Dvla car tax refund - millions of drivers missing out by not doing...

Car tax has changed a number of times over the past few years. In 2018 it became more expensive for diesel drivers registering a new car in a bid to acting as a deterrent to tackle

emissions.  The change sees owners of DIESEL cars that don’t meet a new emissions standard pay one band higher tax. This follows the reform of the car tax system in 2017 which saw first-year

rates increase and standardised rate introduced for the second and subsequent years. Under the new changes only zero emissions vehicles that cost less than £40,000 pay zero road tax, as

there is not a luxury car surcharge that is applied to vehicle excise duty. The biggest changes to car tax did, however, come in 2014 when the tax disc was abolished. Previously, under this

system, car tax could be passed from car to car when they were sold. Now, even if there are remaining months on tax left on the car the purchaser must acquire VED for the car. The seller can

the claim back any remaining full months of VED once the car has been sold. Around five million drivers have received an automatic refund over the past five years data revealed earlier this

year. This has totalled £360 million, but more drivers are missing out on instant access to the tax refund. Drivers using the online service will receive the refund back automatically,

however, a large proportion of drivers are using the postal service. According to the DVLA, 60 per cent of drivers are not using the online method which means millions of drivers could be

needlessly dragging out the process. After informing the DVLA online that they are no longer the vehicle keeper then the refund should arrive back in their account within three and five

working days. DVLA Vehicles Service Manager Rohan Gye said: “While some of our digital services have over 90 per cent take-up there are still millions of motorists who tell us they’ve sold

their vehicle by post.  “This means that they will have to wait longer for their automatic refund of any unused tax. My advice is the next time you sell your car - tell us online.”