UK Vehicle Excise Duty (Car Tax): Rates, Bands, and SORN

UK Vehicle Excise Duty, commonly called car tax or road tax, is an annual charge every vehicle owner must pay if the car is driven or kept on a public road. What you owe depends on three things: when the car was first registered, its CO2 emissions, and, for newer cars, its original list price. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) collects it, and the money goes into general government funds rather than being reserved for road maintenance.1UK Parliament. Vehicle Excise Duty (VED)

How Your Rate Is Set

Cars fall into one of three groups based on their first registration date, and each group is taxed differently.

Cars first registered before 1 March 2001 are taxed on engine size alone. Engines at or below 1,549cc pay £230 per year; anything larger pays £375.2GOV.UK. Cars and Light Goods Vehicles Registered Before 1 March 2001

Cars registered between 1 March 2001 and 31 March 2017 sit on a graduated scale tied to CO2 emissions and fuel type. The lowest-emitting cars in this window can pay nothing; the heaviest polluters pay the most, with steps in between.3GOV.UK. Rates for Cars Registered on or After 1 March 2001

Cars registered on or after 1 April 2017 use a two-part system that catches most drivers today. You pay a first-year rate based on CO2 output when the car is first registered. From April 2026, that first-year charge runs from £10 for a zero-emission car up to £5,690 for the highest-emitting petrol or diesel models.4GOV.UK. Rates of Vehicle Tax for Cars, Motorcycles, Light Goods Vehicles and Private Light Goods Vehicles (From 1 April 2026) Diesel cars not tested to the RDE2 standard face a higher first-year charge than an equivalent petrol. After the first twelve months, almost every car moves to a flat standard rate of £200 per year regardless of emissions.5GOV.UK. Vehicle Tax Rates – Cars Registered on or After 1 April 2017 So CO2 output really only bites once, in year one.

The £40,000 List-Price Supplement

If your car had a list price above £40,000 when new, an extra £440 per year is added on top of the standard rate for five years, beginning in the second year of registration. That takes the annual bill to £640 during those years. For electric cars, the trigger is higher: the supplement only applies if the original list price was above £50,000.4GOV.UK. Rates of Vehicle Tax for Cars, Motorcycles, Light Goods Vehicles and Private Light Goods Vehicles (From 1 April 2026) The figure that counts is the manufacturer’s list price when the car was first sold, not what you paid. Mid-range electric cars that just creep over the threshold trip this up regularly.

Electric Cars Are No Longer Free to Tax

Fully electric cars registered between April 2017 and March 2025 used to pay nothing. That ended in April 2025. Those cars now pay the £200 standard rate at renewal.6UK Parliament. Vehicle Excise Duty and Zero Emission Vehicles New electric cars registered from April 2025 pay a £10 first-year rate and then the £200 standard rate from year two.4GOV.UK. Rates of Vehicle Tax for Cars, Motorcycles, Light Goods Vehicles and Private Light Goods Vehicles (From 1 April 2026) The first-year saving compared with a high-emission petrol or diesel is still substantial. From year two the gap closes to zero, because everyone pays the same standard rate.

Vehicles That Pay Nothing

Some vehicles fall into a zero-rate class, but you still have to go through the renewal process each year. Skip it and the DVLA treats the car as untaxed, with the same enforcement that follows.7GOV.UK. Vehicles Exempt from Vehicle Tax

If you receive certain mobility benefits, you can claim a disability exemption for one vehicle used for your personal transport. The exemption covers a single vehicle only.8GOV.UK. Get Free Vehicle Tax if You’re a Driver with a Disability

Historic vehicles also pay nothing. From 1 April 2026, cars built before 1 January 1986 qualify for the historic class. If the exact build date is not known but the car was first registered before 8 January 1986, you can still apply. This cutoff rolls forward each April, so another year of cars becomes eligible every twelve months.9GOV.UK. MOT and Vehicle Tax – Historic Vehicle Tax Exemption

What You Need to Tax the Car

To pay, you need a reference number the DVLA can use to pull up your vehicle. Where it comes from depends on your paperwork:

The system automatically checks that the car has a valid MOT and appears as insured on the Motor Insurance Database. If either check fails, the transaction will not go through until you fix the underlying problem.

