Used diesel cars - will tax increase?

[Deleted User]

daveyjp said:

I wouldn't worry about it, any increase will be far less than depreciation.

An increase in VED is an annual bill you have to pay
I have yet to have a bill for depreciation. Can you let me know when I will be expected to pay that please? Will it be a consideration that I intend to run the car to the ground and not sell it at the end when it becomes BER?

daveyjp

The bill for depreciation arrives when you buy a new vehicle and it is generally a much larger amount than any increase in tax over the same period.

If you don't intend to sell the depreciation is the full cost of the vehicle

ontheroad1970

But you paid for the car at the start of the curve.  What you say suggests that you pay it twice.  Which you don't.

pallyman

I think another problem could be more towns and cities following London's charges with diesels and even petol

AdrianC

pallyman said:

I think another problem could be more towns and cities following London's charges with diesels and even petol

Very unlikely.

Some cities have announced ULEZs - but none are anywhere near the scope of London's. Simply because no other cities have the same problems as London.
London's ULEZ is 15 miles by 12 miles. Birmingham's is about a mile by a mile.
London's ULEZ has more people living within it than the entire West Midlands county.

As for "and even petrol" - the London ULEZ affects petrols, too. But it's Euro4 (2005) instead of 6 (2014) for diesels - because that's the point at which each's NOx emission cap hit the same 0.08g/km as even brand spankin' new diesels...

born_again

Increasing VED on old cars is unlikely as it has not been done before. But never say never. Could scrap the historic car freebie though.
Far more likely to simply increase fuel duty on diesel/petrol by a large % as a stick to make the change to EV seem better.

Supersonos

Ray_Singh-Blue said:

Question for anyone knowledgeable about these things.

I'm looking at buying a used diesel car. The car I'm looking at will cost £30 per year to tax because it was registered before April 2017 and that means the road tax is based on CO2 emissions. (as I understand it). Bargain. 

But will this continue to be the case? Or is this likely to change as part of persuading people not to drive "legacy" combustion engine cars?

Grateful to anyone who knows, or can point me to info

Thanks

No-one can say for sure.  My personal opinion is, considering the govt have borrowed hundreds of billions this year, all taxes will increase in the coming years.  The motorist is easy to tax and easy to chase when they don't pay, so I think tax on fuel, foad fund licence etc. will all increase.

oldagetraveller1

It could be interesting to see what happens to v.e.d. after everyone is forced into all leccy cars. I'd wager it will not remain at zero for them?

DrEskimo

oldagetraveller1 said:

It could be interesting to see what happens to v.e.d. after everyone is forced into all leccy cars. I'd wager it will not remain at zero for them?

Remember that VED is an additional duty that was primarily brought it to drive CO2 emissions down. It is not ring fenced tax that only pays for infrastructure. It was simply an additional duty to promote cars with lesser CO2.

Around 3% of all taxes (income tax, NI, council tax, VAT, etc etc) goes towards transport, so that is regardless of what car you drive, or if you even drive at all.

So if they don't simply increase tax elsewhere, I imagine that a 'per mile' cost will be brought in eventually, but given that the EV market share is currently very small, I don't imagine it will happen for a good while yet...

AdrianC

DrEskimo said:

Remember that VED is an additional duty that was primarily brought it to drive CO2 emissions down. It is not ring fenced tax that only pays for infrastructure. It was simply an additional duty to promote cars with lesser CO2.

Umm, no.

It's been there since the dawn of motoring, first levied in 1909. It used to be "road tax", hypothecated to maintain and build the road network - but it changed to be a contribution to general taxation in the 1930s.

It's changed the basis on which the amount is calculated a few times over the years... Back at the start, it was based on the fiscal horsepower of a car, based on the bore of the engine and the number of cylinders. In the 1940s, it was changed briefly to be based on the engine capacity, then to a flat rate. That was split into two bands by engine size in the late 1990s, initially 1100cc split, later 1550cc - applied to all cars, not just new ones. Then all new cars from 2001 came under CO2-based banding, widened in 2006. By 2017, the average new car was £30, a figure last seen in the early 70s, so they went back to a flat rate with a £40k list price "luxury" hike, and CO2 banding for the first year. By contrast, the 40yo-to-2001 1550cc+ rate is the direct historical successor to the old one-band flat rate, and is £270/year. 2001-17 cars with no official CO2 figure (non-EU imports or low-volume) are still done at the engine-size banding.

Historic cars were exempted in the late 80s, initially defined as 25yo+, then locked to 1/1/73 manufacture date, now rolling 40yr.

So, yes, it has reflected CO2... but only very briefly. 16 years out of a 111 year history.