Drivers caught ‘off guard’ by new taxes as older autos hit

Drivers are being impacted by automobile tax will increase, with sure older autos now paying much more to make use of the roads.

Traffic congestion on the M25 motorway, Surrey, England, United Kingdom, Europe

Motorists are getting their head round new tax adjustments (Picture: Getty)

Motorists are being caught “off guard” by new automobile tax adjustments, with sure older autos hit with new charges. Vehicles emitting below 100 g/km of CO2 registered between 2001 and 2017 weren’t beforehand charged to make use of the roads.

Over the 2024/25 tax yr, street customers certified totally free Automobile Excise Obligation (VED) in a significant incentive for homeowners switching to zero or low-emission fashions. Nonetheless, Labour ended the free street tax rule, with vehicles emitting below 100g/km paying £20 per yr to get behind the wheel since April 2025.

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The Nissan LEAF is an instance of a automobile affected by the £20 cost (Picture: Getty)

The £20 charge stays in place for the 2026/27 tax yr, however consultants warn that drivers had been nonetheless getting their head across the cost.

Andy Wooden, tax skilled from Tax Barrister UK defined: “The elimination of the zero-rate band for vehicles emitting below 100g/km has caught some drivers off guard as a result of many had change into used to paying nothing in any respect. Whereas £20 could not sound substantial by itself, it displays a wider shift in the direction of bringing extra autos into the VED system no matter emissions efficiency.”

Vehicles registered between 2001 and 2017 are charged VED charges primarily based on complete car emissions, with vehicles positioned into considered one of 13 tax bands. Larger-polluting fashions are most affected, with vehicles paying as much as £30 extra from April 2026.

Autos emitting over 255g/km of CO2 at the moment are charged £790 to get behind the wheel, up on the £760 paid by street customers between 2025/26. Beneath the brand new 2026 tax bands, vehicles emitting between 226 and 255g/km of CO2 are paying £760 per yr simply to make use of their autos.

Motoring skilled Shahzad Sheik, founder and presenter of YouTube channel @BrownCarGuy confused that fashionable classics registered between 2001 and 2017 are among the many most impacted by new VED tax charges.

He mentioned that tax charges for these drivers would “most likely hold going up yearly” as worth rises are inflationary will increase.

Shahzad beforehand confused: “These are the vehicles that arguably are handled harshest of all as a result of they match below a totally completely different VED regime, one primarily based purely on official CO2 emissions figures from a time when no person actually imagined that these numbers would nonetheless matter fairly this a lot.”