Car Tax Calculator: Check Your Road Tax Cost by Registration:
Vehicle tax is one of the few motoring costs you can predict to the pound — yet almost nobody can tell you what theirs is without looking it up. The rules changed in 2001, again in 2017, and again in 2025 when electric cars lost their exemption. Three systems now run side by side.
This car tax calculator settles it. Enter your registration and you will see exactly what DVLA charges for twelve months, six months and monthly Direct Debit, along with the band your car sits in and why.
Car Tax Calculator
DVLA V149
We read CO₂, fuel type and first registration date straight from the DVLA record.
How you choose to pay
How much is my car tax in 2026/27?:
For most drivers the answer is £200 a year. That is the flat standard rate for any car first registered on or after 1 April 2017, whatever the fuel.
Two things move that figure.
If your car was first registered between March 2001 and March 2017, you pay a CO₂-banded rate instead — anywhere from £20 to £790 a year depending on emissions. If your car had a list price over £40,000 when new, an extra £440 a year applies for five years.
Cars registered before March 2001 work differently again, taxed on engine size alone: £230 a year up to 1549cc, £375 above it.
That is the whole picture. The calculator works out which of the three applies to your vehicle and returns the exact figure.
Which car tax system applies to my vehicle?
Your date of first registration decides it — nothing else. Not the age you bought it, not the model year.
Registered on or after 1 April 2017
You pay a flat £200 standard rate from the second year onwards. Petrol, diesel, hybrid and electric all pay the same.
A brand-new car pays a one-off first-year rate based on CO₂ instead, from £10 for a zero-emission model up to £5,690 for the highest emitters. That charge is usually rolled into the dealer’s on-the-road price, so most buyers never see it separately.
Registered 1 March 2001 to 31 March 2017
You sit in one of thirteen CO₂ bands, A to M, and pay the same amount every year. There is no separate first-year rate and no expensive car supplement on this system.
No six-month option. Bands A, B and C must be paid as a full year — there's no half-year rate available for these bands.
Band K historical anomaly. It also covers cars over 225g/km registered before 23 March 2006 — a quirk that still catches people out.
Registered before 1 March 2001: engine size only
Emissions are irrelevant on this system.
Unlike newer CO₂-based bands, this older system has no emissions test built in — the rate is set purely by cubic capacity.
Why your car tax went up when nothing changed:
Two changes in recent years caught a lot of owners by surprise, and both produce the same reaction — a bill where there had never been one.
Band A stopped being free. Cars emitting under 100g/km registered between 2001 and 2017 paid nothing for years. Since April 2025 they pay £20. If you own an efficient supermini or an early hybrid, that is why your reminder now shows a charge.
Electric cars lost their exemption. From 1 April 2025, every EV pays vehicle tax. A new one pays £10 in the first year and £200 from the second. An EV registered between 2017 and 2025 pays the full £200 standard rate straight away.
Neither change was well publicised, and neither is an error on your reminder.
The expensive car supplement explained:
This is the charge that surprises people most, because it depends on a number nobody remembers.
If your car’s list price when new was over £40,000, you pay an additional £440 a year on top of the standard rate — £640 in total — for five years, starting from the second time it is taxed. From the seventh year it drops away and you return to £200.
Three details matter here.
It follows the car, not the owner. Buy a three-year-old car second-hand for £22,000 and you still pay the supplement if it listed above £40,000 when new.
It is the manufacturer’s list price, including factory options. A discount at the showroom makes no difference. If the list said £41,000 the day before registration, the supplement applies even if you paid £38,000.
Electric cars have a higher threshold. Since April 2026 the figure for zero-emission cars is £50,000, not £40,000. An EV listed at £45,000 pays nothing extra — a change worth £2,200 over five years.
One thing our calculator does that most do not: it asks. DVLA does not publish original list prices, so no tool can determine this automatically. Rather than guessing and giving you a wrong number, we ask the one question we cannot answer ourselves.
Should you pay annually, six-monthly or monthly?
Annually is always cheapest. The other options carry a surcharge that is easy to miss.
