Car tax rates by registration date

Which car tax system applies to my registration date?

There is no single car tax rate, and comparing two cars by their tax bills usually means comparing two different sets of rules. The split is by date of first registration, which you will find on the V5C. A car registered on or after 1 April 2017 is in the current system. A car registered between 1 March 2001 and 31 March 2017 is in the CO2 lettered band system. Anything registered before 1 March 2001 is taxed on engine size in the private and light goods class.

A car never moves between systems. A 2016 diesel stays in the lettered bands for as long as it exists, which is why an old car with low emissions can still be cheaper to tax than a new one with the same figure. Rates within each system change most years at the Budget, but the system a car belongs to does not.

The rate is also set by the licence rather than by the calendar year, so a car taxed in March pays the old year's rate for the whole twelve months. That is worth a moment's thought if a rise has been announced and your renewal falls close to the start of April.

• Registered on or after 1 April 2017: first year rate on CO2, then a flat standard rate.
• Registered 1 March 2001 to 31 March 2017: a rate set by CO2 band letter A to M.
• Registered before 1 March 2001: two engine size bands, split at 1549cc.

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

How much is the first year of car tax?

In the current system the CO2 figure only decides the cost of the first twelve months. It is charged when the car is first registered, it is almost always paid by the dealer and rolled into the on the road price, and it never appears again. That is why a first year rate matters most to a new car buyer and hardly at all to somebody buying the same car at three years old.

The scale is steep. A zero emission car pays £10 for its first year. A car emitting between 1 and 50 g/km pays £115, and one between 51 and 75 g/km pays £135. By 131 to 150 g/km, which covers a great many ordinary petrol family cars, the first year rate is £560. The bands keep climbing above that to £5,690 over 255 g/km, so the first year rate on a large performance car can be a noticeable fraction of a small car's total price.

Diesels have their own quirk. A diesel first registered after 1 April 2018 that was not certified to the second step of the Real Driving Emissions test, known as RDE2, pays the first year rate of the band above its own. A non RDE2 diesel at 51 to 75 g/km pays £280 rather than £135, and one at 131 to 150 g/km pays £1,410 rather than £560. It applies to the first licence only, and only to diesels: no petrol or hybrid is moved up a band.

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

How much car tax do I pay after the first year?

From the second licence onwards every car in the current system pays the same flat standard rate, which is £200 for a single twelve month payment. The CO2 figure stops mattering entirely. A small petrol hatchback and a large petrol estate registered in the same month pay the same £200, and since 1 April 2025 so does an electric car.

That flatness is the single most useful thing to understand about modern car tax. When somebody says a car is cheap to tax, ask which year they mean. If the car is out of its first year, registered after April 2017 and under the list price threshold, the answer is £200 whatever it is, and any difference in running costs is coming from fuel, insurance and servicing rather than from tax.

How you pay changes the total. A single twelve month payment is £200. Twelve monthly instalments by Direct Debit come to £210, because paying monthly or every six months carries a 5% surcharge. A single six month licence costs £110, more than half the annual rate, so two of them in a year cost £220. An annual payment by Direct Debit carries no surcharge, so it costs the same as paying the year up front by card.

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

How long do I pay the expensive car supplement?

Cars with a high list price pay an additional rate on top of the standard rate for 5 years, running from the start of the second licence. The supplement is £440 a year, so a car that qualifies pays £640 a year in total rather than £200, for years two to 6 of its life. After that it drops back to the standard rate.

The threshold is a list price of more than £40,000 for a petrol, diesel or hybrid car. For zero emission cars the threshold is more than £50,000. The price that counts is the published list price including options, before any discount you negotiated, so a car nudged over the line by metallic paint and a technology pack is caught even though you paid less than the threshold for it.

This is the part second hand buyers miss. The supplement attaches to the car, not to the first owner, so buying a three year old petrol car that cost £44,000 new means inheriting a £640 annual bill for the rest of the 5 year period. It is worth checking the original list price of any premium car you are looking at, because two otherwise identical cars can differ by £440 a year purely on how they were specified when new.

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

What are the car tax bands for older cars?

These cars are taxed by a band letter from A to M, and unlike the current system the band applies every year, not only the first. The letters are set by CO2: band A covers up to 100 g/km at £20, band B 101 to 110 g/km at £20, band C 111 to 120 g/km at £35, band D 121 to 130 g/km at £170 and band E 131 to 140 g/km at £200. The scale rises through band J at £410 for 186 to 200 g/km, band K at £445, band L at £760 for 226 to 255 g/km and band M at £790 for anything over 255 g/km.

Band A used to be free and is not any more, so an owner of an older low emission car who has paid nothing for years now has a bill. Band K holds a legislative oddity worth knowing: it also covers cars emitting more than 225 g/km that were registered before 23 March 2006, because the bands above it did not exist when those cars were new. A big engined car from 2004 can therefore be cheaper to tax than a newer car with the same emissions.

Cars registered before 1 March 2001 skip CO2 altogether. They sit in the private and light goods class and pay on engine size, with one rate up to 1549cc and a higher one above it. There is no first year rate and no expensive car supplement in that class. The current figures for both bands are on the rate tables page on this site and in DVLA's V149 rate card.

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

Which vehicles are exempt from car tax?

