Other Taxes
Fuel Duty, car tax, Insurance Premium Tax, Council Tax, and Stamp Duty, the taxes beyond your payslip
Income Tax and National Insurance come off your payslip, and VAT already has its own full page. This page rounds up five more taxes that most people pay without necessarily seeing it as tax at all, some built into a price, some billed separately, some only relevant the day you buy a car or a house. Council Tax and Stamp Duty get their own full pages, linked below, since there's more than fits here to explain about them.
Fuel Duty
Every litre of petrol or diesel carries Fuel Duty before a single drop of VAT is added. A temporary 5p/litre cut, first introduced in 2022, keeps the current rate at 52.95p per litre, but it's currently confirmed to run only until 31 December 2026, not indefinitely.
50 litres of petrol or diesel carries £26.47 of Fuel Duty, at 52.95p per litre, before VAT is added at all.
VAT at 20% is then charged on the whole pump price, duty included, not on the fuel alone. So part of the VAT on every fill-up is tax charged on top of another tax, not on the fuel itself.
Vehicle Excise Duty (car tax)
VED works the way most people expect for a standard petrol or diesel car, charged as a flat annual rate, with an "expensive car" supplement on anything with a list price over £40,000. Electric vehicles only hit that supplement at £50,000, a full £10,000 higher than the petrol/diesel threshold. EVs were VED-free entirely until 1 April 2025; any EV registered from that date onward is taxed like any other car. A further change is coming but isn't law yet: from 1 April 2028, a new mileage-based Electric Vehicle Excise Duty (eVED) is due to apply on top of standard VED for EVs and plug-in hybrids, at 3p a mile for EVs and 1.5p a mile for plug-in hybrids. The government confirmed these rates in its consultation response in July 2026, but the legislation itself hasn't been introduced to Parliament yet.
| Fuel type | Standard rate (year 2+) | Expensive-car threshold | Supplement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Petrol / diesel | £200 | £40,000+ | +£440/yr for 5 yrs |
| Electric | £200 | £50,000+ | +£440/yr for 5 yrs |
Insurance Premium Tax
IPT is charged on most general insurance premiums, such as home, car, pet, and travel insurance, at 12%, folded into the premium rather than itemised the way VAT is on a receipt, so it's easy to have paid it for years without noticing. A higher 20% rate applies to travel insurance specifically, and to certain insurance sold alongside mechanical or electrical appliances or some motor vehicles, the kind of add-on cover offered at a checkout, in other words.
Council Tax
Bills are set locally, so there's no single national rate the way there is for Income Tax, but the structure underneath is set nationally: valuation bands in England are still based on 1991 property values, never revalued since. See Council Tax for the full band structure, the single-person discount, and how the second-homes premium works.
Stamp Duty Land Tax
SDLT is charged on residential purchases in England and Northern Ireland, in progressive bands like Income Tax, plus a first-time buyer relief that's withdrawn entirely (not just reduced) above £500,000, and a flat 5% surcharge on second homes and buy-to-lets. See Stamp Duty Land Tax for the full bands and a calculator.
This page explains general rules for these taxes and is not personalised advice; see the disclaimer. Council Tax bills vary by local authority and property; nothing here should be read as a typical or average bill.