How to Tax a Car: Online, by Phone or at the Post Office

Taxing a car is one of the DVLA's better-oiled processes: five minutes, one reference number, instant confirmation, nothing to print or display. There's been no paper tax disc since 2014: the record is electronic and enforcement runs on ANPR cameras, so the confirmation screen really is the end of the job.

What still catches people out is the timing rather than the process. Vehicle tax stopped transferring between keepers in October 2014, which means the moment you buy a car it is untaxed, whatever the seller had paid. This guide walks through every way to tax a car, and exactly what to do on the day you buy one.

The reference number you need

Every route into the system starts with one of three reference numbers, and the right one depends on whose name the car is currently in:

The V11 lands in the post about three weeks before your current tax runs out. The 11-digit reference is printed on the front of the V5C. The green V5C/2 slip is the section of the logbook the seller tears off and hands you at the point of sale. Our V5C logbook guide covers how the rest of the document works. One thing the V5C and V11 have in common: they only work if the car is registered to you. If you've just bought it, the green slip is your way in.

Taxing a car online at gov.uk

The online service at gov.uk/vehicle-tax runs 24 hours a day and is the quickest route:

1. Enter your reference number.
2. Check the vehicle details the DVLA shows you match the car.
3. Pick a payment schedule: annual, six-monthly or monthly.
4. Pay by debit or credit card, or set up a Direct Debit.

Confirmation appears on screen straight away, and there's nothing to wait for in the post. One quirk worth knowing: vehicle tax runs in whole calendar months, so if you tax an untaxed car on the 20th, the tax is backdated to the 1st of that month.

If you want reassurance that the record has updated, run the registration through our free car tax check; it reads the live DVLA record and shows the tax status and expiry date, along with an indicative VED figure for the year ahead. The gov.uk checkout shows the definitive amount when you pay.

Taxing by phone or at the Post Office

By phone. Call 0300 123 4321, the DVLA's automated vehicle tax service, open 24 hours a day. Have your reference number and a debit or credit card ready. The one thing the phone line can't do is set up a new Direct Debit; use the website or a Post Office if you want to pay monthly.

At a Post Office. Branches that deal with vehicle tax take payment over the counter. Bring your V5C or V11, plus your MOT certificate if the branch asks for it (it must be valid when the tax starts). In Northern Ireland you'll also need your insurance certificate or cover note. The Post Office is also the route that still works when you have no documents at all (more on that below).

Just bought the car? Tax it before you drive home

This trips up more buyers than anything else in the tax system. Since October 2014, vehicle tax dies with a change of keeper: the seller is automatically refunded any full months remaining (the mechanics are in our guide to car tax refunds), and the car becomes untaxed immediately, even if the tax appeared to run for months more.

So the sequence on buying day is:

1. Take the green V5C/2 new keeper slip from the seller.
2. Tax the car there and then using the slip's 12-digit reference; the gov.uk service and the phone line both work fine from a mobile on the seller's driveway.
3. Drive home taxed (and insured).

Skip it and the DVLA's systems will notice without any human involvement: monthly database sweeps and ANPR cameras generate an automated £80 penalty (halved if paid promptly), and enforcement can escalate from there. Five minutes on the driveway is much cheaper.

Ways to pay and what each costs

There are three payment schedules, and paying annually is always the cheapest:

The split options carry a surcharge of roughly 5%, the price of spreading the cost. Direct Debits have one genuinely useful habit: they renew automatically each year for as long as the car has a valid MOT, so a taxed car stays taxed without you thinking about it. Where the £200 figure comes from (and why some cars pay more or less) is covered in our guide to car tax bands.

When the DVLA won't tax the car

Two blockers account for almost every failed attempt:

No valid MOT. Tax can't start unless the car has an MOT valid on the day the tax begins (or the vehicle is exempt). Check the exact expiry date first (our guide to checking when your MOT is due shows the free lookup) and book the test before you try to tax. The only journey allowed without tax or MOT is driving to a pre-booked test.

No V5C and no green slip. Apply for a replacement logbook with form V62, which costs £25. Take the completed form to a Post Office that deals with vehicle tax and you can usually tax the car in the same visit, rather than waiting the few weeks a replacement V5C takes to arrive.

And if the car is going to sit unused rather than be driven, don't tax it at all: declare a SORN instead and keep it off the road until you need it.

First tax and yearly renewals

A brand-new car's first taxing is normally invisible: the dealer registers the car and collects the first-year rate as part of the on-the-road price, so the first time you deal with the DVLA yourself is usually the renewal a year later. That first-year rate is CO2-based and runs from £10 to £5,690 at the published 2026/27 rates, which is why it's worth checking before you order.

Renewals are simpler. The V11 reminder arrives with its 16-digit reference, you pay through any of the channels above, and the new tax starts the day the old tax ends: no gap, no overlap. If the V11 doesn't arrive (a house move is the usual culprit), use the 11-digit V5C reference instead, and update your address with the DVLA so the next reminder finds you.

The bottom line

Get the right reference number, make sure the MOT is valid, pay through whichever channel suits, and keep the confirmation. That's the whole job. The only rule that really bites is the one about buying: the car is untaxed the moment it becomes yours, so tax it before you drive it anywhere. And if you're ever unsure where a car stands, thirty seconds with our free car tax calculator shows its current tax status straight from the DVLA record.