Money expert Martin Lewis is urging EV drivers to get free road tax for a year with a loophole in March.
Speaking on the latest episode of The Martin Lewis Money Show Live on ITV1 and ITVX, the Money Saving Expert founder told his viewers about a loophole in the car tax system which could save drivers of electric vehicles big money.
Martin said that even if your car tax isn’t due soon, you should re-tax your EV on March 31 to get another whole year of Vehicle Excise Duty, as it’s properly known, for £0.
This is because from April 1, some EV drivers will be charged car tax for the first time ever.
New rules will mean that EV drivers will be made to pay up to £195 from April 1, after the government removed the £0 band for Vehicle Excise Duty, forcing electric car drivers and other low emission drivers to pay tax for the first time ever.
But you can re-tax your car at any time, and if you tax your car before April 1, it will still cost you nothing, but it will extend the amount of time before you’ll have to pay for it.
Martin Lewis said: “Do you have an electric vehicle? If so there’s a trick to get a year tax-free.
“From the 1st of April, EV owners will start paying Vehicle Excise Duty – road tax as it used to be commonly known, it isn’t it’s Vehicle Excise Duty – which will be £100+.
“But if you re-tax now on gov.uk it’s free. So you get a year from the date that you re-tax.
“So, you might want to leave it til the last day of March and then it would be perfect but if you just wanna do it, do it now and you get a year longer.
“Now the crucial thing of this is, you can re-tax at any time, even if you only did it two months ago. You can do it again now. You have to pay each time, but it’s currently free so there’s nothing to pay.
“So effectively this is a loophole that says, just go and do your retaxing as near to that deadline as possible and you get an extra year for free.”
From April 1, EVs first registered (i.e. first sold) between April 2017 and March 31 2025 will be made to pay £195.
EV and low emission cars registered between March 1 2001 and March 31 2017 will be made to pay £20 a year.
There will also be a ‘supplement’ tax for zero emission and EV cars from April 1, 2025.
The government says: “New electric and zero emission vehicles registered on or after 1 April 2025 with the list price exceeding £40,000 will attract the standard rate, plus the expensive car supplement for the first five years from the start of the second licence.”
