Tax News

The new VAT road fuel scale charges applicable from 1 May 2025 to 30 April 2026 have been published. The changes amend the VAT scale charges for taxing private use of road fuel to reflect changes in fuel prices.

HMRC has released new VAT fuel scale charges effective from 1 May 2025. If your business provides fuel for private use, updated rates apply from your next accounting period. Here’s what’s changed.

The new fuel scale charges must be used by companies from the start of their next prescribed accounting period beginning on or after 1 May 2025. The fuel scale rates continue to encourage the use of cars with low CO2 emissions.

The revalorisation of fuel scale charges is no longer part of the Budget process, and the tables are instead published by HMRC annually.

Where the CO2 emission figure is not a multiple of five, the figure is rounded down to the next multiple of five to determine the level of the charge. For a bi-fuel vehicle which has two CO2 emissions figures, the lower of the two figures should be used. There are special rules for cars which are too old to have a CO2 emissions figure.