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Car tax (VED) explained: bands, rates and SORN#
Vehicle Excise Duty - car tax - is charged under three different systems depending on when the car was first registered. That's why two similar cars can cost wildly different amounts to tax, and why a history check shows the tax figure alongside the car's registration date and CO2.
The three regimes#
Registered on or after 1 April 2017. A CO2-based first-year rate (paid once, usually inside the on-the-road price), then a flat standard rate every year, whatever the emissions. Since April 2025 that includes electric cars, which previously paid nothing.
- Expensive-car supplement: cars with a list price over £40,000 when new pay an extra annual supplement in years two to six. This catches buyers out on used premium cars - a three-year-old car that listed at £42,000 still carries the supplement until its sixth anniversary, even if you paid £20,000 for it.
Registered 1 March 2001 - 31 March 2017. Annual rate set by CO2 band, from £0 (band A, under 100g/km) up to several hundred pounds for the highest emitters. Many efficient diesels of this era are genuinely £0 or £20 a year to tax, which still props up their used values.
Registered before 1 March 2001. Two rates by engine size: under and over 1549cc.
Cars over 40 years old qualify for the historic vehicle class - free tax (and MOT exemption), on a rolling basis.
Tax status on a check#
A lookup shows the DVLA's live tax status:
- Taxed - with the date the current tax runs out.
- SORN - a Statutory Off Road Notification: the keeper has declared the car off-road. It's not taxed and can't legally be driven or parked on a public road (driving to a pre-booked MOT is the one exception). A car for sale on SORN isn't unusual - but you'll need to tax it before driving it home.
- Untaxed - neither taxed nor SORN'd. A car being driven in this state is being used illegally, which says something about the keeper.
Tax never transfers with the car. Since 2014, the seller's remaining tax is refunded to the seller, and the buyer must tax the car before driving it away - the new-keeper slip's reference number and the DVLA website or phone line do it in minutes.
Related reading#
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A Check The Reg report shows the live tax status and expiry free, estimates the annual VED for the exact car (including the expensive-car supplement window), and folds it into a running-cost estimate with real-world fuel figures.