Road Tax (again)

[tavvi]

Apologies for war and peace, but hopefully this will add some value to the information already available ...

Went to local dvla office with registration form yesterday. Person who checked the form said "6 months - that'll be £99". This was 100% consistent with the answer I got from the vehicle section at Swansea on Friday (person in fact said that the CO2 figure on the VOSA SVA certificate was 'irrelevant', all that mattered was it was PLG and pre March 2001). Got a call today from local dvla office saying "sorry mate it's £165 for 6 months - pay up or I have to reject your application". He went off to check with the "Policy Unit" at Swansea who confirmed that it should be £165. I then called back the vehicle section at Swansea and got a different person from last Friday but he also said it should be £99 (and admitted that the whole section would say the same). He went off to check with the Policy Unit and came back to apologise saying the vehicle section just gave out 'general' advice and that the local office had ultimate authority.

I paid out the money and picked up the registration at lunchtime - person on the counter commented that it was an "interesting" case and that he too thought it should have been £99! I got an apology from everyone I spoke to(but a fat lot of good that is).

I think, from my experience that the rules are as follows (and I think the rules would be applied in this order):
1. if original registration is post-March 2001 same rules apply as for new vehicles
2. if vehicle more than 10 years old no SVA / ESVA required so (probably) no CO2 data will be available and (likely) to be classed as PLG / pre-2001 therefore £180 per year.
3. if not more than 10 years old will go through SVA / ESVA and will ultimately be classed as diesel and £300 per year. ESVA appears to include a CO2 test for all vehicles originally registered after 1/1/1997. For the Surf the CO2 data is taken from the model report (not an individual tailpipe test) and is over 290g (3.0 intercooler turbo 3rg gen).

Looks like anyone wanting to import a Surf should make sure it's at least 10 years old and pre-March 2001 - so there's probably a 3 years and 3 months window left to take advantage of - but don't be surprised if this changes as I got the distinct impression that they could well come up with other ways to establish a valid CO2 reading without an SVA test. I also got the distinct impression that the Policy Unit would be taking action to make sure all dvla staff would in future give out the 'correct' information when asked.

On date of registration my vehicle was 9 years 3 months old. Boo Hoo. I intend to appeal on the basis that I consulted them before making a purchasing decision and was misinformed, and their intended policy was clearly not properly implemented given the number of people within dvla who didn't know the rules. Basically an appeal to fairness - so I suspect odds are stacked against me to an impossible extent.

I had lined up Mud Skipper for consultation prior to going to the dvla (since he'd previous got them to change their mind) but given the advice I'd received up until today I didn't think I needed it! Any and all advice welcome but it appears futile.

[mud skipper]

Tavvi
have you now got the vehicle taxed for £99 or are they going to revoke it?

mine has a date of first registration of 01/03/1997
imported 19/04/2006 (9 years 1 months old)
sold on to me by importer 14/05/2007 (10 years 2 months old)

just had my third reg doc sent to me finally got PLG, no emission reading and diesel on it, so hopefully next time i get a tax reminder it will be all right but you never know.

[tavvi]

Correction

"there's probably a 3 years and 3 months window left to take advantage of" - that's kak - obviously come March 2011 10 year old cars start falling into the post-March 2001 category but you may still get a cheap Surf import (in terms of road tax) but only if the vehicle gets inceasingly older than 10 years.

[mud skipper]

like everthing in this country, we will get taxed to death on it sooner or later. enjoy it while we can,
a 4th gen is out of the equation then

[tavvi]

Tavvi
have you now got the vehicle taxed for £99 or are they going to revoke it?

mine has a date of first registration of 01/03/1997
imported 19/04/2006 (9 years 1 months old)
sold on to me by importer 14/05/2007 (10 years 2 months old)

just had my third reg doc sent to me finally got PLG, no emission reading and diesel on it, so hopefully next time i get a tax reminder it will be all right but you never know.

I had to supplement the £99 with another £66 for the 6 months road tax or they were simply going to refuse to register the vehicle. The matter was raised with me duruing the registration process so there was nothing to revoke. I think this is a fairly recent policy and it's clear that not all offices are singing from the same hymn sheet - hopefully you'll be ok. At my local office I was told that only those who had been trained to deal with new import registrations knew the 'new rules' so I could imagine a renewal appeal going to someone who didn't normally deal with imports and who interpreted it as a £99 case.

[mud skipper]

when i got mine the importer taxed it (cost him £165 i think it was) and when i took it to the dvla office and pointed out the mistake i got a refund(thank you importer)
how can different government offices sing from different hymn sheets.

[cataclysm]

how can different government offices sing from different hymn sheets

Have you ever hear of a Govt agency that know it's Madras from it's Elba?

[pirate-storm]

Have you ever hear of a Govt agency that know it's Madras from it's Elba?

is that a posh way of saying they dont know their r'sss from their elbow

[cataclysm]

is that a posh way of saying they dont know their r'sss from their elbow

That'd be the one. Most of the time I've dealt with the Govt, they seem to guess then act like it's gospel.

I'm still p-ssed off at HMRC for threatening to throw me in the slammer for refusing to pay tax... when I was paying tax every week. Took 3 years and countless phone calls and letters.