Here's another one for the TZ community think tank.


We leased my wife a car 12 months ago, a Cupra Ateca which was a pretty good deal at the time, it was for 4 years with 5000 miles a year. She loves it.

A month ago we got a letter from the leasing company (not the selling agent company) to say there was an increase to the road tax due and they will be collecting the additional amount with the following month's direct debit. Fine, I thought, it's probably just gone up by £10 or so.

But the increase charged was £498.

On investigation, it seems that the selling agent has stated the P11D car value on our lease paperwork as £38,785 but the P11D value the DVLA has put on the car is £40,050, meaning that road tax is £355 higher for each of the years we will have the car.

Crazily, despite the Road Fund License (RFL) being VAT exempt, once that charge is passed from the lease company to us, it becomes a "sale" which IS vattable, hence we have to pay the higher rate RFL fee of £355 per year, plus VAT!!


We went back to the the lease company who flatly refused to engage in a conversation and told us it was the selling agent's issue (UK Carline). They agreed it was an issue and seemed unfair, and would investigate. We had assumed they'd take responsibility and pay the additional fee for us,.

Today, they've sent us their "Official and final response" to our complaint and have told us we have to pay the extra. They've offered to credit us £250 on this occasion but will not pay anything towards the fee next year or the year after.

My wife and I are amazed and seriously angry.

How can it possibly be our fault, when our paperwork clearly shows the P11D value of £38k and they never informed us of the increase at any point. In fact, we assume the first they even knew was 2 weeks ago when we raised the issue with them.


We're feeling rather shafted and powerless. This issue must happen quite regularly with this new £40,000 higher rate road tax rule.