How to Pay and What It Costs

You can pay online at GOV.UK, by phone, or in person at a Post Office branch that handles vehicle licensing. Payments through GOV.UK go through instantly. Paper tax discs were abolished in 2014, so enforcement now runs off the DVLA’s digital record, which police and cameras check automatically.

Payment options carry different surcharges:

  • A single annual payment is the cheapest and has no surcharge, whether you pay by card or annual Direct Debit.
  • A single six-month payment costs 10% more than half the annual rate. If you pay the six-monthly amount by Direct Debit, the surcharge drops to 5%.
  • Monthly Direct Debit spreads the cost over twelve payments and totals 5% more than the annual rate.12GOV.UK. Vehicle Tax Direct Debit Payments

On a £200 standard-rate car, the 5% monthly surcharge adds £10 across the year. On higher rates, the same 5% is noticeably more.

If the Car Is Off the Road: SORN

If you are not driving the car and it is kept off public roads on private property, you can file a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) and stop paying tax. Once the DVLA processes it, you get a refund for any full months of tax remaining, counted from the date the DVLA receives the information.13GOV.UK. Cancel Your Vehicle Tax and Get a Refund

The refund does not include credit card fees, the 5% Direct Debit surcharge, or the 10% surcharge on single six-month payments. If you are claiming a refund on the first payment you made when the car was registered, the refund is based on the lower of the first-year rate or the standard rate, which matters for high-emission cars where the first-year rate is much larger than the ongoing one.13GOV.UK. Cancel Your Vehicle Tax and Get a Refund

A SORN stays in force until you tax the vehicle again, sell it, or scrap it. You must tax it before driving on a public road, and keeping it off public land while the SORN is active is entirely your responsibility.

Buying or Selling: Tax Does Not Transfer

Vehicle tax does not carry over between owners. When a car is sold, the seller’s tax is cancelled and any full months remaining are refunded to them.14GOV.UK. Tell DVLA You’ve Sold, Transferred or Bought a Vehicle

If you are buying, tax the car before you drive it away, or file a SORN if it is going straight onto private property. There is no grace period, and the seller’s remaining months belong to the seller.14GOV.UK. Tell DVLA You’ve Sold, Transferred or Bought a Vehicle

If you are selling, notify the DVLA online as soon as the sale completes. That updates the registered keeper and triggers the automatic refund. If you have already posted the logbook or do not have one, write to the DVLA at Swansea, SA99 1BA, with the registration number, make, model, sale date, and the new keeper’s name and address.14GOV.UK. Tell DVLA You’ve Sold, Transferred or Bought a Vehicle Until the DVLA knows the car has changed hands, you remain the registered keeper, and fines for an untaxed vehicle come to you.

What Happens If You Do Not Pay

Enforcement is automated and moves quickly. If you are the registered keeper of an untaxed vehicle, the DVLA issues an £80 Late Licensing Penalty automatically. Pay within 33 days and it drops to £40. Ignore it and it goes to a debt collection agency.15GOV.UK. DVLA Enforcement of Vehicle Tax, Registration and Insurance Offences

Driving an untaxed car on a public road is more serious. The DVLA issues an out-of-court settlement of £30 plus one and a half times the outstanding tax. Refuse to pay and the case goes to a magistrates’ court, where the penalty rises to £1,000 or five times the tax owed, whichever is greater. If the car also has an active SORN, the settlement becomes £30 plus twice the outstanding tax, and the court penalty rises to £2,500 or five times the tax, whichever is greater.15GOV.UK. DVLA Enforcement of Vehicle Tax, Registration and Insurance Offences

The DVLA can also clamp or tow the vehicle. Release costs £100 within 24 hours of clamping, or £200 plus £21 per day in storage once the car has gone to a pound. If the vehicle is still untaxed when you collect it, a refundable £160 surety deposit applies for a car or motorcycle.16GOV.UK. Get a Clamped or Impounded Vehicle Released Costs mount fast, and the cheapest moment to fix an untaxed car is the day the first £80 letter arrives.