Fuel Duty when used on a track day

[was8v]

Just pondering out loud....

Would there be a way to escape paying fuel duty on fuel used for track days? The fuel is not used on the road so should we be paying tax for it?

If you use a couple of tanks in a track day, and do them frequently, the duty paid would add up to a lot of cash.



I suppose you could run a diesel track day car (stripped mapped 335d?) on red diesel (providing it was trailered or drained afterwards) - but would it be possible to buy some V-Power without paying the tax!?

Edited by was8v on Thursday 23 September 11:34

[davepoth]

Not really - the duty is on the fuel, not on the road use. Red diesel is a special exemption.

[Walton]

Yep - AFAIK motorcross bikes etc have to pay it.

[HVAC MATT]

I like your thinking. time to sell up, get a "sport" oil burner and then sweet talk my brother inlaw in o selling me some of his red stuff

[edb49]

What fuel do light aircraft use, they must have normal reciprocating engines so is it petrol?

[MrFlibbles]

edb49 said:

What fuel do light aircraft use, they must have normal reciprocating engines so is it petrol?

AVGAS i think.

ETA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avgas

Edited by MrFlibbles on Thursday 23 September 20:57

[was8v]

HVAC MATT said:

I like your thinking. time to sell up, get a "sport" oil burner and then sweet talk my brother inlaw in o selling me some of his red stuff

Or.... and I cannot believe I'm going to suggest this... people do VAG 1.8T swaps into elises, why not a VAG TDI?! I suppose all that torque and such a light car would not go down well, plus 50kg heavier engine. The fuel savings from using Veg oil would have to be big to warrant the trade off...

[jon-]

was8v said:

why not a VAG TDI?!

[jonesy000]

Can't use bio-diesel in the new PD tdi's

[HellDiver]

jonesy000 said:

Can't use bio-diesel in the new PD tdi's

You can't use it in the old ones either. Nor in the Commonrail TDI.

The old pre-PD are the only TDI engines that work properly on bio.

[robg2]

davepoth said:

Not really - the duty is on the fuel, not on the road use. Red diesel is a special exemption.

I'm not absolutely convinced by that. Fuel Duty applies to fuel used for road use, and I think there probably is a case to not pay it (or in fact claim it back) when you can categorically prove that you are buying fuel but not using it on the road.
Track day use would be categorised the same way as motorsport, so someone here will surely know what duty is payable there.

As claiming it back even in valid circumstances would no doubt be difficult, it should be fair to not pay it in the first place - ie use red diesel.

We'll have to post in one of the other areas of PH where tax specialists are likely to be lingering.

[jleroux]

robg2 said:

davepoth said:

Not really - the duty is on the fuel, not on the road use. Red diesel is a special exemption.

I'm not absolutely convinced by that. Fuel Duty applies to fuel used for road use, and I think there probably is a case to not pay it (or in fact claim it back) when you can categorically prove that you are buying fuel but not using it on the road.
Track day use would be categorised the same way as motorsport, so someone here will surely know what duty is payable there.

As claiming it back even in valid circumstances would no doubt be difficult, it should be fair to not pay it in the first place - ie use red diesel.

We'll have to post in one of the other areas of PH where tax specialists are likely to be lingering.

Categorically and 100% cannot be done. I've been round the houses with HMRC on this (we spend £50K a year on unleaded for non-road-legal track cars). There is no provision in place to buy duty-free unleaded in the UK.

Jonny
BaT

[Elderly]

The only vehicles that can use Red Diesel legally are those used ‘solely for agriculture, horticulture and forestry’.

But in any case Red Diesel is not that cheap in small quantities, it's only if you have it delivered
in a bulk quantity to your farm oil tank that it becomes viable.

[emicen]

Red diesel doesnt work at all well in modern diesel engines, will nearly always throw a CEL.

[deeen]

Do the F1 teams pay duty on their racing fuel?

[edb49]

deeen said:

Do the F1 teams pay duty on their racing fuel?

Well, most of the time they're in other countries..

[Neal 182]

what you need is one of these http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRZaRDxOF4s from 3 minuets