You may want to tax your car early if you’ve bought a new car, if you’re planning to be out of the country for a while, or if you simply want to get a bit of life admin out of the way. But how early can you do this and for how long in advance? Let’s take a look.
How many days early can you tax a car?
This depends on how you want to apply to tax your car. There are 2 options:
Online – If your car tax is due to run out at the end of the month, you can apply online to tax it from the 5th of the month. For example, if your vehicle tax is set to run out on the 28th of February, you can tax is online from the 5th of February.
Post – You can tax your vehicle up to 2 months before it expires if you do this by post. So, if your vehicle tax is due to run out on the 31st of December, you could tax it by post from the 1st of November. You can send your documents to DVLA, Swansea, SA99 1DZ.
It’s important to note that you’ll need different documents depending on you choose to tax your car. For applying online, you’ll need your V5C vehicle registration certificate and your vehicle registration number. For post, you’ll need your V5C certificate, a letter explaining why you’re applying in advance, a valid MOT certificate, an application for vehicle tax form (V10) and payment enclosed (cheque, bank transfer or postal order are accepted).
If I tax my car on the last day of the month will I lose a month?
Yes, you will have to start paying tax from the start of the month, despite registering it at the end of the month. For example, if I registered my car on June 30th, I would have to pay from June 1st. It would thus be best to wait until the 1st of July to avoid overpaying.
You may want to tax your car early if you’ve bought a new car, if you’re planning to be out of the country for a while, or if you simply want to get a bit of life admin out of the way. But how early can you do this and for how long in advance? Let’s take a look.
How many days early can you tax a car?
This depends on how you want to apply to tax your car. There are 2 options:
It’s important to note that you’ll need different documents depending on you choose to tax your car. For applying online, you’ll need your V5C vehicle registration certificate and your vehicle registration number. For post, you’ll need your V5C certificate, a letter explaining why you’re applying in advance, a valid MOT certificate, an application for vehicle tax form (V10) and payment enclosed (cheque, bank transfer or postal order are accepted).
If I tax my car on the last day of the month will I lose a month?
Yes, you will have to start paying tax from the start of the month, despite registering it at the end of the month. For example, if I registered my car on June 30th, I would have to pay from June 1st. It would thus be best to wait until the 1st of July to avoid overpaying.