Take a standard £200 car:
- 12 months, one payment: £200
- 6 months: £110, so £220 across a year — £20 more
- Monthly Direct Debit: £210 across a year — £10 more
The 5% Direct Debit surcharge is small in isolation. Over a decade it is £100, and over the same period the six-monthly route costs £200 extra. Neither is dreadful, but both are avoidable if the cash flow allows.
Monthly does have one genuine advantage: it renews automatically, so you cannot forget. If forgetting is the realistic risk, £10 a year is cheap insurance against a £1,000 fine.
Cars that pay no vehicle tax at all:
Some vehicles are exempt, though every one of them still has to be taxed each year — the charge is simply zero. Exemption is never automatic; you must apply for it.
Historic vehicles. Anything built more than 40 years ago qualifies under a rolling rule. For the 2026/27 tax year that means vehicles built before 1 January 1986.
Vehicles with a disability exemption. Available to recipients of certain mobility benefits.
SORN vehicles. Declared off the road, kept on private land, and not driven.
Mobility scooters, and vehicles used for agriculture, horticulture and forestry.
Our calculator applies the historic rule automatically from the year of manufacture, so a classic returns £0 without you needing to know the cut-off date.
What happens if you do not tax your vehicle:
DVLA runs automatic number plate recognition against its own database continuously. There is no grace period and no realistic chance of going unnoticed.
The initial penalty is an £80 fine, reduced to £40 if paid within 33 days. Ignore that and it escalates to a court fine of up to £1,000. Your vehicle can also be clamped, and the release fee plus storage adds several hundred pounds more.
One point that catches sellers out: vehicle tax no longer transfers with the car. When you sell, your tax is cancelled and you are refunded for complete remaining months. The buyer must tax it before driving away — even for a hundred yards.
You also cannot tax a vehicle in Great Britain without a valid MOT. The two are linked, which is why it pays to track both dates together.
Where to find your CO₂ figure and list price:
If you would rather enter details manually, everything you need is on the V5C logbook.
- Date of first registration — section B
- Fuel type — section D.5
- CO₂ emissions — section V.7
- Engine size — section D.2
The V5C does not show the original list price. For that, check the original invoice, the manufacturer’s price list for the model year, or ask the selling dealer. If you genuinely cannot find it, the £40,000 threshold is usually obvious from the car’s specification — a mid-range family hatchback almost never crossed it, while a well-optioned executive saloon frequently did.
Car tax questions, answered
Straight answers on rates, EVs, diesel supplements and refunds.
Enter your registration in the calculator above. We read CO₂, fuel type and date of first registration from the official DVLA record, then apply the correct rate table. For live taxed or untaxed status, our free MOT and tax check shows both.
Yes. "Road tax" is the common name, "vehicle excise duty" is the legal term, and DVLA calls it vehicle tax. All three mean the same charge. The money goes into general taxation rather than road maintenance specifically, despite the nickname.
A new EV pays £10 in its first year and £200 from the second, exactly like any other car. If the list price was over £50,000 it also pays the £440 supplement for years two to six. EVs registered before April 2025 never pay the supplement regardless of price.
Only in the first year, and only if it does not meet the RDE2 emissions standard. A non-RDE2 diesel pays one band higher on its first licence. From the second licence the rate is identical to petrol.
Bands A and B at £20 a year, covering cars under 110g/km registered between 2001 and 2017. Those were free until April 2025.
Yes. Tell DVLA you have sold it and a refund for every complete remaining month is issued automatically. Part months are not refunded, so selling just after a renewal date costs you.
Because DVLA does not publish it. The expensive car supplement depends entirely on that figure, and no calculator can look it up. Asking once is more honest than assuming.
Every April. DVLA publishes updated tables in March, effective from the 1st. Our figures come straight from the official V149 rate table and we update them each year.
Know the cost before the reminder arrives:
Vehicle tax rarely changes what you drive, but it is worth knowing rather than discovering. A £275 band and a £790 band are the same car to look at, and the difference over a five-year ownership is more than £2,500.
If you are buying, check the figure before you commit — particularly on anything near the £40,000 list price threshold, where crossing it by a few hundred pounds costs £2,200 across five years.
If you already own the car, the more useful step is making sure you never miss the date. Our free MOT and tax reminder emails you two months, one month, one week and one day before anything falls due, and it tracks both together so neither slips. You can also work out your exact renewal window with the MOT due date calculator.