VED

What will the new taxes on electric cars mean for drivers?

taxes on electric cars
EVs might have cheaper fuel and maintenance costs but tax rates are changing (Picture iStock/Marcus Lindstrom)

The government’s recent autumn statement revealed new taxes on electric cars. We investigate whether electric vehicle (EV) owners will be out of pocket and what the changes really mean for drivers.

Car tax changes for EVs

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How we pay for our roads will have to change but to what?

pay for our roads
Government needs to come up with a new way of raising money from drivers (Picture iStock/George Clerk)

The model for how we pay for our roads has been broken by the uptake of zero emissions electric vehicles. From 2030, the sale of brand-new internal combustion engine cars will be banned in the UK. That means the government has to start working out how to replace the money it makes from petrol and diesel cars.

Why does tax need to change?

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Find out about new car tax rates that punish new diesel car buyers

Car tax rates

There’s every chance you aren’t aware that you may have to pay up to £520 more in car tax from this month. When Confused.com asked drivers, nine out of 10 (87 per cent) weren’t aware of the changes to car tax rates that hit new-car buyers from April 2018.

The latest Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) is levied on new diesels as the government attempts to deter drivers from buying them. Read on to find out if you’ll be affected.

What are the changes from this month?

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How to cancel vehicle tax and reclaim any that’s not been used

How to cancel vehicle tax and reclaim unused road tax

Anyone who was driving before 2014 may turn misty-eyed at memories of tax discs. Brightly coloured pieces of paper used to be displayed in the windscreen, to prove a driver had paid vehicle tax.

In addition to serving as a quick and simple visual reminder that car tax needed to be renewed, it let authorities easily check whether Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) had been paid. And there was another benefit to it. Anyone selling a used motor could charge for the remaining car tax that was to be enjoyed by the new owner. Alternatively, drivers buying a second-hand car could use the need for new tax to haggle down the price of the car.

In the digital age, that’s no longer the case. Anyone that sells their car and has outstanding VED on it should reclaim the amount paid from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA). For the same reason, those buying a new or used car must tax it before they can legally drive away.

But it’s not only when drivers sell their car that they can reclaim tax. If a motor is being taken off the road, scrapped, declared a write-off by an insurance company, or stolen the tax can be reclaimed. Here’s how. Continue reading

What every driver needs to know about the 2017 VED car tax changes

Car tax

Did you know that the car tax regulations will change in April, 2017? Big alterations are afoot after the government calculated that increasingly fuel efficient cars are leaving it out of pocket.

That’s because currently, the annual tax drivers pay to be on the road is calculated according to how much carbon dioxide (CO2) comes out of their car’s exhaust. And around 25 per cent of all new cars are so clean that, guess what? They’re exempt from road tax.

But from next April anybody that buys a new car will face a new regime of car tax. And overnight it will make many of the UK’s most popular new motors much more expensive to own.  Continue reading