Refunding Road Tax

[Scrogg]

For years, dealerships have made a lot of money by surrendering the unexpired Road Tax (when did it stop being called Road Fund Licence?) on cars they take in part-exchange and getting the refunds. A recent SMMT letter to its members stated that this is worth in the region of £4,000,000 a year.

From January 2009 new rules will come into force (unless the SMMT are successful in getting the DVLA to scrap the change) whereby only the Registered Keeper can do this, cutting off this source of huge revenue for dealerships.

"Surely this can only be a good thing?" I hear you ask...

Well actually, no, it isn't, because from January dealerships will have to think of new ways to recover this lost revenue. Granted, we will all be given our unexpired tax discs back to claim the refund, but I have no doubt we will end up paying for it somehow.

But anyway, that's the informative bit over with. The main reason I posted this is becasue I have just found out that one of our members was told by their dealership that they were not allowed to keep the tax on their part-exchange, as the DVLA have now stopped issuing refunds!

Guys, if you're going to lie to your customers, at least make sure they don't have friends that have forgotten more about buying and selling cars than you will ever know!