Road tax (VED) for UK fleets, April 2026 to March 2027
Vehicle Excise Duty rates are set by HMT in each Finance Act and the bands change every April. We will not paraphrase gov.uk's tables here. They go stale within months. What this guide does is show which VED scheme applies to which vehicle, what changed for EVs in April 2025, where the Expensive Car Supplement bites, and the SORN traps that catch fleet operators. Numbers are at gov.uk; the structure is here.
Which VED scheme applies to your vehicle?
The big mistake new fleet operators make is treating "road tax" as one number. There are three live car schemes plus separate schedules for vans and motorcycles, and the scheme depends on the date the vehicle was first registered, not the year you bought it. Walk the tree, then go to gov.uk for the live rate.
The three car schemes, side by side
Each scheme stays with the vehicle for life: a 2014-registered diesel saloon runs the CO₂-band scheme forever, even when sold to a second or third owner. The structure of each scheme:
Engine-size scheme
Vehicles first registered before 1 March 2001 are taxed by engine size only. There are two rates: one for engines up to and including 1,549 cc, one for engines above. Simple, blunt, and unaffected by emissions.
CO₂ band scheme (A–M)
Vehicles first registered between 1 March 2001 and 31 March 2017 are taxed by Euro-test CO₂ emissions, in 13 bands (A through M). Band A (≤100 g/km) was historically zero-rated; Band M (>255 g/km) is the highest. Diesels often pay a small surcharge.
First-year + standard
Vehicles first registered from 1 April 2017 pay a first-year rate based on CO₂ (or the lowest band if electric, since April 2025), then a single standard rate from year two onwards regardless of emissions. The Expensive Car Supplement adds an extra charge in years 2–6 if list price > £40,000 (or > £50,000 for EVs registered from 1 April 2025).
Vans use a different scheme entirely (TC39)
Light goods vehicles up to 3,500 kg DGW sit in the TC39 light goods tax class , a single flat annual rate that applies regardless of CO₂. Some older Euro 4 / Euro 5 vans qualify for a small concession. Heavier goods vehicles above 3,500 kg use HGV-specific tax classes with weight-based rates and roadworthiness-linked enforcement. The Expensive Car Supplement does not apply to TC39 vehicles regardless of list price.
For most fleet operators, every Transit, Sprinter, Vivaro, Custom, Berlingo and Trafic in the fleet sits on the TC39 flat rate. There is no advantage to running a "low-CO₂ van" from a VED perspective; the savings live entirely on the fuel side.
What changed for EVs on 1 April 2025
Electric cars and vans were exempt from VED until 31 March 2025. As of 1 April 2025, that exemption ended. Three buckets to know:
- EVs first registered before 1 March 2001 stay on the engine-size scheme (almost none in the wild).
- EVs first registered 1 March 2001 to 31 March 2017 moved into Band B of the old CO₂ scheme.
- EVs first registered 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2025 pay the standard rate from year two onwards but are exempt from the Expensive Car Supplement, regardless of list price.
- EVs first registered from 1 April 2025 pay the lowest first-year rate, the standard rate from year two, and, if the list price exceeds £50,000: the Expensive Car Supplement in years 2 to 6.
For fleets adding electric vans (Maxus eDeliver, Ford E-Transit, VW ID. Buzz Cargo, Renault Kangoo E-Tech), the standard TC39 light-goods rate now applies, not the £0 it was a year ago. ECS does not apply to TC39 vans.
The SORN trap fleets fall into
If a vehicle is off the road and you do not pay tax on it, you must file a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN). Without a SORN, DVLA continues to expect tax payment whether the vehicle is moving or not, and Continuous Insurance Enforcement (CIE) can still flag it. Common operator mistakes:
- Selling a vehicle and assuming the buyer's V5C transfer cancels your tax. The seller's tax is automatically refunded by DVLA from the month of transfer; the buyer must re-tax before driving. There is no overlap day where both are valid.
- Storing a van off-road for the winter without filing SORN. Tax keeps running. Late SORN does not retro-claim the months in between.
- Cancelling tax mid-year for a written-off vehicle without a CoD. DVLA needs the Certificate of Destruction or scrap notification to close the tax record cleanly.
- Forgetting that a SORN is per-vehicle, not per-account. Operators with a mixed fleet sometimes file once and assume the rest are covered. They are not.
Fleetkeep does not file SORNs for you. That is a DVLA-direct action. We do remind you when a vehicle's tax cycle is due so SORN-or-tax becomes a deliberate decision, not a missed one.
The annual uplift cycle
VED rates change every 1 April as part of the Finance Act. The new rates apply to renewals from that date forward; renewals taken in March are billed at the prior year's rate. For a fleet on a rolling MOT-tax-insurance schedule, that means small annual increases trickle in through the spring rather than landing as one annual budget hit.
Road tax reminders for your fleet
Official tax due dates, four reminders per renewal (60, 30, 14 and 7 days), every vehicle on your account.
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