Delay paying £165 EV car tax for a year legally

martin998877

Hi, 

in April 2025, electric EV cars switch from £0 per year car tax to £165.  If your car is registered in March, you'll avoid paying it next year.  But if registered in April, May or after, you just miss the cut-off and will pay £165 on renewal.  

This method delays it for a year to March 2026.

I went to the "tax your car" government website, and re-taxed mine.  You need the V5C registration document 11 digit code, I clicked on "I don't have a tax renewal letter" and agreed "I know I'm taxing it before I have to".  But I re-taxed it early, in March instead of June, at a cost of £0.

It took a couple of days to update, but checking on my car's tax status, it has now switched renewal from 1 June 2025 to 1 March 2025, so therefore I avoid paying £165 for a year.

It took 5 mins, and I recommend doing it, there's no reason for everyone whose tax (currently £0) is due after April in 're-taxing' now for £0 and delaying the payment of £165 for a year. But it HAS to be done in March, ie now. 

I got this off an MG facebook group where they're all doing it, I tried it and it worked.  You don't need to SORN the car for a day which some people thought. 

Keep_pedalling

There has to be a glitch in the system as you are only supposed to be able to tax your car online from the 5th day of the month it expires.

https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax-advance

If it is a computer glitch I wonder if action will be taking to put the renewal date back to where they should be. Mine runs out in Sept but I will be replacing it with another EV before the end of the year so I won’t be attempting this. 

martin998877

The above (5th of the month) applies when you have a "car tax needs to be renewed" letter and code.  The system I propose needs you to say you don't have a renewal letter and code. It works as, normally it would waste money to tax a car months early, but as the tax is £0, it doesn't cost anything.  

TJS1507

Does this really work! My screen 

QrizB

TJS1507 said:

Does this really work!

It's in this week's MSE email, so it'd better work of the forum will be full of furious EV owners 😄

TJS1507

Whoops. My screenshot shows the following - 
However, if you have been told to tax by DVLA. please continue with the transaction..

Do DVLA check????

facade

TJS1507 said:

Whoops. My screenshot shows the following - 
However, if you have been told to tax by DVLA. please continue with the transaction..

Do DVLA check????

Who cares if they do check whether they sent you a letter?

If they didn't want you to tax without a Special Letter, then the Special Letter would have a code in it, so you couldn't tax it without one.

They obviously check your MOT status as normal.

I taxed mine earlier this week and moved the due date from Dec 1st 2025  to Feb 1st 2026 without a problem.

The best time to do it is in March which will gain another month, but my personal circumstances mean I'd rather pay my tax in January than February, so I've done it now.

This is simple Tax Avoidance (arranging your affairs so as to minimise your tax liability) which is perfectly legal and accepted by HMRC.

Tax Evasion is not paying your due taxes by making fraudulent declarations, which is a crime, and absolutely not what we are doing.

rikbar

Be very careful - if you are making a declaration that DVLA have asked you to tax your vehicle, and they haven’t, then you are making a false declaration and that is fraud. DVLA do not have to make it so you cannot tax, and making a false declaration to a government body is a very silly idea. The screenshot above is pretty clear on what basis you should continue the transaction and by doing so you are confirming the statement. 

I hope for yours and others sake this pays off, but be aware if it says only continue if you have been asked to by DVLA - and you haven’t - then don’t be upset if they ask you to pay at some point in the future. Worth a punt but by no means a clean cut affair.

facade

You are not making any declaration, only choosing to tax your vehicle, and agreeing that they can check you have an MOT.

The 100% foolproof way to do it if you are worried that HMRC will invoke some sort of small print over not having a Special Letter from DVLA is to SORN the vehicle, and then the next day go to one of those "Post Offices" that do vehicle tax (if you can find one) and tax it.

Alternatively, SORN the vehicle and wait 5 days then tax it online again.

Obviously you can't drive it whilst it is SORN'd as it must be kept off the road.

rikbar

facade said:

You are not making any declaration, only choosing to tax your vehicle, and agreeing that they can check you have an MOT.

The 100% foolproof way to do it if you are worried that HMRC will invoke some sort of small print over not having a Special Letter from DVLA is to SORN the vehicle, and then the next day go to one of those "Post Offices" that do vehicle tax (if you can find one) and tax it.

Alternatively, SORN the vehicle and wait 5 days then tax it online again.

Obviously you can't drive it whilst it is SORN'd as it must be kept off the road.

If the site states to only continue if DVLA have asked you to tax you car - by continuing you are affirming they have, be very careful about thinking that this is not making a form of declaration especially when dealing with a govt dept. As I say I hope it works but they may see renewing you tax ahead of the window for renewal as a means to avoid paying what is due - although DVLA have few people to really chase it up, but it would be a fairly simple exercise to check through a quick data exercise.

As you say - declaring SORN is the only completely risk free method that would not be open to challenge vs what has been shown above.

paul_c123

rikbar said:

facade said:

You are not making any declaration....................

.... the site states to only continue if DVLA have asked you to tax you car..................

Having looked in detail, it doesn't use the words "only continue". It says ".....if you have been told to tax by DVLA, please continue......" It doesn't say, "don't continue if you haven't been told by DVLA"; or "you must not continue if your tax isn't due in the next month" or any other words like that. 

So its difficult to properly assert this is a declaration to a government body.

Seeing as if you taxed in February, you're throwing a month away; and if you do it in March you get the maximum benefit, I suspect most people who are interested in this will wait until March.

They might have altered their online system by then to only allow it for cars with tax expiring end March, or those with no tax (maybe just been SORNed)