Car Tax Due 11 Months After Car Registered?

[Phil 87]

I just paid my car tax but thought it wasn't due til the end of April which is a year after the car was registered. The letter I got says it ran out on 31st March, but I didn't notice that the first time I looked at it, just assumed car tax lasts for a year and not 11 months. Is this normal? I'm lucky I didn't get stopped by police for no tax lol. I hope this doesn't catch out anyone else.

[Stoney871]

If the car is taxed in the middle of a month then you do for some daft reason lose that month.

[Phil 87]

If the car is taxed in the middle of a month then you do for some daft reason lose that month.

I suppose that makes some kind of sense. You'd think the dealer would have known that and told me it would have been better to wait a day to have it registered on 1st May, unless there's some reason why it was better to do it at the end of April.

[MartynS]

If it's within a week of the end of the month then it should have been taxed for 1 year and 1 week to stop you losing a month for just a few days. My dad wanted to delay getting his new car by a week for this reason, but the dealer said there was no point! The tax disc said something like 12+1 for the duration.

[Phil 87]

I think a more serious problem could be more people like me assuming that they have a month until their tax runs our, and then end up driving around with no tax for a few weeks. But I suppose that will only happen if they bought the car at the end of a month and didn't pay attention to the reminder letter lol.

[jeebowhite]

I'm glad you can pay monthly these days, I can stop worrying about when it expires as it will keep going and going.