Here's quick question:
Just received Vehicle Tax Reminder from DVLA (value 0)
It also tells me that my tax runs our by 31st of January (strange, as I picked up my car on 8th of Feb).
Would this mean, that in general, I can do the taxation on the 1st of February and all is good? does this also mean, that next year the end of car being taxed is end of February?
Tax still works in whole months because that part of the system was designed for paper tax discs and hasn't been modernised. You collected in February, so would have got an "expires January" tax disc in the old days.
You really shouldn't wait until 1 February before renewing - legally you need to
either renew
or declare SORN
before the tax expires. You can renew any time after the renewal notice is issued (which I believe is the 5th of the month, so about three-and-a-half weeks before expiry) and it will be extended by 12 months.
I suspect the only way to get an end-of-Feb expiry would be to declare SORN before the end of January, leave the car off road for the entire month of February, and then tax it in March.
EDIT: I know your tax rate is £0, but in general the government doesn't want people to get a free month by renewing late, so I believe renewals are always be backdated if you renew late. And renewing late is risky, because you could be prosecuted - although prosecution is unlikely for a very short delay. The only way to legally have an untaxed vehicle is to declare SORN (statutory off road notification), where you are informing the DVLA that the car is being kept off road. You then have to tax it again before you can legally drive it.
EDIT^2: Hmm, actually, you could perhaps renew your road tax this month for another year, then in March declare SORN (you'll get a pro-rata refund for any usused whole months, so you'll get ten twelfths of £0 back
) and then tax it again as soon as the SORN has been processed. If you tax it in March you should get an "expires-Feb" tax period. Problem is that I'm not sure how long it will take for everything to be processed and therefore how long your car would be SORN and unable to be used. Disclaimer: This is just a thought experiment and I really wouldn't recommend you try this. I'm am not responsible if your car gets crushed by the police and you end up in jail
EDIT^3: Although, if the police
do decide to sieze and crush your car, it would be great if you could try and get a video of the subsequent fire/explosion caused by the battery
roy