expires. Drivers should continue to display the previous tax disc until the new one arrives. After 5 days the offence will be committed if the new tax disc is not displayed.

You have advance warning when the tax is due to expire, either six months or twelve months. You should make arrangements to re tax your car within plenty of time of the expiration date of your current tax disc. You can tax your vehicle on line, see website in related information for more details.

Irrespective of whether a car is used on a road the DVLA send out automatic penalty notices to anyone who has not renewed their tax disc (unless they have completed a Statutory Off Road Notice). However, the DVLA delay sending out such notices until 14 days after the licence is expired, which is where the myth that there is 14 days grace probably began."

Finally - From DVLA with URL below

"Vehicle tax due to expire while you're abroad,

If you're going to be abroad when your vehicle tax expires, you can tax online, by phone, tax in advance or get someone to tax your vehicle for you. You can arrange to get the tax disc sent to an address abroad.

Tax in advance

You can renew your tax up to two calendar months in advance in person or by post at a Post Office

 

[Gafferbill]

Thanks Euro...............

I concur with your advice on the law regarding taxing your car in the UK, and whilst living abroad with a UK registered vehicle.

The information that you can renew your tax disc up to two months before it is due, is new to me.

I have visited the direct.gov URL and printed off the instructions for doing so.

Provided my insurance company provides me with an advance Insurance certificate my problem is solved.

Thanks again.

 

[Lutz]

It seems that one is getting different advice depending on who one asks here. I can only relate my own experience and that was that I used my car on UK plates, insured through an American underwriter, but not taxed, while touring both Europe and the United States for 18 months without any problem, neither in any European country nor in North America, even though I was stopped for speeding once in Ohio. Both in that case and other incidents when caught in a police check, I was asked for vehicle identity papers, the insurance certificate, but never for any documentary evidence of having paid tax back home.

 

[Guest]

There's a little difference between being out of the country for 18 months and getting alternative insurance Lutz.

I can't see a holiday maker taking out insurance through an American or any other underwriter for what is probably only a few days.

They also have the problem of what happens when they get back on UK roads, on UK plates without road tax you are breaking the law.

Having had the pleasure of being pulled by Kent police within Dover ferry port for a 'friendly chat' it's possible that you could be pulled for not displaying current a tax before you hit the road.

You could even find that your out of date tax disc has been noted on the ferry car deck during the crossing and that you are targeted on arrival ;O)

DVLA seems to show that its easy to solve the problem and advice given to those travelling from the EU to homes in Europe is that the car must be fully legal in the UK.

I doubt that many foreign police would be fully aware of UK laws and that you would only really have a problem if you had an accident.

 

[Lutz]

OK, I do appreciate that the case in question is rather different to mine. I was actually thinking more about those who intend touring abroad for a considerable length of time. I just wanted to point out that you would not experience a problem while abroad so long as you ensure insurance coverage. I cannot speak for possible problems upon returning to the UK as I registered my car abroad after the 18 months were up. But who can prove that you didn't change your mind about 'permanently' exporting a vehicle when you decided to bring it back to the UK?

 

[Surfer]

Nowhere does the DVLA state that your car has to be taxed when it is overseas. Anyway what is to stop you doing a SORN on the vehicle while it is overseas and then prior to returning ontaining a fresh tax disc?

If you do not tax your vehicle on time and the vehicle is overseas, the DVLA cannot enforce the fine and it woud be thrown out of court as the road tax applies to cars using UK roads.

A technicality? Yes but not an answer to the OP but a way around it as in France I assume you are paying road tax anyway whether you like it or not.

 

[SteveW77]

Every Insurance schedule that I have read has had a warning that the vehicle must be in a roadworthy condition or the insurance would be invalid. With out a tax disc, the vehicle should not be on the road, so it is not in a roadworthy condition.

Steve W

 

[Surfer]

Since when does not having a tax disc make a vehicle unroadworthy? If it has a current MOT, it is a roadworthy! If no road tax, your vehicle is still insured contrary to what any one else will tell you unless the policy specifically states "no road tax, no insurance" and as you have to have insurance before you can purchase your tax disc. What if you SORN the vehicle? Does this mean that you can't insure it even if it is roadworthy?

 

[Gafferbill]

As the original poster........

I post below an answer from the DVLA to my problem which I put to them in an email.

This, from the horse's mouth as it were, confirms advice given by euro.

'

An application to renew a tax disc may not normally be made prior to the 5th of a month. However, when the keeper or the vehicle will be out of the country when the tax disc expires, an application may be made to a Head Post Office

 

[SteveW77]

Keeping or using a vehicle on the public highway without a current tax disc is a criminal offence, no insurance company will knowingly insure a vehicle to be used in an illegal way.

I would not like to risk a

 

[Lutz]

You have missed the point, Steve W. What you are saying applies only while you are in the UK. You are (normally) not liable for road tax while using a vehicle in a country of which you are not a permanent resident. There are some exceptions, mainly for commercial vehicles, though.

 

[SteveW77]

I was just pointing out that when you return to Britain, you may not be insured the moment you leave the docks or the tunnel.

It may well be that you arrive to late to get to a post office and end up facing a long motorway journey effectively breaking the law and therefore possisbly uninsured just when you are most vunerable, tired, changing back to the proper side of the road after a prolonged period of driving on the "wrong" side, all increase the risk of an accident.Some people may think it is worth the risk, I am not one of them.

Steve W

 

[Guest]

It seems that the simple general guidance is that you car needs to be legal in its home country to be legal in other EU countries when you are passing through.

I assume that you would get away with no Tax or MOT most of the time. But if you had to make a claim for an accident or theft of the vehicle whilst abroad and the vehicle is not legal at home then you are likely to get the book af your host country thrown at you and no payout from your insurer.

A UK haulier friend had two trucks involved in a crash in Portugal last month, before he could return the vehicles to the UK he has to prove that they were legal in the UK and that his drivers were insured to drive them and had the right license as one was a smaller 7 ton type and the driver was only on a UK car license. Now he has satisfied the Portuguese authorities his insurers will process his claim.