As it may have got buried in nearly 90 posts above, I repeat the situation as I have researched it (and it is not what DVLA try to tell you), –

Road Tax. Actually the Road Fund License, but the term Tax is expedient for this explanation. This is required only for UK Registered Vehicles using UK roads. The Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 (c.22) PART III 29 says this is necessary if using a “Public Road” which PART V 62 defines as, “in England and Wales and Northern Ireland, a road which is repairable at the public expense”. In Scotland the definition is slightly different due to differing set-ups.
There is no definition of a ‘public road’ in France, Russia or the Moon.
Thus if a UK registered Vehicle is not used on a UK Public Road, Road Tax is not required. END OF MATTER!
DVLA will try to tell you, as do the DirectGov websites, you need tax while abroad - until you ask for the definitive legislation, and after having quoted the above Act to them they just mumble and quickly change the topic.

MOT. UK registered vehicles over a certain age (generally 3 years) requires an annual Certificate before it can be further used on the UK Public Roads. It is also needed to purchase Road Tax. There is an exemption in that it is permitted to use the Public Roads without a current MOT or Tax if taking the vehicle to and from a PRE-BOOKED MOT Inspection.. There is no requirement that it is booked at a Test Centre near your home, your point of entry or anywhere else – just as long as it is booked and you are reasonably on the route towards wherever you booked it for, from wherever you were. For example, returning to UK via the English Channel to the north of England – as long as the Test is booked before you get onto the roads at Dover and you are somewhere between the two (even stopping the night) you are within the Act.
With the proliferation of ANPR cameras (even now on most Police patrol cars in some areas) expect to be stopped – but if you have the details of the appointment, which they can have checked out later, you will be OK other than the bother of being suspected of being anything but a law abiding HUBBer!

Insurance. MOT is NOT generally a requirement of Insurers. Therefore not having an MOT will not mean you are uninsured. However they will look very dimly at a claim and seek to reject it, if it arose from an accident in some way due to the slightest mechanical deficiency that would have been apparent at a MOT inspection. They also ask to see the MOT following a claim, partly to try to find ways to ‘wriggle’ out of the claim and partly to confirm mileage (= value).

SORN. Here comes Catch 22! When the Road Tax of a UK registered vehicle expires (or is surrendered for refund) The Road Vehicles (Registration and Licensing) regulations 2002 state it must be declared ‘Off road’ with SORN. The Regulations continue that the vehicle must still be in the UK to be eligible to be SORNed, although it will not of course be on a Public Road. The SORN must be renewed every year unless or until Road Tax is bought or the vehicle scrapped or permanently exported.

Abroad. As above the DVLA and DirectGov websites state they want you to pay them to use roads in other countries (even if there is no local road tax for the locals to pay!) but, as above, that is not supported by The Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994.
Under the Geneva Treaties, travellers in private vehicles are entitled to use them, for visits of up to 6 months each, in other country (which have similarly signed the Treaties) temporarily without payment of local Customs Import duties and without modification to make the vehicle comply with local Construction rules - provided the vehicle fully complies with its ‘home’ Construction and Use Regulations and local Customs Duties paid in the country of registration and the registration continues. Note: Customs Duties do not include the Road Tax/ Road Fund License.
The EU, at times considering itself to be a single power, tries to introduce its own version of ‘international’ laws, even if in conflict with the Geneva Treaties which its member states have agreed individually (for example, those blue bits on number plates – the Geneva Treaties still require white oval GB/F/D/B etc plates – even if going to the neighboring country. EU has no power to overrule parts or all of the Geneva Treaties, nor has any country that signed it, including the UK – in for all of it or nothing!)





So! What to do?

You get nothing helpful from DVLA. Their interest is in getting onto the next caller, gathering penalties to offset their own costs and generally to assist Government fund raising by saying you must pay Road Tax if abroad (incorrect under the The Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994). You rarely get the same answer twice, on the phone or in writing, (see the Emails they sent to Alex & Harley above!) and never a solution. Paul Gowen of the RAC shares the frustration – and we have yet to hear of the compromise someone claimed he achieved.

The nearest to a legally perfect solution I have come up with was put to the test nearly a year and a half ago and seems to be working! A friend was taking her car out of the UK (and out of EU) for an extended period. She submitted Part 11 from page 3-4 of the V5C (all you need abroad is page 1-2) to DVLA with a covering letter stating the car was going to be abroad for an indeterminate period, travelling from country to country – never more than 6 months in each. She required the Registration to be kept current to comply with the Geneva Treaties, to which Britain had signed, and she would contact DVLA before returning to arrange an MOT (or Vehicle Inspecorate inspection of identity) and visit a local DVLA office. She never received a reply and went on her way.
A few months ago we reached the anniversary of her leaving UK. Being in UK at the time, I phoned the DVLA to enquire if they were expecting a SORN – their reply was “No, the vehicle is Exported [no mention of Permanently] and it should be re-registered at a local DVLA office, with a MOT certificate or Vehicle Inspectorate certificate immediately it returns to the UK”.


And no doubt someone else has been told you can’t do this…………!



As ever, I am open to correction.

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