Car tax, along with car insurance, is a legal requirement and you can’t drive without having a taxed vehicle. Often referred to as road tax, it’s a tax that drivers in the UK must pay to drive and park their cars on public roads. Its official name is Vehicle Excise Duty and it’s paid to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).
There are different rates of pay, and the amount will depend on the car you drive. Cars with lower CO₂ emissions don’t cost as much to tax. New rules around how much drivers pay based on emissions were introduced in April 2017.
It’s important to note that some vehicles are exempt from car tax charges. These include:
Tax for electric vehicles came in on 1 April, 2025.
You can’t tax your car without having insurance in place, so this will need to be done first. If you’re driving a car for a short amount of time, you can take out temporary car insurance and this is accepted when arranging road tax.
It’s possible to take out a policy that just covers how long you’ll be driving for, whether that’s for a one-day business meeting or an hour while you drop something off. Once you’ve arranged cover, you arrange tax on the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) website, over the phone, or at your local post office.
In all exemption cases, road tax is still needed, it’s just that this will be free of charge.
To tax your vehicle, you must have a valid insurance policy. It also needs to have a valid MOT certificate.
There are several ways to arrange car tax:
You can’t tax your car first. You must have insurance in place and then tax the vehicle from there. It’s important that you double-check you have cover in place and that the car’s taxed before you drive anywhere.
While you can get temporary insurance cover, it’s not possible to get temporary car tax in the UK. You can tax the car you’ll be driving for either six months or a year, however, you do get a reimbursement of the full months of remaining tax if you declare the vehicle SORN. You can also arrange car tax if you’re using temporary car insurance.
You could be fined £80 if you drive a car that’s not taxed. This amount drops to £40 if you pay within 33 days. This could go up to £1,000 or five times the value of the vehicle’s road tax, whichever is greater, if the case is taken to court.
Plus, if you drive without tax, you could invalidate your insurance policy or at least see the cost of your insurance rise. This applies even if you’ve taken out short-term cover. If you drive without insurance, you could be fined £300 and have six penalty points added to your licence. You could face a driving ban if you go to court for driving without insurance.
The only time you would not need to tax – or insure – your car is if you’ve declared it SORN. A Statutory Off-Road Notification is when you legally declare the car is off the road. Once registered as SORN, the car must be kept off public roads, even when it’s not being driven, and stored on private property.
Yes, you can but there are some considerations. Your temporary insurance policy must be active on the date you tax the car and meet all of the UK’s legal requirements. Your insurance will be checked automatically by the Motor Insurance Database and you’ll need to arrange a new policy if it expires before you complete the tax process. Remember, you need insurance to legally drive on public roads in the UK.
Please note if your cover is for less than a week, the MID may not be updated by the time the policy has ended.
Before you tax your car, you’ll need to make sure you have insurance cover in place. Whether you’re driving for a day or a month, speak to our highly skilled team who can help you arrange a flexible policy.
To find out more about arranging temporary cover, you can get a quote online today. Alternatively, if you have any questions or need further advice, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Legally, you can insure a vehicle that’s not taxed in your name, but you’ll need to tell the insurance provider that you’re not the owner or registered keeper. It’s important that you know the difference between the owner and registered keeper.
The owner and registered keeper are often the same, but it’s worth making sure you know the difference when you’re getting an insurance quote.
When you buy a car, you must tax it straight away. You’re not allowed to drive it home without having tax in place. So, even if someone in your family has given the car to you, it must be taxed and insured before you drive anywhere.
You cannot tax your car without having insurance in place first. If you’re waiting for your insurance quote to come through, hold off looking at arranging tax until you’ve checked the details of the cover you’re buying. When you’re happy, pay for your policy and once you’ve got confirmation that you’re insured, you can tax the vehicle.
With Tempcover, we can arrange short-term cover for you in a matter of minutes, so you won’t have to wait too long before taxing the vehicle.
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