Declaring a vehicle off the road

Rowley Birkin QC

Tax is out on my car since end Nov. I've bought another car now and planning to park up mine from tomorrow. Is there really no way to declare it off the road once it's into a new tax period?

mickdw

In your ownership, it has to have valid tax in order to declare it off road.
If you are planning on selling on the car, don't bother with the off road declaration as new owner pays from month of purchase regardless. If you plan on using this car again in future, you certainly should have declared it off road however to do this now you need to tax it.
People have been known to change ownership back and forth to get out of such situations however I couldn't advise you to do that.

JohnBoy26

mickdw wrote: »

In your ownership, it has to have valid tax in order to declare it off road.
If you are planning on selling on the car, don't bother with the off road declaration as new owner pays from month of purchase regardless. If you plan on using this car again in future, you certainly should have declared it off road however to do this now you need to tax it.
People have been known to change ownership back and forth to get out of such situations however I couldn't advise you to do that.

Why not?

Isambard

even the Authorities tell you to do that!

Rowley Birkin QC

mickdw wrote: »

In your ownership, it has to have valid tax in order to declare it off road.
If you are planning on selling on the car, don't bother with the off road declaration as new owner pays from month of purchase regardless. If you plan on using this car again in future, you certainly should have declared it off road however to do this now you need to tax it.
People have been known to change ownership back and forth to get out of such situations however I couldn't advise you to do that.

Thanks. Luckily, it's my OH's birthday. She's getting an out of tax 15 year old 3 series!

mickdw

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

mickdw wrote: »

In your ownership, it has to have valid tax in order to declare it off road.
If you are planning on selling on the car, don't bother with the off road declaration as new owner pays from month of purchase regardless. If you plan on using this car again in future, you certainly should have declared it off road however to do this now you need to tax it.
People have been known to change ownership back and forth to get out of such situations however I couldn't advise you to do that.

Why not?

Cause surely they can make up their own mind whether to do that or not.
One guy was up in court after cop having figured out he changed ownership 15 times to avoid tax and still didn't tax. He was stupid but It's up to individual to assess circumstances such as effects on car value v cost of arrears etc.

Rowley Birkin QC

Before anyone gets too wound up, the car is legitimately going off the road. This isn't tax avoidance shenanigans. I remember looking at an A4 a few years ago that had passed between husband and wife 6 times in the preceding 4 years.

Isambard

that's OK then, wait until it is going back on road and change ownership then.

martyc5674

I’m in a similar situation, I don’t need a car at the moment and haven’t driven it in yonks, and not really sure when I’ll need one again...
Basically tax was out end of October, drove car to NCT on nov 3rd(your allowed do this with no tax) so I went to declare it off the road a few days later and couldn’t cos tax had lapsed. (Insurance only lapsed last week but as I said it hasn’t been driven)
System needs a bit more thought.
Marty.

Isambard

martyc5674 wrote: »

I’m in a similar situation, I don’t need a car at the moment and haven’t driven it in yonks, and not really sure when I’ll need one again...
Basically tax was out end of October, drove car to NCT on nov 3rd(your allowed do this with no tax) so I went to declare it off the road a few days later and couldn’t cos tax had lapsed. (Insurance only lapsed last week but as I said it hasn’t been driven)
System needs a bit more thought.
Marty.

It really doesn't . It avoids people declaring a car off the road in retrospect to avoid paying arrears and that's what it was designed to do. You don't need do anything about it until you need the car again (and then change the ownership to a friend) It makes no difference at all if you actually sell it.

Notch000

have the same issue, not taxed since september and bought a new car, last month was told i cannot back pay the two months owed and sign off the road, the only option was to tax it from October to end of Feburary or condsider selling it to a 'friend'.

to add insult to injust i bough new car in octiber and only revieced log book last week, first time the car drove was to NCT center on monday night, Tax office forced me to pay tax from October 1st regardless

martyc5674

Isambard wrote: »

It really doesn't . It avoids people declaring a car off the road in retrospect to avoid paying arrears and that's what it was designed to do. You don't need do anything about it until you need the car again (and then change the ownership to a friend) It makes no difference at all if you actually sell it.

I understand the system.
The system is flawed, I’m not planning on changing ownership so why should I have to ?? I’d only be doing it to circumvent the current system.
I should be able to go into tax office and sign that it’s off the road... then when/if I do put it back on the road sign again stating this so that I’m not required to tax it for this period.

Isambard

Did you no use your new car from October until now? If you did use it you owed the tax, if you didn't the option is there to declare it off the road on purchase. As for your old car, you need do nothing about it until you might want to put it back on the road yourself