How we calculate

Every rate, threshold and fee our calculators use is kept in one data file, with the source page recorded next to it. The calculations themselves are small functions with automated tests, and the worked examples on each page are produced by the same code, so the examples and the calculator can’t drift apart. Figures were last checked on 25 October 2026.

Sources we use

• Vehicle tax: GOV.UK vehicle tax rate tables.
• Company car tax: HMRC appropriate percentages and the Employment Income Manual.
• Pay-per-mile tax: the government’s eVED consultation response.
• Fines, bans and points: Sentencing Council guidelines, GOV.UK endorsement rules and the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988.
• MOT: GOV.UK, GOV.UK for HGVs and trailers and nidirect.
• Car finance redress: the FCA.
• Flight delays: the Civil Aviation Authority.
• Passports: GOV.UK passport fees.

Assumptions and limits

• Fines and bans use the starting point and range in the guideline. Real sentences move within, and sometimes outside, the range depending on the facts. The guidelines apply in England and Wales only.
• Fines use your weekly take-home pay. Courts treat £120 a week or less as £120, and assume £440 when they have no information. We follow both rules. Court costs aren’t included.
• Points count for totting up for 3 years from the offence date. 11-year endorsements are approximated from the offence date.
• Car finance estimates assume equal monthly payments and add interest at the scheme’s 3% minimum, so they are rough.
• Flight distances are great-circle distances between airport reference points, rounded to the nearest kilometre.
• Money is shown to the nearest pound unless pence matter, such as monthly Direct Debits.

When figures change

Vehicle tax and passport fees usually change in April. Company car percentages are set years ahead. We recheck every figure each April, after each Budget, and whenever a source page changes, and we update the “figures checked” date only when someone has actually rechecked them.