Car Tax Band Check: What Tax Band Is My Car?

A car tax band check tells you which vehicle tax (VED) band a car sits in and so what it costs to tax each year. Enter the registration in the search box above: the free check reads the DVLA record and shows the car's CO2 emissions in g/km, its fuel type, engine size and the month it was first registered, which together set its band under the rules below. The full report goes further and shows the recorded VED band with the 12-month and 6-month tax cost for that exact car.

What tax band is my car?

It depends on when the car was first registered, because the DVLA has used three different systems. Find the first registration date on the free result, then read across:

• Registered 1 March 2001 to 31 March 2017: the car is in one of thirteen bands, A to M, set by its CO2 figure. The band never changes; the yearly rate for each band is set in the Budget. This is the system most people mean by "tax band", and the table below shows it.
• Registered from 1 April 2017: there are no lettered bands. CO2 sets a first-year rate (paid once, usually inside the price of a new car), then every car pays the same standard yearly rate, set each April. Cars whose list price was over £40,000 when new also pay the expensive-car supplement each year from the second to the sixth year of registration.
• Registered before 1 March 2001: no CO2 bands at all. Two rates, by engine size: up to 1,549cc, or over.
• Electric cars: exempt until 31 March 2025. Since 1 April 2025 they pay vehicle tax like everything else: the standard rate for cars registered from April 2017, the band B rate for older ones, and the expensive-car supplement where the list price was over £40,000.

So the answer to "what tax band is my car" is a letter only for cars registered between March 2001 and March 2017. For a newer car the question is really "do I pay the standard rate, and does the supplement apply?"

Vehicle tax bands by CO2 (cars registered March 2001 to March 2017)

Rates are the single 12-month payment for petrol and diesel cars in the 2026/27 tax year (from 1 April 2026) and change every April; band A moved from nothing to the band B rate in April 2025. GOV.UK's vehicle tax rate tables are the definitive list, and paying by monthly or six-monthly Direct Debit costs a little more. Band K also includes cars with over 225 g/km registered before 23 March 2006.

The jump from band C to band D is the one to watch: a car at 120 g/km costs a fraction of a car at 121 g/km, every year, for as long as it is on the road.

How to find your car's tax band by reg

1. Run the free check above. The result shows the CO2 figure and the first registration month from the DVLA record.
2. Read the band from the table if the car was registered between March 2001 and March 2017. If it was registered from April 2017, you pay the standard rate, plus the supplement if the list price was over £40,000. Before March 2001, use the engine size shown on the result.
3. Want the cost worked out for you? The full car history check shows the recorded VED band and the 12-month and 6-month cost for that car, alongside finance, write-off and stolen checks. See where it sits in the sample report.

Your V5C log book also shows the CO2 figure, but not the band or the rate, and the band printed on an old V11 reminder may be out of date if the rules have changed since. The free check uses the live DVLA record, so it works for a car you are thinking of buying as well as your own.

CO2 tax band and the first-year rate for newer cars

For cars registered from 1 April 2017, CO2 only matters once: it sets the first-year rate, which runs from zero-emission cars at the bottom to several thousand pounds for the highest emitters. From the second year every petrol, diesel, hybrid and electric car pays the same standard rate, so a used 2019 hatchback and a used 2019 SUV cost the same to tax unless one of them triggers the supplement. The £10-a-year discount for hybrids and other alternative-fuel cars ended in April 2025, so there is now no difference between a petrol and a hybrid on the standard rate.

The expensive-car supplement is the trap for used buyers. It is based on the manufacturer's list price when the car was new, including options, not what anyone paid, and it applies for five years from the second time the car is taxed. A three-year-old car that listed at £42,000 still carries the supplement for its next three owners' first years, so check the registration date and ask the seller about the original list price.

Why the tax band matters when buying a used car

• It is a yearly cost for life. A band H or J car costs hundreds of pounds a year more to tax than a band C car of the same age and price, and that gap repeats every year you own it.
• Tax does not transfer. Whatever the seller has paid ends when the car changes hands; you tax it yourself from day one, at the band's rate. Our guide explains why car tax doesn't transfer.
• Older low-band cars are no longer free. Since April 2025 band A cars and older electric cars pay the band B rate. The difference is small, but "free to tax" adverts for these cars are now wrong.
• Bands sit alongside other emissions rules. A high CO2 figure often goes with an older Euro standard, which decides ULEZ and clean air zone charges. The ULEZ check and CO2 emission check cover those.
• Running costs add up. Tax is one line; fuel, insurance and MOT repairs are the rest. The car running costs check estimates them for a specific reg.

What the free check shows, and what the full report adds

For whether the car is taxed right now, use the free car tax check; for the rules and rates in more depth, the car tax calculator.

Car tax band FAQs