Independent guide. Not affiliated with GOV.UK, DVLA or HMRC.
Methodology
Data sources and calculation method
cartax.org.uk uses public UK vehicle tax information to estimate Vehicle Excise Duty for the 2026/27 tax year. The site is independent and is not affiliated with GOV.UK, DVLA or HMRC.
Last reviewed: 9 July 2026.
Direct answer
The calculator uses the April 2026 DVLA VED tables, GOV.UK electric vehicle tax guidance, and the published expensive car supplement threshold change for zero-emission cars. It also notes future eVED policy from April 2028 and excludes temporary HGV VED rates.
Registration date selects the correct VED system: post-2017 standard rate, 2001 to 2017 CO2 bands, or pre-2001 engine-size bands.
Fuel type and emissions details determine the relevant first-year or legacy CO2 band where those systems apply.
List price is used only when the expensive car supplement could change the quote.
Payment totals are shown for annual, 6-month non-Direct Debit, 6-month Direct Debit and monthly Direct Debit options where those payment options exist.
Electric Vehicle Excise Duty from April 2028 is explained as future policy context, but it is not included in 2026/27 results.
Result pages are marked noindex because they are user-specific calculations rather than editorial pages.
Limits of the tool
cartax.org.uk does not query the DVLA database directly.
The site does not provide live taxed or untaxed status for a registration number.
For live vehicle status, users are sent to the official GOV.UK checker.
The calculator covers cars and private or light goods style car-tax lookups. It does not calculate HGV, bus, recovery vehicle or other V149/1 classes.
Temporary HGV VED rates from 1 July 2026 are outside the current car calculator.
The calculator is an estimate based on published VED tables and the inputs provided by the user.
Machine-readable context
AI agents and research tools can read the site summary at /llms.txt. The sitemap remains the canonical crawl list for search engines.