tax exempt vehicles

[madal]

this is a debate from a site i use,. were there the members are saying why should you not have to pay road tax just because your car is old
what are your thoughts about this
1..do you think that all should pay tax
2...or do you think these cars should get away with not paying

and keep it calm as we don't want this locked by the 1st page ..lol
al

[Meoricin]

1. All DO pay tax, nobody pays 'road tax'.
2. Nothing wrong with classic cars being tax exempt imo. Especially in the modern day where VED is affected by environmental bullst - the older your car is, the better - it means you haven't wasted resources changing cars repeatedly, throwing away the last ones. (Flawed, obviously, as most classic car owners haven't owned them as sole cars since new - but it works in theory).

[vixen1700]

It's always nice walking into a Post Office and getting a yearly tax disc without having to get your wallet out.

[Westy Pre-Lit]

vixen1700 said:

It's always nice walking into a Post Office and getting a yearly tax disc without having to get your wallet out.

Do mine on line and a nice shiny disk comes through the post with 'Nil Payment' printed on it a few days later.

The car hardly gets used any way and is a nice perk.

Knowing that you can bellow loads of smoke for free and pee off the Greenies gives a nice warm glow.

Edited by Westy Pre-Lit on Thursday 25th August 11:49

[R500POP]

I love the idea of free RFL, but then I would.

[Ozzie Osmond]

Since old cars are the most polluting I can't believe that pre-1973 cars will stay tax exempt for ever.

Similarly it's hard to believe the cheaper rates for pre-2001 cars will continue indefinitely.

[Negative Creep]

Ive no doubt the current bands will change once too many people by hybrids or low emissions cars as well (what's the bet they "discover" some other gas that will make us die from climate change so have to tax based on that?)

Tax free cars make up a tiny percentage of vehicles on the road and virtually none of them will be daily drivers or do high milage. I guess you could also argue it encourages people to keep them on the road in the first place

[vixen1700]

Ozzie Osmond said:

Since old cars are the most polluting I can't believe that pre-1973 cars will stay tax exempt for ever.

How many pre'73 do you see on the road in an average week though? So hardly the most polluting due to the such small numbers.

[230TE]

Ozzie Osmond said:

Since old cars are the most polluting I can't believe that pre-1973 cars will stay tax exempt for ever.

Similarly it's hard to believe the cheaper rates for pre-2001 cars will continue indefinitely.

What pollutes more - a Morris Minor doing 1500 miles a year, or a sales rep's Mondeo doing 20,000?

Having said which I sometimes think it would have been better if the tax exemption had never been introduced. A lot of savable pre-1973 Land Rovers, Minis, Triumphs etc have been robbed of their identities and crushed, just so that dishonest folk can get tax exemption on vehicles built after 31/12/72. It's a big problem for any vehicle whose production spans the cut-off date.

[untakenname]

I don't see why the cut off date is set at 1973, surely it should be rolling in line with the current date? Its been 1973 since the late 90's

[btsidi]

Ozzie Osmond said:

Similarly it's hard to believe the cheaper rates for pre-2001 cars will continue indefinitely.

Do they have the number of carbons recorded for older cars?

[vixen1700]

untakenname said:

I don't see why the cut off date is set at 1973, surely it should be rolling in line with the current date? Its been 1973 since the late 90's

There's an online petition to make it a rolling date, details on this thread:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[Ozzie Osmond]

btsidi said:

Ozzie Osmond said:

Similarly it's hard to believe the cheaper rates for pre-2001 cars will continue indefinitely.

Do they have the number of carbons recorded for older cars?

No, but they can just ramp the price regardless if they want to I guess.

[J4CKO]

It is fantastic getting free roadtax, downside for me is having to ever drive our Fiat 500, honestly there arent many pre 73 cars you could run as a daily nowadays without going mental.

[r11co]

untakenname said:

I don't see why the cut off date is set at 1973, surely it should be rolling in line with the current date? Its been 1973 since the late 90's

It used to be for cars over 25 years old, but the benefit was frozen in 1998 (a year into Tony Bliar's first stint - typical closet commies...)

[Sam_68]

J4CKO said:

It is fantastic getting free roadtax, downside for me is having to ever drive our Fiat 500, honestly there arent many pre 73 cars you could run as a daily nowadays without going mental.

Which is why the tax exemption exists, of course:

• 'Historic' vehicles are felt to make a contribution to our history and heritage.
• Very few are used as principal vehicles; most do negligible mileage and many are part of collections of ehicles, therefore to tax them at normal rates of VED would be unfair and disproportionate to the demands they place upon our road infrastructure and the environmental damage they cause, compared to modern cars doing and average of 12K miles per year, or whatever it is these days.

I don't see that the fixed 1973 cut-off date makes sense, though (and I've signed the petition asking to review this), and on the flip side I guess you could argue that a reduced rate of VED rather than complete exemption would make more sense (if we have to have VED at all, instead of relating it to use by merging it with fuel duty, that is).

[JR]

Sam_68 said:

Very few are used as principal vehicles; most do negligible mileage

Quite. RFL exemption encourages use and the govt gets money through fuel duty, VAT et al. There are about 300,000 RFL exempt vehicles or about 1% of the cars in this coutry doing less that 0.1% of the mileage.