Car Tax Calculator · Free
Car Tax Calculator, Check VED by Registration
What will it cost to keep on the road? The live DVLA record, priced against the 2026/27 VED tables, answers in seconds.
- The yearly VED figure, worked out from the DVLA record
- Live tax status, expiry date and any SORN declaration
- Full 2026/27 rates, Expensive Car Supplement included
- Showroom-year (first-year) rate on newer cars
- EVs and hybrids priced under the current rules
Rates come from the HM Treasury / DVLA V149 table for the 2026/27 tax year and are applied to live DVLA Vehicle Enquiry data, so each result reflects the record as it stands when you search. See our terms for full details.
Free Car Check for your vehicle
- Instant results
- No signup
- DVLA & DVSA data
What you get with your free car tax check
Road tax is the one running cost set entirely by the paperwork. The lookup gathers the DVLA fields that decide the bill and prices them against this year's published rates.
| Data point | What you'll see |
|---|---|
| Annual VED rate | What a year's road tax should cost the keeper, priced from the published 2026/27 tables. |
| Tax status & expiry | The live DVLA position: taxed or not, and the day the current period runs out. |
| SORN status | Whether the keeper has declared the car off the road with a Statutory Off-Road Notification. |
| First-year rate | The showroom-year charge on newer cars, set by CO2 output and fuel type. |
| Expensive Car Supplement | A flag where the £440/yr supplement could bite: years 2–6 on cars listed over £40,000, or £50,000 for EVs registered from April 2026. DVLA withholds the original list price, so you can enter it to confirm. |
| Fuel type & CO2 | The two fields the whole calculation hangs on, shown exactly as DVLA records them. |
| Engine size | Displacement in cc, which sets the rate on cars registered before March 2001. |
| First-registration date | The date that routes the car into its band system: pre-2001, 2001 to 2017, or post-2017. |
| Euro standard & ULEZ | The recorded Euro standard, with a ULEZ verdict derived from it. |
| Direct Debit indicator | Whether DVLA offers monthly instalments on the vehicle, and the approximate monthly cost. |
Figures are indicative, calculated from the official DVLA record and published rates. The amount gov.uk quotes when you actually tax the car is definitive.
How It Works
From number plate to a priced-up tax bill in under a minute, every figure traceable to the DVLA record and the published V149 tables.
1. Enter Your Reg
Any UK registration works: a car you already keep, or one you're pricing up before buying.
2. We Query DVLA
We read the live DVLA record, work out which band system applies, and price it for 2026/27.
3. Get Your Instant Results
The annual rate, live status, expiry and any supplement land on the page, with monthly Direct Debit costs where DVLA offers them.
What the free car tax check shows
Worked out by hand, a tax quote means juggling gov.uk, the DVLA V149 rate table and the emissions page of a brochure. The calculator does the juggling for you: live tax status, the exact expiry date, any SORN declaration, and the annual VED figure priced against the rates in force for the 2026/27 tax year.
On newer cars the result goes further. You'll see the CO2-based showroom rate for year one, the standard rate that takes over from year two, and a warning wherever the Expensive Car Supplement may apply because the list price sat above £40,000 for petrol and diesel, or £50,000 for electric cars first registered from 1 April 2026.
Older vehicles are priced against their own systems: the graduated CO2-letter table for cars registered between March 2001 and April 2017, and the simple cc-based table for anything earlier. The 40-year historic-vehicle exemption is flagged where it applies. For the broader DVLA picture across tax, MOT and identity in one view, run our free car check.
2026/27 VED rates and bands explained
Vehicle Excise Duty, known to everyone as car tax or road tax, is set by HM Treasury and collected by DVLA. What a given car pays turns on four things: when it was first registered, what it emits, what it burns and, in some cases, what it cost new. Three band systems run side by side, one per era, which is why two outwardly similar cars can carry very different bills.
Most cars on the road today fall under the post-April-2017 system, and nearly all of them pay one flat standard rate from year two onwards: £200 per year in 2026/27, up from £195 the year before. A list price above £40,000 when new (petrol, diesel and most hybrids), or above £50,000 for electric cars first registered from 1 April 2026, adds the Expensive Car Supplement of £440 per year through years two to six.
Year one is the exception. The showroom-year rate is graded by CO2 across twelve bands, from 0 g/km to over 255 g/km, and at the dirty end the charge can pass £5,000, usually folded quietly into the on-the-road price. Electric cars first registered after 1 April 2025 pay £10 for that first year before joining the standard band.
Cars registered between 1 March 2001 and 31 March 2017 keep the graduated CO2-letter system, band A to band M, with rates spanning a few pounds for the cleanest cars to several hundred for the thirstiest. Anything registered before 1 March 2001 pays a flat cc-based rate instead: one band for engines up to 1,549 cc, a higher band above. And a car more than 40 years old can be declared historic-vehicle exempt, which sets its VED to zero.
Electric cars, hybrids and the 2025/2026 rule changes
1 April 2025 ended tax-free electric motoring. From that date EVs pay VED like everything else, with transitional details that still catch buyers out, and which bracket a particular EV lands in is the difference between a token charge and hundreds of pounds a year.
An EV first registered between 1 April 2017 and 31 March 2025 now pays the standard rate, £200 in 2026/27. One first registered from 1 April 2025 pays £10 in its first year, then the standard rate from year two. And from 1 April 2026, new EVs also collect the Expensive Car Supplement of £440 a year in years two to six, though their list-price threshold sits at £50,000 rather than the £40,000 applied to petrol and diesel.
