Road Tax Robbery

PasturesNew

I didn't know there was an increase, I phoned it through and paid by debit card yesterday afternoon. Mine was £155 for 12 months, or £85 for 6 months, so I did the usual 12 months.

foxy-stoat

planenut wrote: »

Yup, sure do.

Multiply that with all those who don't moan like me, and I suspect that is a lot of cash to the coffers.

Rounding it up they get around £6,000,000,000 from total VED a year - the 10er extra you and everyone else that will pay it is fairly small in the scheme of things.

In the scheme of running a car its pretty small beer (excluding repairs/servicing);

For me I do 15,000 miles a year.
Insurance £400 / 15,000 = £0.267 per mile
VED £125 / 15,000 = £0.00833 per mile
MOT £40 / 15,000 = £0.002666 per mile
Diesel £1800 /15,000 = £0.12 per mile

Move on and try and drive more economically.

System

planenut wrote: »

Yup, sure do.

Multiply that with all those who don't moan like me, and I suspect that is a lot of cash to the coffers.

Should've taxed your car from 1st March then shouldn't you? Only yourself to blame.


And if you think road tax is robbery may I suggest you go to France and take a journey through the country using their main motorway network? The amount you'll pay in tolls in a single journey will make UK road tax look like the bargain of the century.

AdrianC

...or even from 1st April, but just not left it until 1st April to do so.

parking_question_chap

I think the whole tax banding is wrong. Should be done on the either the weight of the vehicle or as a proportion of its current value.


Income tax is relative to salary
Stamp duty is relative to property value
Why not vehicle tax?

foxy-stoat

Emissions is the "fairest" way to tax people.

We all pay it with fuel duty and IPT anyway.

Herzlos

I asked my MP about passing it all onto fuel as the fairest method - drive an old, badly maintained car too fast and you're paying the most. It was shot down because haulage, apparently

foxy-stoat wrote: »

Move on and try and drive more economically.

That's the only real answer when the cost of motoring is involved. Road tax is, for most people, irrelevant.


It sucks when you're paying £495/year on a car worth the same and doing almost no mileage, but it's a rounding error for almost everyone else. Unfortunately, it's probably the worst off hit the worst by it, as usual.


I'm £30/year in tax over 15k miles, or 0.2p/mile.

AdrianC

Herzlos wrote: »

I asked my MP about passing it all onto fuel as the fairest method - drive an old, badly maintained car too fast and you're paying the most. It was shot down because haulage, apparently

Don't forget that there already IS tax - 59p/litre + vat - on fuel.


If VED was moved to fuel alone, then the break-even would be somewhere around 12p/litre.

System

Herzlos wrote: »

I asked my MP about passing it all onto fuel as the fairest method - drive an old, badly maintained car too fast and you're paying the most. It was shot down because haulage, apparently

The vast majority of haulage companies don't run badly maintained old vehicles. They have mandatory safety inspections usually every 6 weeks for a start and most are leased and no more than 5/6 years old. They are also subject to random roadside VOSA vehicle checkpoints so any truck on any day of the week can be pulled into one when in the near vicinity.

Haulage already pays through the nose for road usage via VED, a daily levy and fuel duty and if the price goes up so does the cost of transporting goods and therefore the price on the shelves so its up to you if you want to argue that trucks should be paying £10k a year.

Herzlos

I'm not saying haulage was a good reason, just the one my disgrace of an MP provided.


I do understand that adding 12p/l in fuel will hurt those doing huge mileages more than those doing small mileages, but they are the ones that are using the most road and producing the most emissions. Getting a courier to take the van with 1mpg better fuel economy is going to have more impact than getting a 80 year old to get a car with cheaper tax.