Jason71
Well-Known Member
I'm pretty sure they have always done it. I use to take car on and off Sorn long before no tax discs, often for just short periods, and can't remember being financially out of pocket by having a taxed car sat off road. Im sure I just cashed the tax back in when I stopped using it and got pro rata refund for the whole months I was not using it. Might be wrong though, its been a while and maybe I just use to tax it 6 months.
Technically you are correct it has always been possible to reclaim VED. SORN'ing a car has always resulted in an automatic refund and if you sold a car in the old days you were quite within your rights to take the disc off the screen post it to Swansea and ask for a refund of whole months, though it was far more common to sell the car as as includes "X months tax". If sold into the trade the first thing the trader would do would always be to claim back the remaining tax so as not to waste money while it sat on the forecourt.
The change with the abolition of tax discs is that now on change of ownership, or disposal into the trade, the DVLA now automatically cancel the VED and send the former keeper a cheque for the the balance of remaining full months ( unless monthly DD when they just cancel the DD) pretty much the same as if you SORN it.