Why is it so hard to tax a vehicle ?

[ShiroiKoibito]

I bought a new vehicle this week, and want to tax it so I can actually use it! but while i have the V5C/2 the numbers on it dont work on the website

I can do a check to see if it is taxed (no its not) and get all the details from their website, but no - i cant fucking tax it!

(the paperwork will come through at some point)

Sorry, at the moment new keepers aren't able to tax their cars online

Eh? Says who?

As others have said, I have done this online with no problems before.

seriously why do we need the 12 digit code, the vehicle can be recognised by the registration number!

Not sure about the 12 digit code, but since so many people have vanity reg numbers which they move from car to car I guess there has to be another way and VIN numbers are even longer.

you can pay monthly for tax, i do its not hard

you can pay monthly for tax, i do its not hard

And you are the recipient of this evening's "I haven't read any of this thread but decided to post a comment that has no relevance to it anyway" award - congratulations.

I know - I was on holiday (still in UK) recently and didn't have reminder or logbook and was expiring that day - had to pay £25 extra to apply for the magic code?! It's identifiable by ref no so shouldn't need to show you're the owner to pay the tax, differently if getting money back obvs. But won't happen again now I now! And user like most things, you pay (marginally) more in monthly instalments DD than paying upfront in advance.

I bought a secondhand car a couple of weeks ago and taxed it online before driving it away. I'm aware that that's entirely unhelpful to OP, but it's not a problem with the system.

If the V5/2 that you've been given isn't the last one issued then you won't be able to tax it online as the reference number will effectively have expired. Can you contact the person you brought it from to see if they have another one lurking about?