Hybrids lost their perk at the same time. The £10 alternative-fuel discount that hybrid and bi-fuel vehicles once enjoyed was scrapped in April 2025, so a hybrid registered after April 2017 now pays the same £200 standard rate as its petrol equivalent. The exception is plug-in hybrids registered before April 2017, which stay on the older CO2-letter table where very low official emissions can still mean a very small bill.
The quietest change caught the ultra-frugal. Cars under 100 g/km that once taxed for nothing have paid a minimum of £20 a year since April 2025, closing the loophole that let many economy diesels and early hybrids ride free.
Pre-2017 and pre-2001 cars: the older band systems
A car first registered between 1 March 2001 and 31 March 2017 was banded once, on its CO2 figure, and keeps that letter for life: A for under 100 g/km through to M for over 255. What moves is the price of each letter, uplifted with inflation at each year's rates. The spread is wide, from next to nothing at the clean end to several hundred pounds at the top.
Registrations from before 1 March 2001 predate CO2 ratings entirely, so those cars are charged on engine size alone. Two bands exist: a lower rate for engines up to 1,549 cc and a higher rate above, both edged up modestly each tax year.
Over both systems sits the rolling 40-year exemption. Once a vehicle passes 40 years old (1986 registrations qualify during 2026) and hasn't been substantially changed, the keeper can move it into the historic tax class and pay nothing. The same birthday unlocks the MOT exemption discussed on our MOT history check page, though the keeper remains responsible for roadworthiness.
Paying tax, SORN, and what happens if you drive untaxed
Paying is the straightforward part: online, by phone or at a Post Office, armed with the V11 reminder, the V5C logbook or the new-keeper supplement from a recent sale. DVLA takes the money as one annual sum, two six-month instalments or a monthly Direct Debit; the split options carry a surcharge of around 5%, which makes the single payment the cheapest route every time. A Direct Debit renews itself each year for as long as the vehicle holds a valid MOT. If you pay manually, our free MOT and tax reminders email you 30 days, 7 days and one day before the deadline, whether or not a V11 turns up.
A car you're not using can come off the tax altogether with a Statutory Off-Road Notification. A SORN confines the vehicle to private ground (a garage, a driveway, private land) and triggers an automatic refund of any tax already paid. It ends the moment you tax the car again, which must happen before it returns to the road.
Drive untaxed and detection is close to automatic, between ANPR cameras and DVLA's regular sweeps of its own register. The bill opens with an automated £80 fine, halved if paid within 28 days, and can climb through the courts to £1,000 or five times the annual tax, whichever is higher. DVLA can also clamp or impound the car, releasing it only once the tax owed, the release fee and a daily storage charge are all settled. Checking first is free; being found out never is.
Tax, MOT and the wider running-cost picture
VED is the first standing cost of ownership, and rarely the largest. Before committing to a car, price the rest of the picture on the same registration: the MOT history check reveals the repair pattern you'd be inheriting, the mileage check shows how hard the car has already worked, and the free car check gathers tax, MOT and identity into a single view.
ULEZ and the Scottish Low Emission Zones charge alongside VED rather than instead of it, and on a different test entirely: petrol cars must meet Euro 4 (broadly post-2006) and diesels Euro 6 (broadly post-September 2015) to escape London's £12.50 daily charge. The Euro standard in your result gives the first indication of how the car fares across the growing list of city zones, and for a dedicated zone-by-zone verdict, run our free ULEZ check.
Pair the report with a physical inspection
The calculator settles the standing costs; only a viewing prices the rest. Every tired tyre, worn disc and weeping damper you find is a bill with a date on it, so walk the car slowly in good light, drive it far enough to warm up, and add what you discover to the year's budget alongside the VED.
While the V5C is out, confirm the fields the tax calculation leans on: first-registration date, fuel type and engine size should agree with the DVLA record in your result and with the car in front of you. A mismatch there is more than a tax question; it's an identity question.
Car tax guides
All guides →Car Tax Bands Explained: 2026/27 VED Rates for Every UK Car
Every UK car tax band for 2026/27: the £200 standard rate, £440 Expensive Car Supplement, first-year CO2 rates, EV rules, and the older pre-2017 and pre-2001 systems.
How to Tax a Car: Online, by Phone or at the Post Office
Step-by-step guide to taxing a car online, by phone or at the Post Office: which reference number you need, how to pay, and taxing a car you've just bought.
Electric Car Tax Explained: EV Road Tax Rates for 2026/27
Electric cars now pay road tax. Every EV and hybrid rate for 2026/27: the £200 standard rate, the £10 first year, the £50,000 supplement rule and used-EV buying tips.
Expensive Car Supplement Explained: Who Pays the Extra £440
The Expensive Car Supplement adds £440 a year to VED in years two to six for cars listed over £40,000 when new: how it works and how to spot it before you buy.
Car Tax Refunds: How to Get Your Road Tax Back from the DVLA
When the DVLA refunds car tax automatically, how much you get back, how and when the cheque arrives, and why refunds go missing when the V5C address is out of date.
Car tax calculator FAQ
How much is car tax in the UK for 2026/27?
What is the standard rate of VED for cars registered after April 2017?
Do electric cars now pay road tax?
What is the Expensive Car Supplement and when does it apply?
How are first-year VED rates calculated for new cars?
What are the VED bands for cars registered before March 2001?
Can I pay my car tax monthly by Direct Debit?
What happens if I drive without tax in the UK?
How do I SORN a vehicle I'm not using?
Is hybrid car tax cheaper than petrol or diesel?
How do I check if my car is taxed using just the reg?
When does my car tax expire, and will I get a reminder?
Are classic cars exempt from car tax?
Do you store my registration number?
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