Since the changes that have come to fruition, any car registered after April 2017 will have to pay a fixed rate of car tax (Vehicle Excise Duty) after the first year.
In the first year, you’ll pay tax based on the emissions of your vehicle, after which the rates are:
- Petrol Cars (£140)
- Hybrids/alternative fuel (£130)
This is a significant shakeup to how things have been done over the previous years, where the rate of car tax you paid was based solely on the amount of Co2 emissions your vehicle emitted.
Because this flat rate applies to all cars, it would be near impossible to get any special reductions but we’ll look at 3 ways that you can ease the hole in your pocket.
Get a refund on your previous vehicles tax
If you no longer have your previous car/van because it’s been taken off-road or you’ve sold your car – you can contact the DVLA and get a refund on any remaining full months.
To cancel your vehicle tax, you can contact the DVLA here.
Obviously, you’ll still have to pay car tax for your new vehicle, but the cash you receive can help towards paying for this.
Get a car registered before 2017
The change in car tax rate only applies to cars registered after April 2017.
Any vehicles registered before this time conforms to the previous tax rates based on fuel emissions, information of which can be found here.
If you’re currently in the higher band of tax, this is ample time to sell your car and swap for a low emission vehicle, which if it fits between band A to D pay between £0 to £115 – which is considerably less than the current flat rates.
Buy an electric car
There is good news if you’re looking to pay zero car tax, electric cars are completely exempt.
Undoubtedly, you might have some scepticism when buying a zero-fuel vehicle but this may be also a fantastic opportunity with the impending ban on diesel cars.
The electric car market is expanding with major car manufacturers getting in on the act including BMW, Renault, Nissan and VW.
American giant Tesla is making strides from across the pond with Tesla Model S.
Your old car might have gone up in value because of this…
If you’re sitting with your current car or possibly the second that was registered before the new tax regime its value could have grown exponentially.
The key thing when selling a car is to make sure you get in touch with a professional car seller to liaise with finding the correct value.
With the myriad of online sellers, it has never been easier to sell your car but finding the right seller can be a hindrance due to the sheer amount out there.
With Jamjar we are one of the first online car sellers and have a well-experienced backroom of professionals who use a broad spectrum of metrics to find the fairest value.
