Do You Get A Car Tax Refund If You Declare Your Vehicle As SORN?
By
HuutiMoney
If you are wondering about whether or not you get a car tax refund if you declare your vehicle as SORN, you will find the answer to your question and detailed guidance on claiming a car tax refund from the DVLA once you declare your vehicle as SORN.
Do You Get A Car Tax Refund If You Declare Your Vehicle As SORN?
Yes, you can get a car tax or Vehicle Excise Duty refund if you declare your vehicle as SORN; as long as you’ve paid your car tax in full. To claim a car tax refund, you will have to apply to the DVLA and declare your vehicle as SORN so that the remaining amount of Vehicle Excise Duty or car tax (paid in advance) can be refunded to you.
Once you’ve declared your vehicle as SORN, the DVLA will carry out its internal process of updating the information regarding your vehicle’s details and issue you a cheque for the remaining months for which you have paid your car tax.
It is important to note that any refunds made by the DVLA in lieu of declaring your vehicle as SORN will be for the remaining full months and not the remaining days of the month in which you declare your vehicle is declared SORN.
This means that if you declare your vehicle as SORN in the middle of the month, you should not expect your car tax refund to include the current month’s car tax payment as it is only from the following month onwards that a tax refund will be calculated.
Similarly, if you pay your car tax each month and declare it as SORN with only a month’s valid car tax, there will be no refund made to you by the DVLA.
If you pay your car tax by using the Direct Debit facility through your bank, your Direct Debit payments will automatically be cancelled as soon as your declaration of SORN is received by the DVLA.
However, if you’ve made any of the following payments with regard to your car tax, the DVLA will not be taking them into account when calculating the amount of car tax refund due on your vehicle:
- credit card fees
- 5% surcharge on certain direct debit payments
- 10% surcharge on a single 6-month payment
That said, you should remember that once your vehicle is declared as SORN (Statutory Off Road Notice), you will not be able to drive it on public roads and will have to keep it parked in a garage. You will only be able to drive your car on UK public roads once your car’s SORN status changes, you have paid your Vehicle Excise Duty and the MOT and insurance of your vehicle are updated.
How Much Do You Get As A Car Tax Refund If You Declare Your Vehicle As SORN?
If you declare your vehicle as SORN, you will get a car tax refund for the remaining months that you’ve paid your car tax. Based on this, your car tax refund will be calculated in one of the following ways:
- if the period of remaining car tax is 1 month or less, there will be no refund
- if the period of remaining car tax is 2 to 11 months, you will get full months of tax remaining
- if the period of remaining car tax is 12 months or more, you will get 11 months of tax remaining
The calculation for this will be based on which of the following is lower in value:
- the first car tax payment when you registered your vehicle; or
- the rate for the second tax payment onwards
Based on this criterion, your car tax refund could be anywhere between £10 for a diesel car (TC49) that meets the RDE2 standard or a petrol car (TC48) with CO2 emissions ranging from 1 to 50g/km, to £313.50 if you’ve paid a 6 monthly instalment on a diesel or petrol car.
Your car tax refund will arrive via post at the address mentioned in your vehicle registration details within 8 weeks of declaring it SORN. If you don’t receive your car tax refund cheque after the lapse of this time period, you should contact the DVLA.
How Do You Claim A Car Tax Refund If You Declare Your Vehicle As SORN?
Once you declare your vehicle as SORN and your application is received by the DVLA, you don’t have to apply separately for a car tax refund as it will automatically be in process.
To declare your vehicle as SORN, you can choose to apply online if the vehicle is registered in your name. Otherwise, you can call the DVLA’s 24-hour vehicle service at 0300 123 4321. Alternatively, you can use the V890 form and send it to the following address:
DVLA
Swansea
SA99 1AR
You will need to refer to the 11-digit number in your vehicle log book (V5C) and the 16-digit reference number on your vehicle tax reminder in either case.
Conclusion:
The above discussion helps to conclude that once you declare your vehicle as SORN, you are automatically due for a refund on the advance payment made to the DVLA regarding your car tax or Vehicle Excise Duty. The amount that you can expect to receive as a car tax refund depends on the remaining amount of the full months’ payment that you would have made to the DVLA.
References:
Cancel your vehicle tax and get a refund – GOV.UK