Our easy to use check car tax tool is the simplest way around to find out whether a vehicle is taxed and if so, when that tax runs out. It doesn’t even have to be your car that you are checking. As long as you have the registration number, you can enter it into the website and see whether it currently as tax or MOT. The result is displayed in big green and red boxes; it really couldn’t be clearer.
Owners of all vehicles which are kept or driven on the public roads in the UK have to pay car tax, which is officially known as Vehicle Excise Duty (VED). It is an offence to drive or even leave your car parked on the road if the road tax has run out, unless it is one of a few limited classes of exemption.
The government body responsible for administering road tax is the DVLA, and each month their database churns out a list of all vehicles which don’t have valid car tax, and which have not been declared as officially off the road. If your car is on that list, you can expect a letter to drop through the letterbox with a demand for payment of a £80 fixed penalty. If you ignore the first letter, then it can be increased to as much as £1000, and the DVLA have the right to clamp your car to stop you using it until the fine is paid, and the tax purchased. Here are some of the most commonly heard questions about car tax, with explanations about exactly how the system works.
A: SORN stands for statutory off-road notification. It is a way of letting the DVLA know that you don’t intend to use your vehicle for an extended period, perhaps because you are going travelling overseas for six months, or because it needs a lot of work and is in the garage. The one main condition for SORN is that the vehicle must be completely off the road, in a garage, on the drive, or parked up in a field. If you have nowhere to leave a car other than on the public road, then you must continue to pay road tax, even if you are not using it. When you want to use the car again, go online and pay the road tax and you’ll immediately be legal to drive.
A: There is no one set cost for road tax. The amount you pay will depend on a range of factors. For cars first registered before March 2001, the calculation is based purely on the size of the engine. For newer cars, the sum is calculated based on the emissions which your vehicle produces, and the type of fuel which it uses. As long as you know the make, model and engine size of your car, and what fuel it runs on, you should be able to calculate the car tax amount.
A: Road tax is an annual bill. Most drivers pay the year in one lump sum, but there is also the option to pay six-monthly, or monthly by direct debit. It does cost more to spread the payments over many months, but some drivers prefer to be able to budget in this way.
A: You can use our free car tax check website at any time to make sure your vehicle is taxed, and see when your current tax runs out. The website will state a month and year rather than an exact date, so if, for example, the website says June 2023, you are taxed until the last day of that month. DVLA is not in the business of trying to catch people out, and will also send out a reminder around 4 weeks before your tax is due to expire. You will need the reference number on this letter if you want to tax your car online. If you lose the letter, contact DVLA for a replacement.
A: Yes and no. If you have paid for the full year of car tax up front, and sell your car to someone else, then the DVLA will refund any full months tax which you have paid and not used. You can’t claim for partial months, and obviously can’t claim the full year back. This all happens automatically when you sell your car and the new owner paperwork is processed at the DVLA. Car tax can’t be transferred from one owner to the next, so the person buying your car will have to get their own tax. Similarly, tax is on the car rather than the individual, so you won’t be able to move the tax you’ve already paid onto a different vehicle.
A: No, you must have car tax in place before you drive it on the road. This applies whether you are picking up a brand-new car from a dealer, or buying a used car privately. Road tax can be organised at any time of the day or night online, and will take 5 minutes of your time to arrange.
A: Although some cars don’t pay any road tax, the system still requires drivers to go through the process of “buying” the road tax, even though the charge is zero. The main groups of vehicles which don’t qualify for toad tax are historic vehicles first registered more than 40 years ago, electric cars (but not hybrids), cars used by disabled drivers, and some vehicles which are used or farms or for forestry. If you are claiming that you qualify to pay road tax at a zero rate, the DVLA will ask for evidence to support your claim.