Delay paying £190 car tax on EV until April 2026 (action needed before the end of March 2024)

Ian Key said:
🥳 It's gone through. Just checked this morning and it's now showing tax due 1st March 2025.

The system must have been overloaded by all those pesky EV drivers trying to avoid 11 months of road tax 🤣
Click to expand...
It took a couple of days for mine to appear as March 1st after re-taxing it at the post office.
 
MartinSEsr said:
Hi, in April 2025, EV cars switch from £0 per year car tax to £180. 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 £180 on renewal next year.

This method delays it for a year to March 2026. You pay £0 now, £0 in March 2025 then £180 in March 2026. The £180 payment starts on 1 April 2025.

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 2024 to 1 March 2025, so therefore I avoid paying £180 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 £180 for a year. But it HAS to be done in March, ie now. The car tax web site warns you you will be paying twice by taxing early - but you just pay £0.00 twice!

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.

Martin
Click to expand...
@MartinSEsr you sir, are a legend. I have a old banger of a leaf and a ZS so you've saved me a pretty penny. Thankyou so much! If you were to set up a "buymeacoffee" ... I'd be very happy to do so. All the best
 
frb123 said:
@MartinSEsr you sir, are a legend. I have a old banger of a leaf and a ZS so you've saved me a pretty penny. Thankyou so much! If you were to set up a "buymeacoffee" ... I'd be very happy to do so. All the best
Click to expand...

Thank you! it's nice to get credit and thanks, much appreciated. Plus I'll be £190 better off too by delaying it by a year.
 
Turns out the clarinet players in our orchestra (a married couple) just paid their tax when their letter came earlier in the month. Honestly, a couple of PhD academics and it took me ten minutes of explanation followed by an email to get the message through, but they finally got it.
 
MartinSEsr said:
Hi, in April 2025, EV cars switch from £0 per year car tax to £190. 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 £190 on renewal next year.

This method delays it for a year to March 2026. You pay £0 now, £0 in March 2025 then £190 in March 2026. The £190 payment starts on 1 April 2025.

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 2024 to 1 March 2025, so therefore I avoid paying £190 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 £190 for a year. But it HAS to be done in March, ie now. The car tax web site warns you you will be paying twice by taxing early - but you just pay £0.00 twice!

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.

Martin
Click to expand...
Just came across this and well done.
To be clear. If your car was first registered before March; in my case at the end of January 23, there is no benefit in doing this?
Because the road tax will be due before 1st April 25 and hence still zero until it becomes due in 26.
 
Buster72 said:
Just came across this and well done.
To be clear. If your car was first registered before March; in my case at the end of January 23, there is no benefit in doing this?
Because the road tax will be due before 1st April 25 and hence still zero until it becomes due in 26.
Click to expand...
Mine was a Jan reg with tax due same time, i.e. Jan 1st. I have done mine for March just for the hell of it, saved a couple of months in theory £36 but not really just a delay.
 
I did mine, although the renewal was already 01 Feb 2025. I figure the money's better in my pocket than that of the government, even for a month. Never would have known if it wasn't for the forum, so thanks to everyone who posted it.
 
MartinSEsr said:
Hi, in April 2025, EV cars switch from £0 per year car tax to £190. 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 £190 on renewal next year.

This method delays it for a year to March 2026. You pay £0 now, £0 in March 2025 then £190 in March 2026. The £190 payment starts on 1 April 2025.

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 2024 to 1 March 2025, so therefore I avoid paying £190 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 £190 for a year. But it HAS to be done in March, ie now. The car tax web site warns you you will be paying twice by taxing early - but you just pay £0.00 twice!

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.

Martin
Click to expand...
Thank you. It took me less than 5 minutes to follow your excellent advice.

Mike
 
siteguru said:
I see the thread title now says £190 ... is that confirmed? (I thought it was £180).
Click to expand...
I did too.

From the Chorley Group's web site.

If you're looking for a quick summary of the changes coming from April 2025, here it is:

Any EVs registered on or after 1/4/25 will need to pay the lowest first-year rate of VED of £10
From the second year, this will change to the standard rate of £180 per year
This standard rate will also apply to any zero-emission cars registered between 1/4/17 to 31/3/25
The Expensive Car Supplement for EVs will also be scrapped come 2025, impacting models listed above £40,000
Zero and low-emission cars (electric and hybrid) registered between 1/3/01 and 30/3/17 in Band A will transition to the Band B rate, which is £20 per year
Electric van owners will be required to pay the same rate as petrol or diesel light goods - which is £290 per year
Electric motorcycles or bikes will only need to pay for their small engines, which is set at £22 per year
 
If anyone has their car tax renewal in April or the months following you can cancel it in early March 2025 and go SORN for a day, and then restart it the day after for 12 months at the £NIL rating so you wont have to start paying tax until 2026. Saw this advice on Martin Lewis show.
 
Support us by becoming a Premium Member

Latest MG EVs video

MG3 Hybrid+ & Cyberster Configurator News + hot topics from the MG EVs forums
Published
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom