The basic penalty for driving without relevant vehicle tax (road tax as it used to be known) is £80 if imposed by the DVLA. If you make a payment to the DVLA within 28 days it can be halved. HOWEVER – if you fail to pay this initial £80 fine and the case goes to court you could pay up to £1000 or 5 times the vehicle’s road tax fee ! The fines are considerably higher if caught by the POLICE driving / parking on the public highway with an untaxed vehicle.
Summary of Fines
- £80 if imposed by the DVLA. This can increase to £1000 or 5 times you car’s annual vehicle tax if the case goes to court
- Up to £1000 if caught by the Police by way of fixed penalty notice. Please refer to our article on Clamping Untaxed Vehicles
- In a worst case scenario vehicles may be clamped or even impounded. If your car is clamped getting it released early is paramount – otherwise the daily charges rapidly accrue.
What if your Vehicle is Road Tax FREE
This is where a lot of people are falling foul of the law – drivers of NIL-RATED low emission vehicles. Every vehicle that drives on the UK roads (with a few exceptions) needs to be taxed – even those that are Vehicle Tax exempt. MoneySavingExpert.com obtained some interesting facts under the freedom of information act from the DVLA. More than 34,000 drivers were issued with penalties for failing to “tax” their NIL RATED vehicles. It’s an interesting article and it can be found in full here – Warning – 34,000 fined last year for not taxing vehicles which are FREE to tax. The bottom line is – whether your vehicle is nil-rated or not – you MUST complete a vehicle tax application on the DOV.UK website (or atyour local Post Office)
Check Vehicle Tax status
Easy – use our vehicle tax checker found here or go direct to the GOV.UK website. In the days of Tax Discs it was easy – a quick glance at the Tax Disc on your windscreen and you knew if your Road Tax was in date or not. The phasing out of the tax disc has left a lot of motorists confused. The biggest group of confused drivers are those driving ZERO
Report an Untaxed Vehicle
It is a motoring offence to drive an untaxed vehicle on UK roads unless it is exempt from taxation. If you are aware of an untaxed vehicle being driven (or simply parked) on a UK road then you may report it to the authorities. Report an untaxed vehicle with this anonymous service. The matter will be investigated by the DVLA.
More Services from IsMyCar.co.uk
Visitors to the IsMyCar.co.uk website may be interested in the following motoring topics
MOT – check your MOT status FREE
MOT – get an up to date MOT history for any vehicle
Vehicle Tax – check the status of your car’s road tax
Report an untaxed vehicle
The new MOT rules (May 2018)
Number plate cloning is on the increase – what to do if your car registration is cloned
Pre-MOT checks. A few things to check yourself before booking your car’s MOT
What are the most popular causes of MOT failure?
Is my car STOLEN
Is my car WRITTEN OFF – Category C (now S) or Category D (now N)
Please visit our Blog
Automotive Related Blog
The IsMyCar Blog is packed with articles on the latest automotive news, events and general interest. Read about the growing crime of registration number cloning – what to do and how to avoid it. Up to date information on the recent changes to the MOT test, ways to avoid the 4 most common MOT failures and much more. Did you know that NIL-RATED vehicles still need to be registered for vehicle tax? Avoid a minimum £80 fine by ensuring you register your car for vehicle tax even if it’s nil-rated or tax emept.