How to cancel road tax

If you no longer need your car, or you are taking it off the road, then cancelling your road tax is an important step for drivers to take.

Officially called Vehicle Exercise Duty (VED), road tax doesn’t automatically stop when you sell, scrap, or declare your vehicle off road with a Statutory Off Road Notification.

Failing to correctly cancel means that you could miss out on a refund – or risk making further unnecessary payments.

Understanding the correct process is essential, so whatever the reason you are cancelling, it is important to take notes from this buying and selling guide.

What is road tax?

Road tax – or Vehicle Exercise Duty (VED) – is a compulsory charge for most vehicles driven and kept on UK roads.

The cost is either paid, or spread out, annually based on a variety of factors such as engine size, C02 emissions, and fuel type.

Payments can be made every year or monthly through direct debit.

Road tax contributes to the Government’s fund to build, fix, and maintain the UK road network.

By having valid road tax on your vehicle, it means you are legally allowed to drive in the UK (just as long as you also have car insurance).

Since April 2025, electric vehicle tax is now in place. This brings EVs in line with petrol and diesel equivalents – and means that driving an EV is no longer exempt from paying road tax.

Cancel road tax

Before you can officially cancel your road tax, you must inform the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) that your vehicle has been sold, transferred, taken off the road (SORN), written off by the insurance company, scrapped, or stolen (confirmed by the police).

You can also cancel road tax if you have exported your vehicle overseas.

In some cases, a vehicle could be declared exempt form road tax – and so it can be cancelled from any prior agreement.

Before speaking with the DVLA, make sure you have a valid V5C logbook (or V11 tax reminder), confirming you are the registered keeper of the vehicle.

You’ll also need to check your logbook or the DVLA website to see when your road tax was scheduled to expire.

Once on the GOV.UK website, you’ll be provided with a few options for contacting the DVLA.

• Webchat – available on the vehicle tax page
• Phone – call 0300 790 6802, Monday to Friday (8am to 7pm) or Saturday (8am to 2pm)
• Email – use the digital service and answer questions on why you are cancelling the tax payment
• Post – write to Vehicle Customer Services, DVLA, Swansea, SA99 1AR

Depending on the service you choose, the processing time takes between four to eight weeks.

So, to summarise, you’ll need to contact the DVLA and have your logbook details to hand, wait for the DVLA to confirm the cancellation, and then await the refund cheque in the post.

If you pay via monthly direct debit, all future payments will be cancelled, and you will not get a refund.

• Driving without tax – what are the penalties?
• V5C logbook – your complete guide
• Car tax bands – a complete guide to Vehicle Exercise Duty

How to get a refund for road tax

In order to get a road tax (VED) refund, you must first contact the DVLA with notification on what you are doing with the vehicle.

This can include it being sold, declared off the road (SORN), written off by the insurance company, scrapped, or stolen.

You will then need to visit the DVLA website and have your V5C logbook to hand.

Once you have provided the details and received your confirmation from the DVLA, you will receive a cheque in the post with your refund.

How long until I get my tax refund?

Currently, the DVLA advises vehicle owners that a car tax refund may take up to six weeks to receive in the post.

However, in some cases, it may arrive sooner than this.

What if I haven’t received my refund?

For anyone who has waited longer than eight weeks for their car tax refund from the date of the cancellation confirmation, then there are three main ways to address the issue.

Email

First, you’ll need to send a message through the DVLA website. It is not a traditional email address, and more of a service where you enter a message online, answer the relevant questions and there is an option where you click to notify them that you are chasing a refund.

Phone

You can call the DVLA on 0300 7906802 – just make sure you your V5C logbook to hand.

Letter

Finally, your third option is to writ to the DVLA – the address you’ll need is Vehicle Customer Services, DVLA, Swansea, SA99 1AR.

Will my car tax automatically cancel when I sell my car?

You car tax will automatically be cancelled if you have informed the DVLA that you have sold your car – and you have received a notification from them that the vehicle is no longer in your possession.