Old car road tax exemption

[hairykrishna]

According to the directgov website cars need to be made pre-1973 to get historic tax exemption. Is it my faulty memory, or did it used to be over 25 years old? Is anything after 1973 never going to count as historic now?

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

It started as 25 years, but that was frozen, presumably in 98.

[PurelyRetro]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

It started as 25 years, but that was frozen, presumably in 98.

That sounds about right, shame there isn't more cars able to have the tax ememption though.

[mat205125]

Another Labia raping of the motorists wallet scheme.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

To be fair, it was a strange decision to introduce it in the first place.

[hairykrishna]

Never mind, another fine money saving plan of mine dead before it started. It's a bit weird that they've kept it for pre '73 isn't it? Fairly arbitrary definition of 'historic'!

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

hairykrishna said:

Never mind, another fine money saving plan of mine dead before it started. It's a bit weird that they've kept it for pre '73 isn't it? Fairly arbitrary definition of 'historic'!

Only 73 because 98 was the year it was frozen. 25 years is also arbitrary!

[BlueCello]

It was frozen by Bliar when pre-73 still was 25 years. So abut 10 years ago now.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

BlueCello said:

It was frozen by Bliar when pre-73 still was 25 years. So abut 10 years ago now.

[hairykrishna]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

Only 73 because 98 was the year it was frozen. 25 years is also arbitrary!

Of course. I wasn't having a 'aren't we hard done to now' whinge, don't worry! I would have expected them to do away with the whole thing if they were changing it at all - I don't really understand why it was introduced in the first place. I was just optimistically hoping that the loophole still existed for the mid-70's registered car I'm viewing on friday.

[Elan159]

The Tory government at the time was proposing to change the road tax system to one which charged for owning a vehicle, rather than one which charged only for vehicles being used on the road. This was supposed to tackle the problem of people using cars on the road without being taxed. There was outcry from 'the classic car fraternity' because this would mean that cars which were basically just piles of bits in someone's garage would have to be taxed, even though they wouldn't be using the roads. The suggestion was that these cars would be scrapped and classics lost for ever.

The government's solution to this was the 25year rolling exemption, which it brought in before the new tax system. The new tax system never happened, then the government changed, and annoyingly (but very reasonably, since there was now no threat to these vehicles), did away with the rolling system. They didn't abolish the tax free status for those vehicles already in that category, and they obviously considered that there wasn't enough of them to make much odds.

So I'd suggest that the pre-73 tax free staus is more of a lucky perk than a right.

IMHO

[Huff]

True.
But I remember being very irked, owning as I did then a Beetle that missed out by 5days!

[marshalla]

Problem is that car post-73(ish) cars seem to survive too well so the lost revenue would be too much for the treasury to bear (apparently).

Not sure I believe it - but that's what Lord Montagu reported in one of the classic car mags not so long ago.

[Jonny_uk]

I save the £180 being historic.................but that buys about a tank of petrol.........plus i can sleep safely at night knowing my carbon emissions are HUGE

[Pigeon]

Of course if they were genuinely serious about saving the environment they would bring back the rolling exemption and make the qualifying age more like 15 years...

[forsure]

I think it's the case that if you have a car that was registered in '73, but can prove it was manufactured in '72 - it qualifies.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

Pigeon said:

Of course if they were genuinely serious about saving the environment they would bring back the rolling exemption and make the qualifying age more like 15 years...

I disagree. Older cars would pay more.

[mat205125]

forsure said:

I think it's the case that if you have a car that was registered in '73, but can prove it was manufactured in '72 - it qualifies.

Correct.

Shame Huff and his beetle didn't know

[ZaphodBeeblebrox]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

Pigeon said:

Of course if they were genuinely serious about saving the environment they would bring back the rolling exemption and make the qualifying age more like 15 years...

I disagree. Older cars would pay more.

Why? there is no green way to justfiy this, maintaining and keeping an older car on the road far 'greener' than buying a new one. So those who keep an older car maintaned should be rewarded. Even the Green party are on the side of the older car owner on this one. Anything that comes from brown and co is just ill thought out nonsence aimed at raising revenue to prop thier nanny state up.

Stewart

[wombat172a]

forsure said:

I think it's the case that if you have a car that was registered in '73, but can prove it was manufactured in '72 - it qualifies.

Yep, my land rover was built in '72 but was registered in '80