Need help? Call 0345 838 4074 Register Login

Taxing a vehicle

You can apply to tax your vehicle:

  • online;
  • at the Post Office®; or
  • by phone.

For more information, visit the GOV.UK website, and to see which Post Office branches are able to tax your vehicle on renewal or when there is a change of owner, see the Post Office website.

How do I renew my vehicle tax?

About 3 weeks before your vehicle tax expires you should receive a Vehicle Licence Application/Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) (V11) or a Heavy goods vehicle licence application/SORN declaration (V85/1).

You can use this renewal reminder, to re-tax the vehicle as long as the date of the vehicle tax, the vehicle details and the taxation class printed on the form are all correct.

If you don't receive this renewal reminder, or if you prefer, you can use your V5C or V5C NI registration certificate or V5 log book to tax the vehicle or, if it is being kept off road, to make a SORN.

If you don't have a renewal reminder or a V5C registration certificate because you've just bought the vehicle, you can still tax your vehicle by applying at the Post Office, if you have a valid new keeper supplement (V5/2 or V5/2NI, or V5C/2 or V5C/2NI).

The new keeper supplement is valid for 2 months from the date you bought the vehicle for taxing purposes. If this has expired you will also have to:

And if required you'll also need:

  • The vehicle tax payment
  • A valid insurance certificate
  • A valid MOT test certificate for the vehicle
  • A valid reduced pollution certificate

If you've changed your name and or address, you can make the changes in section 6 of your V5C registration certificate. Sign the declaration in section 8 and post the whole V5C to the DVLA, Swansea. However if your vehicle needs taxing within 4 weeks you can take the V5C to the Post Office. There you'll be able to tax your vehicle and have the changes made at the same time. You'll need to take your original MOT certificate to the post office.

You have the option of paying your vehicle tax either annually, 6 monthly or in monthly instalments. You will be able to set up a direct debit and this will then continue for as long as the vehicle's MOT remains valid. For vehicles registered in Northern Ireland the vehicle's insurance must also be valid for the debit order to continue. You can cancel the debit order by telling the DVLA that you no longer have the vehicle or that it has been taken off the road and you've made a SORN.

This direct debit order facility can't be used if it is the vehicle's first registration.

If you still have a paper tax disc, there is no need to display it in your car's windscreen. The DVLA no longer issues paper tax discs because the police and enforcement agencies use the DVLA online system to check if your car is validly taxed.

How do I tax a brand new vehicle?

See the section Registering a vehicle for the first time for more information.

What is the law guide

The Desktop Lawyer law guide aims to present the law to you in a comprehensive yet jargon-free and easy-to-read format. Our law guide is constantly kept up to date with changes in business and family law by our team of in house solicitors, and includes information across all the legal jurisdictions in the UK.

Our law guide is free to use. Where we provide documents related to this area of law, or where they may help you with any legal issue in this area, they will be listed to the right of this message.

Our use of cookies

We use necessary cookies to make our site work. We would also like to set some optional cookies. We won't set these optional cookies unless you enable them. Please choose whether this site may use optional cookies by selecting 'On' or 'Off' for each category below. Using this tool will set a cookie on your device to remember your preferences.

For more detailed information about the cookies we use, see our Cookie notice.

Necessary cookies

Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions.

Functionality cookies

We'd like to set cookies to provide you with a better customer experience. For more information on these cookies, please see our cookie notice.