Some vehicles pay nothing. The list covers vehicles used by a disabled person, disabled passenger vehicles run by organisations, historic vehicles, mobility scooters and powered wheelchairs, mowing machines, steam vehicles and various agricultural vehicles. Electric vehicles were on that list until 1 April 2025 and now only heavy goods vehicles over 3,500kg remain exempt on those grounds. Historic status arrives on a rolling 40 year basis: a vehicle built before 1 January 1986 can stop paying from 1 April 2026.

An exemption is not permission to ignore the tax. GOV.UK is explicit that you must tax your vehicle even if you do not have to pay, so an exempt car still needs a current licence on the record, applied for in the same way as a paid one. A vehicle with no licence at all is untaxed regardless of the rate it would have paid.

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

Does car tax transfer when I buy a used car?

No, and this catches buyers out all the time. Vehicle tax is not transferred when a vehicle is sold. DVLA cancels the seller's tax as soon as the sale is notified and refunds the full months left, and the buyer must tax the vehicle before driving it. The five minute drive home from the seller's house is exactly the journey people make untaxed. Tax it on your phone using the green new keeper slip before you turn the key.

1. 1Before collection, check the MOT on the DVLA or DVSA record if the car needs one, and arrange insurance that starts from the moment you drive away.
2. 2When the deal is done, take the green new keeper slip from the V5C. The seller keeps the rest and tells DVLA about the sale.
3. 3Tax the car online, by phone or at a Post Office that handles vehicle tax, using the reference on the new keeper slip.
4. 4Save the confirmation before you drive. The seller's tax is cancelled when they notify the sale, and any refund of full months goes to them, not you.

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

How do I tax a car online or at a Post Office?

Choose the document that matches your position. An existing keeper normally uses the current V5C or a recent DVLA reminder. A buyer uses the green new keeper slip, because the main log book still identifies the seller. Read the registration displayed by the payment service before continuing. A receipt for the wrong vehicle does not solve the problem for the car outside your house.

The online service accepts card payments and can set up Direct Debit. GOV.UK also offers a telephone service, but you cannot set up Direct Debit over the phone. A Post Office branch that handles vehicle tax can help with the application and payment. Check that the branch offers the service before travelling, particularly if you need to change a disabled tax class or deal with missing paperwork.

Northern Ireland has an extra document check at the Post Office: take a paper insurance certificate or cover note and the original MOT certificate, or the permitted evidence of a Temporary Exemption Certificate. The VED rates do not become a different tariff because you live in Northern Ireland. The difference here is the evidence needed to complete the transaction.

1. 1Check that the MOT, where required, will be valid when the vehicle tax starts. Arrange the test first if it is missing.
2. 2Find the current V5C, reminder or new keeper slip, then open the official GOV.UK vehicle tax service or visit a participating Post Office.
3. 3Confirm the vehicle details, start date, tax class and payment option. Compare the total payable, rather than just the monthly amount.
4. 4Complete the application and save the confirmation. Check the public tax record after the published update period if you need to confirm the change has appeared.

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

Why can the same model have different tax bills?

A used car advert is describing a particular vehicle, and the original specification can matter as much as the model name. A large discount when new did not reduce the list price used for the expensive car supplement. Equally, a high used asking price does not create a supplement on a vehicle which was below the threshold when new. Ask for the original specification and the V5C rather than accepting a generic model listing.

The comparison below assumes both cars are past their first licence and the higher list price car is still within its supplement period. It isolates the supplement so that you can see the reason for the difference. Insurance, servicing, finance and fuel are separate costs. Do not use this annual comparison as a quotation for a different tax year or a first registration payment.

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

How do I compare an older car's engine size tax?

For a car in the earlier engine size regime, start with the actual cylinder capacity on the registration record. Marketing names can be rounded and an engine badge is not a tax document. The published engine size boundary determines which row applies. A later engine conversion may also mean the registration details need correcting before a reliable comparison can be made.

The table and case here concern ordinary private and light goods taxation. A vehicle already registered in an exempt class needs separate treatment. Do not assume that being old enough for historic status has automatically changed the record: check the tax class and complete the exemption application if necessary. Age and an approved tax class are separate pieces of evidence.

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

What if DVLA quotes a different rate from an advert?

Check the first registration date, fuel type, CO2 entry and tax class in that order. Then check whether the advert shows a previous year's rate, a first year rate or an annual figure excluding the expensive car supplement. A monthly quotation can include a payment surcharge, while the amount on a dealer's screen may refer to a different specification of the same model.

For a company car, separate Vehicle Excise Duty from the income tax charged on the employment benefit. Your employer or leasing company may arrange VED, while a benefit appears in your pay. Paying one does not settle the other. Ask the fleet contact which charge the figure represents before comparing it with the public vehicle tax tables.

If the record itself is wrong, take the document evidence to DVLA rather than selecting a cheaper category in an application. Keep the incorrect quotation and the vehicle details together so the issue can be checked. A number plate age decoder cannot resolve a disputed CO2 figure or prove the original list price. Those are vehicle record questions, not registration mark questions.

1. 1Compare the V5C entries with the exact vehicle and specification being sold.
2. 2Compare the official quotation with the rates and licence period shown in the advert.
3. 3Ask DVLA about a record discrepancy, or the seller about a misleading advert, before relying on the claimed saving.

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]