Re tax your 2017 or later i3 this month ESPECIALLY if it is not due

Madelvic · Thursday at 10:43 AM

The tax rules are changing. This from the RAC

EVs registered between 1 April 2017 and 31 March 2025 will now have to pay the same standard rate of road tax (now £195 a year) as all other motorists.

However if you renew NOW you can get a year for free

I've just done mine

Didn't have to cancel the old car tax, just applied to tax it today (at zero cost) needing only reg number and 11 digit code off V5

Biggest winners will be those due road tax from April

JamesInLondon · Thursday at 11:42 AM

Madelvic said:
The tax rules are changing. This from the RAC

EVs registered between 1 April 2017 and 31 March 2025 will now have to pay the same standard rate of road tax (now £195 a year) as all other motorists.

However if you renew NOW you can get a year for free

I've just done mine

Didn't have to cancel the old car tax, just applied to tax it today (at zero cost) needing only reg number and 11 digit code off V5

Biggest winners will be those due road tax from April

Rather smug that mine was registered in Feb 2017, particularly as the price was over the £40k threshold.

mojo · Thursday at 12:45 PM

JamesInLondon said:
Rather smug that mine was registered in Feb 2017, particularly as the price was over the £40k threshold.

I think it annoys some in the UK that a pre-April 2017 REx with a rattly old petrol engine in it pays £20 a year, while a 2021 BEV pays £195!

But I guess the rest of us accept it as yet another quirk in a tax system that is full of quirks...

The £40k threshold is irrelevant now though - the surcharge only ever applied to the first five years of a car's life.

Madelvic99 · Thursday at 1:04 PM

mojo said:
I think it annoys some in the UK that a pre-April 2017 REx with a rattly old petrol engine in it pays £20 a year, while a 2021 BEV pays £195!

But I guess the rest of us accept it as yet another quirk in a tax system that is full of quirks...

The £40k threshold is irrelevant now though - the surcharge only ever applied to the first five years of a car's life.

And the £40k isn't being applied retrospectively, ie only new EVs (and other fuelled vehicles)

Clanduncan · Friday at 7:29 AM

Not that rattly IMHO, and rarely used on mine. After years of zero road tax status, I'm quite happy to pay road tax, whether it's my £20 or the £195. We all use the roads, and times have changed. Even in the 4+ years I've had my i3, the number of EV's on the road has risen seemingly exponentially, we will all have to pay a share at some point.

electriclightweight · Friday at 7:52 AM

Clanduncan said:
Not that rattly IMHO, and rarely used on mine. After years of zero road tax status, I'm quite happy to pay road tax, whether it's my £20 or the £195. We all use the roads, and times have changed. Even in the 4+ years I've had my i3, the number of EV's on the road has risen seemingly exponentially, we will all have to pay a share at some point.

Sorry to be pedantic but I hate how the media still say road tax and everyone thinks it's paying directly towards them. It's called vehicle excise duty which is a tax just purely for owning a vehicle. The rate can vary depending on the year, engine size and pollution it puts out. Road tax was abolished in 1937. The money you pay just goes into the main pot of money just like income tax. Essentially we already pay 'road tax' out of our earnings to pay for roads!

mojo · Friday at 7:07 PM

electriclightweight said:
Sorry to be pedantic but I hate how the media still say road tax and everyone thinks it's paying directly towards them. It's called vehicle excise duty which is a tax just purely for owning a vehicle. The rate can vary depending on the year, engine size and pollution it puts out. Road tax was abolished in 1937. The money you pay just goes into the main pot of money just like income tax. Essentially we already pay 'road tax' out of our earnings to pay for roads!

That may be true, but you can't get away from the fact that as more people move to EVs, the tax income from VED was always going to drop away drastically.

So whether all or only some of VED revenue goes towards the cost of road infrastructure, the continued Zero Rate for EVs was unsustainable. The change was inevitable. The inconsistencies are annoying, but that's just how it is. It would be unrealistic to expect it to change and become completely rational any time soon.

Bat66 · 2025-03-08T04:23:18-0600

mojo said:
I think it annoys some in the UK that a pre-April 2017 REx with a rattly old petrol engine in it pays £20 a year, while a 2021 BEV pays £195!

But I guess the rest of us accept it as yet another quirk in a tax system that is full of quirks...

The £40k threshold is irrelevant now though - the surcharge only ever applied to the first five years of a car's life.

Well my pre-April 2017 ReX (647cc and 13g/km CO2 - DVLA figures ) also gets stung for London Congestion Charge, while a relative with a Fiat 500 (bigger engine 1242 and more CO2 111g/km ) still goes free.

UK road taxes are all over the place.

oldstumpybiker · 2025-03-08T11:25:38-0600

Decided to re-tax my Jan 2016 Rex for £0, even though I think it'll only be £20 when it would have been due in July, why not? I've paid thousands over the 45 years I've been driving so reckon even this small amount is a win.

I'll buy a crate of alcohol free Guinness...

oldstumpybiker · 2025-03-09T06:10:06-0500

This extract from article in yesterday's Times (UK, Sat 8th Mch):
The examples given (type of EV's not relevant) state if cars taxed before 1st April '25 their 1st 6 years VED cost is £0. I think this is wrong. In fact the article itself is contradictory. Any thoughts, should I contact them to correct it?

mojo · 2025-03-09T06:52:42-0500

Agreed - it's wrong. They seem to have missed the fact that the change to the rules is retrospective. These days it probably is worth contacting them, as they may feel obliged to correct the online version of the article.

Gonville · 2025-03-09T12:20:22-0500

oldstumpybiker said:
This extract from article in yesterday's Times (UK, Sat 8th Mch):
The examples given (type of EV's not relevant) state if cars taxed before 1st April '25 their 1st 6 years VED cost is £0. I think this is wrong. In fact the article itself is contradictory. Any thoughts, should I contact them to correct it?

Yes it’s wrong. When it comes to re-tax in 2026 it will be at the new rate of £190.

Gonville · 2025-03-09T12:30:52-0500

oldstumpybiker said:
This extract from article in yesterday's Times (UK, Sat 8th Mch):
The examples given (type of EV's not relevant) state if cars taxed before 1st April '25 their 1st 6 years VED cost is £0. I think this is wrong. In fact the article itself is contradictory. Any thoughts, should I contact them to correct it?

Yes it’s wrong. When it comes to re-tax in

mojo said:
Agreed - it's wrong. They seem to have missed the fact that the change to the rules is retrospective. These days it probably is worth contacting them, as they may feel obliged to correct the online version of the article.

Not sure it is retrospective? Just different rates going forward for different age and class? Is that retrospective?

Gonville · 2025-03-09T12:32:48-0500

This seems to have reached fever pitch. Martin Lewis.

Just read on so many forums people who did it last year and then those people still doing SORN unnecessarily. (Means 5 days without VED which means no valid insurance which means not useable on public roads)

Gonville · 2025-03-09T12:33:24-0500

I make it 6 minutes work to save £190 times 3. Not bad.

Re tax your 2017 or later i3 this month ESPECIALLY if it is not due

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