If you return your car and have pre-paid in full for a year or six months of road tax, the DVLA will automatically process a refund for any remaining balance.
Here’s how it works:
- 1️⃣ Ownership change notification – when we get the car and V5C log book, we’ll let the DVLA know that you’re no longer the owner.
- 2️⃣ Automatic road tax cancellation – road tax is non-transferable, so it doesn’t stay with the car and the DVLA will automatically refund your road tax when they process the ownership transfer.
- 3️⃣ Refund process – if you paid for six or 12 months of road tax, the DVLA will refund you for the tax you haven’t used from the date ownership is transferred back to us (not including the current month as road tax is charged in monthly increments).
- 4️⃣ Payment method and timing – the refund is sent as a cheque to the address you registered with the DVLA and usually arrives within six weeks of processing.
📌 Important: If you pay your road tax monthly by direct debit, all future payments will be automatically cancelled, but you won’t get a refund for any remaining days in the current month.