Road Tax

tony6403

The Govt. has realised that the policy of zero or heavily reduced tax for fuel efficient vehicles has resulted in manufacturers turning out loads of cars that qualify for £30 or less annual road tax.
This has also had an impact on fuel duty receipts.
There is therefore to be a review of road tax bands to up the income from "green" motorists - proposals expected in March.
From what I have read it may be that only cars emitting less than 75g/km will be totally exempt.
I suppose it was inevitable.

chris-j

No surprise there then, govt give with 1 hand and take away with 2, always will.

UsernameAlreadyExists

Save the environment! CO2 emissions are bad! Reward the greenies!
Oh, wait ... this isn't working
Ahhh well ... at least lots of people are in "green" cars, now let's tax them anyway.

Horizon81

That'll wipe the smug grins from those bragging about free or cheap road tax (despite often paying a fortune for the car in the first place)

steve-L

Horizon81 wrote: »

That'll wipe the smug grins from those bragging about free or cheap road tax (despite often paying a fortune for the car in the first place)

It's not really the smugness but naivety of it!

Its only about 3-4 years ago the government changed the advice to local councils on traffic lights...

Previously, the advice was to make cars use as much fuel as possible in order to generate tax revenue....
This was a somewhat silent change but I'm surprised more people were not outraged that for years the government has been deliberately advising to use the maximum amount of fuel and cost consumers the maximum!

Then they increased diesel tax in response to people getting too many MPG and you could argue introduced DPF in line with EuroTAX as it once again makes them less economical (both in life and MPG)

Meanwhile they then lost revenue from haulage firms who relocated to Belgium....???? and pay Corp tax in belgium and employ less UK drivers?

Now they find an era of disposable engine high MPG cars....
(Like many appliances they are just designed to break and be replaced) ... and equally they are losing revenue again because people are buying them - so response is to now try and exploit those drivers bought the 1.2 TFSI thingies....

doesn't matter for car sales (and VAT).... they are already sold....

almillar

If it does change I wouldn't expect it to go backwards, that would certainly be unfair.

jaydeeuk1

Scrap VED in its current form for private individuals. Charge a one off fee of £20 for everyone each year, which will also cover leccy cars, after all they use the roads so they should contribute. Add 10/15p a litre to price of fuel, but allow VAT reg business to claim the 15p back. Make any foreign vehicles have to pay the £20 too (EU probably won't allow it though) if they enter country for each 12 month period

Its fairer, so someone driving 30k a year will contribute more to roads than someone driving 3k, higher MPG cars will still be rewarded, plus less cars will be scrapped, people won't have to suddenly find £200 odd quid every 6 or 12 months.

There, can of fanta later and I've just saved the UK.

Gloomendoom

almillar wrote: »

If it does change I wouldn't expect it to go backwards, that would certainly be unfair.

Well, the revenue has to average out. If there are fewer cars on the road paying the high rates, the rates at the low end of the scale will have to increase to compensate.

As has been said, it was bound to happen eventually.

Yolina

My car is currently VED and Congestion Charge exempt - I see it as a bonus, not something I would have bought the car for or be smug about It is inevitable that they will lower the threshold sooner or later, however whether they will go as low as 75g/km this time remains to be seen - it's only being discussed at the moment... It would be quite a big drop from the current threshold so my 2p worth is that they will probably lower it soon, but not by that much. If they do go as low as 75, the only current cars that would qualify are I think the Vauxhall Ampera, Prius Plug-In and anything that's 100% electric so not much really.

forgotmyname

Same as when diesel used to be cheaper. Then more people bought diesel and suddenly its not quite as green as we thought it was.

I think all these people running foreign cars need sorting though. After spending more than 30 days in the UK they should have to pay tax, UK MOT and insurance like everyone else.

If things keep up i will be shipping my car abroad. then bring it back a week later on new plates. No tax, No MOT and cheap basic insurance.

Dave_C_2

<cyclist hat on>
It's VED and not road tax

<swap for car owners hat>
Let's face it, us motorists are and always have been an easy target for the gummint tax raisers. For a lot of people the option of saying "stuff it" and not running a car is not an option, for many people the car is vital to the daily commute.

You can level the accusation of a bit and switch tactic, as in buy a green car and save money bait and the increase VED switch. Rip-off Britain at its best.

ETA:
OP do you have a link for this? A quick Google news search doesn't report any thing about increases in road tax/VED

Dave