Unlike all the private cars on the road, your van is so much more than a set of wheels to get you from A to B. Your van is often a tool of your trade, an essential part of so many small businesses across a wide range of market sectors. Without your van, you probably couldn’t do your job, which is why it is so important to keep on top of maintenance and admin. Fines for not paying van tax can be high, and at a time where small businesses are struggling, why add on extra costs and fines when it’s so easy to check van tax and make sure you are all up to date.
Car and van tax – or more properly Road Fund Licence – is the money which most drivers pay in order to get the right to drive their vehicles on the road. Until the 90s the system was very straightforward, with two rates of tax depending on the engine sized of the vehicle. The government then switched to calculating road fund licence based on how much carbon your vehicle pumps out, with the consequence that vans, which often run on diesel and are more polluting are paying more van tax. There is a range of different charging bands for all vehicles, with no clear distinction between vans and cars, and other types of vehicles. All drivers pay depending on emissions, whether you are driving a tiny two-seater city car, or a massive HGV lorry. There are some exemptions in the system for older vintage vans which were registered more than 40 years ago.
If you drive a van as part of a large corporate fleet then the good news is that you are probably not the one who is responsible for taxing the vehicle. That is the job of the registered keeper, the name of the individual or the company whose name appears on the V5 registration document, also known as the log book. In most cases, organisations have a good process for making sure this happens. If the van is flagged by a automatic number plate recognition system for not having tax, the penalty notice will be sent in the post to the registered keeper, usually the head office. For smaller businesses or sole traders, the driver and the owner of the van is usually the same person. Sole traders who have a huge number of other responsibilities from finding new clients to marketing and social media can find it harder to keep track of when their tax is due.
It’s easy to check whether your van is taxed currently, and also to check when van tax is due. All you need to is enter the vehicle’s registration number into the website, and the results page will tell you whether the vehicle is currently taxed or not, and if it is taxed, when that tax runs out. Set up notes and reminders in whichever way works best for you to make sure you don’t forget.
Van drivers, like other drivers, have a few options for paying their road fund licence. Most will choose to pay their tax annually as a lump sum. There is also the option to pay in two payments six months apart, or even monthly by direct debit. If you choose to pay monthly or every six months, then there is a surcharge of 5% associated with the increased costs to the DVLA of processing payments in this manner. You should also be aware that if for whatever reason your direct debit is cancelled or bounces, then your road fund licence will be cancelled too.
If it’s time to trade in the work van and get another one, it’s perhaps natural to want to go online and plug the registration number into the website to make sure it’s all taxed properly. Before the tax system went online, it was common to see commercial vehicles marketed as having a full year’s tax, as this could be transferred to the new owner. Unfortunately, when the DVLA stopped issuing the round paper tax discs and switched to the online system, they also stopped the ability for one owner to transfer the old tax disc to the new registered keeper. So if you are thinking about investing in a new work van – whether new from a dealer or second hand – you will have to go online and organise the road tax before driving it away.
Similarly, if you are selling your old van onto a third party or trading it in against a new one, you will have to follow a different process for reclaiming any tax which you have paid upfront, as the new owner will have to arrange their own tax. DVLA does still issue a refund for the unused proportion of the tax you have paid and not used, in whole months only. This will only happen when you process the paperwork to transfer ownership of the vehicle, so don’t delay in doing this.
It’s perhaps less likely that van drivers will want to take their vehicles off the road for an extended period, as vans are used year round and are essential for business. But if, for example, you have an ice cream van which you only operate between Easter and September, then you can stop paying road fund licence for the period you are not using it. This is known as SORN, or statutory off road notification. It allows you to pause paying your vehicle tax and potentially your insurance too, but there are some rules and requirements. SORN requires that the vehicle is parked completely off the public road, perhaps in a garage, driveway or yard. When you are ready to use the vehicle on the road again, just go online and set up a new payment for the road tax and you’ll be legally allowed to use it right away.