How to cancel car tax and get a car tax refund

If you own and drive a car, you’ll need to pay car tax. From April 2025 that applies to electric car owners as well – there’s almost no escaping a bill for keeping your car on the road, unless it’s over 40 years old and classed as exempt.

The more formal name for car tax is Vehicle Excise Duty (VED). It’s also referred to as road tax, although that’s misleading as the money raised isn’t ringfenced to pay for road building and maintenance. Instead, the government uses cheaper rates of car tax to encourage us to choose low-emission cars.

Perhaps you are selling your car. The good news is the money you have spent on car tax isn’t lost. It’s pretty easy to cancel it and get a refund on any months you’ve already paid for — all you have to do is let the DVLA know.

Read on for a full guide to how to cancel your car tax, when you might be eligible for a refund, and exactly how to get your money back.

What reasons can I have for cancelling car tax?

You’ll need to let the DVLA know your reason for cancelling your car tax. It must be for one of the following reasons:

• The car has been sold or transferred to someone else
• You have declared it off the road (SORN)
• It has been written off by your insurance company
• You’ve had it scrapped at a vehicle scrapyard
• The car has been stolen
• It has been exported out of the UK
• It’s been registered as a tax-exempt vehicle

There are no other allowed reasons for cancelling your car tax. If you drive on the road without it, you can be fined £80 by the DVLA — which is reduced in half if paid within 28 days.

If you’re caught by the police though, it could result in an on-the-spot fixed penalty notice of up to £1,000 and your car may be seized.

How do I cancel my car tax?

You need to get in touch with the DVLA to cancel your car tax, and the easiest way to do this is to use the online service. Rather than the process being one dedicated to cancelling road tax, it’s part and parcel of the reasons listed in the first section. So if you’re telling the DVLA you’ve sold a car, getting a refund is part of that process. The same applies if you’re scrapping a car, declaring it SORN, and so on.

If you’d prefer to speak to someone directly though, the same website has a webchat service dedicated to vehicle tax, and a contact email address.

Whether online or through the webchat, you’ll want to have your V5C or V11 tax reminder handy.

If you want to get in touch by post, send your enquiry to:

DVLA
Swansea
SA99 1AR

How to cancel car tax: step by step

1. Inform the DVLA why you’re cancelling your car tax. You’ll need your V5C logbook or the V11 car-tax reminder form. These have a code on them which the DVLA will require.
2. Wait for the DVLA to process the cancellation. The rate of the refund is calculated from the date the DVLA receives your cancellation request. If you request a refund within a year of the car being first registered, you will be eligible for a refund based on whichever is lower: the first tax payment when you registered the vehicle, or the rate for the second tax payments onwards.
3. Await your refund cheque in the post. The refund will be based on how many full months were left on your car tax. If you pay by direct debit, future payments will be cancelled by the DVLA. Anyone who pays monthly is unlikely to receive a refund as the DVLA refunds whole months, not part months.

How much will my car tax refund be?

If you pay your car tax by direct debit, your car tax payments will be automatically cancelled by the DVLA. If you’ve already paid for a full year’s car tax, you will be issued a refund for any full months left on your car tax.

If you request a refund within a year of the car being first registered, you will be eligible for a refund based on whichever is lower: the first tax payment when you registered the vehicle, or the rate for the second tax payments onwards.

This is calculated from the date the DVLA receives the information — not when you send it. Keep that in mind when picking how you want to contact them.

If you pay by Direct Debit, this will also be automatically cancelled.

How will my car tax refund be paid?

We may live in an electronic age of instantaneous payments, but road tax refunds are still paid by cheque, which will arrive at the address to which the car was registered.

If for some reason the cheque arrives with the wrong name on it, return it along with a note for the correct name to:

Refund Section
DVLA
Swansea
SA99 1AL

If you don’t hear back within four weeks, get back in touch with the DVLA.

What if I don’t receive the car tax refund I’m owed?

If you don’t receive a refund, you’re able to contact the DVLA if eight weeks have passed from the date of cancellation. There are various ways to get in touch with the DVLA.

By email
Send a message through this web address: contact.dvla.gov.uk/vehicle/capture-transaction-type

It’s not an email address as such, but it serves the same purpose. Start on this page and answer various questions for your query to be raised with the right people at the DVLA.

By phone
Call 0300 790 6802.

By post
Write to:
Vehicle Customer Services
DVLA
Swansea
SA99 1AR

Cancelling car tax FAQs

Will my car tax automatically cancel when I sell my car?
It will be cancelled automatically so long as you inform the DVLA that you have sold your car. The refund won’t happen if the DVLA doesn’t know that the car now belongs to someone else and taxing it has become their responsibility.

How do I cancel my Direct Debit for car tax?
The DVLA will take care of this for you, provided they know about the sale. If you pay monthly you won’t receive a refund for a part-month, but you should get your money back for any full months remaining on your car’s tax.

How to cancel car tax without V5C?
You should make an effort to keep the V5C safe, as this logbook is proof that you are the registered keeper of the car. It also has a code which you need to give to the DVLA to process a refund. If you don’t have the V5C handy, you can use the code on the V11 car tax reminder form. If you have misplaced both forms, obtain a replacement V5C before you sell your car and/or request a car tax refund. This costs £25.

How long does a car tax refund take?
The DVLA advises that road tax refunds should come through within six weeks of being applied for, though many people receive their cheque sooner than this.

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