Historic Car Tax - Government response to e-petition...

[Guinney1971]

Well, here ya go guys and gals...........like this isnt a total suprise anyway.... :roll:

Historiccartax - epetition reply21 June 2007

We received a petition asking:

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to change the tax exemption laws for historic motor cars."

Details of Petition:

"Currently cars have to have been constructed before a set date - the 1st January 1973 to be eligible for historic car tax exemption. We the undersigned would like the date to be move as it has been fixed for a number of years. A number of cars which were built in British factories are becoming few and far between and would like the Government to help preserve these cars by offering and extension on the current exemption date."

Their response:
The Government is committed to using Vehicle Excise Duty as a means of bringing environmental factors into consideration when people choose to take ownership of a car. Vehicle Excise Duty also helps to support the Government's wider policy objectives by providing a valuable source of revenue from which important public services may be funded.

The Government recognises that many historic car owners would have been disappointed when the 1998 Budget decision was made to freeze the rolling 25 year exemption at 1973. However, the Government continues to judge that in the light of its environmental focus for Vehicle Excise Duty it would be inappropriate to extend the exemption at this point in time.

It should be noted that the current exemption remains in force, currently benefiting some 307,407 vehicles, many of which will be maintained in careful preservation by their owners. The exemption applies equally to all historic cars built before January 1973 irrespective of their country of manufacture.

Some other types of historic vehicle are also exempt from payment of Vehicle Excise Duty. This Government decided to make all steam powered vehicles exempt from April 2001, benefiting vehicles like preserved steam powered road rollers and traction engines. Historic lorries built before 1973 are also exempt, provided that they are not used commercially.

The Government believes that it has got the balance right in the current exemptions it offers. In considering the case for further exemptions or changes to existing ones the Government has to consider the stability of its tax measures, the consistency of its environmental signal, and the costs of delivery - these would include initial implementation costs and ongoing administrative costs.

What a load of old cr@p!!! What the hell is taxing beleagured "motorists" who mostly use classic cars for pleasure and do bugger all mileage, gonna do to save the planet exactly? Green taxes my ar$e! :evil:

Looks like we're gonna have to keep coughing up for a few more years.... :roll:

[MikeH]

yea i got that too, i agree with you, for th emost part classics churn out less emissions per year than any other car based on the fact there not usually daily drivers etc. Someone should actually write that to the pm

[Guinney1971]

MikeH Wrote:yea i got that too, i agree with you, for th emost part classics churn out less emissions per year than any other car based on the fact there not usually daily drivers etc. Someone should actually write that to the pm

ah, but if they change the rules on historic car tax, it means they'll have to find another way of squeezing the money out of us to pay for the olympics......... (had to laugh, one of my workmates said that the new olympic logo looks like Lisa Simpson doing a Monica Lewinski..... :lol: )

[Chris Williams]

mmmmm :evil:
Just got that myself thru the e mail, The goverment (and I dont care which one because they would all do it) using 'enviromental' reasons to justify new taxation. Just like they have been doing on all aspects of motoring and aviation. Your taxed to death for your one annual holiday to the sun, because its bad for the 'enviroment'. However day after day I say giant 747's landing carrying just one arab sheik and his couple of wifes around the world. How bad for the enviroment is that, that they need a plane cabable of carrying 500 people all to themselves! Can they not at least fly first class on a normal airline and help protect the 'enviroment' that we are all supposed to care about so much.

Apologies daily rant over with.

Chris.

[Chris Hawes]

Yet again the DeLorean is 'out of place'. What other classics can you think of, are 'classics' once you get past 1980 (apart from the Audi Quattro)? Why should a smokey old 1981 Datsun sudden get free tax merely by surviving. Actually I have changed my mind, if there are any smokey old Datsun's surviving they deserve free tax

Okay, the DeLorean still costs us £175 a year but if you have a large engineed car post 2001 it will cost over £200 per year.

[MikeH]

its the fact that it used to be free

[Guinney1971]

post 2001 cars, its not so much the engine size, but the CO2 emissions g/km that they pollute. I've heard that the Mazda RX-8, although it has a relatively small engine (1.3 Rotary is it?), has a very high CO2 output.

My boss has been on a buying spree today, and has bought (amongst others) a Merc CLK280 (3.0 Petrol Auto) Convertible. I pointed out to him that as it is under a year old, and has a figure of 227g/km it falls into the higher band G and will cost its new owner £300 to tax (£400 next year ). His response? Someone paying £34k for it is not gonna worry about road tax at less then £1 per day. Nuff said. We've also picked up £40k's worth of 6mth old CLS320CDi (3.2 Diesel), but that is "only" 202g/km, so will cost its new owner £205 this year.

I agree with Chris W tho about these 2 faced politicians and VIP's, etc, who dont think twice about jumping on a plane and swanning off round the world, its just a shame we have to pay for it through our taxes.

Remember all the predictions that 2007 would be the hottest on record? hah! what about all that rain we've had since May? (and I bet you'll still have a hosepipe ban down south!) Sorry, but I think that global warming caused by CO2 is wrong - the planet has been heating and cooling regularly for millenia, its only in recent years that we've noticed it - i bet, in 20odd years time, when the planet is naturally cooling again, they'll be blaming all the 'environmental measures' being carried out now as the cause! :wink: Cows chuck out more CO2 then the human race, so shall we tax those or ban them? :roll: Rant over

[Aaron]

This god damn gov't makes me so ANGRY!!! :x

They are simply using "global warming" [which is just a way of saying that we're coming out of an ice age!] To grab as much money from the taxpayer.

And they use this money to crate olympic logo's that need a f**king health warning [for people who share my condition - epilepsy]

Throwing money at natural climate change CANNOT make it stop! As soon as those idiots in no.10 figure it out, we can sort out the real problems.

[TheJoyofSix]

Time for a new petition methinks -

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to sod off and leave us alone. Oh, can he take his sponging, freeloading wife with him?'

[Chris Williams]

What I can not seem to find out/work out is what and where all these "green" taxes are being spent on used for???? no great forestry schemes that I am aware of. . And whilst I am in a ranting mode :roll:
there is a certain supermarket that shall remain nameless (but its the posh one) who claims to only sell produce produced locally. Well thats great..... They buy sprouts from the east of the country to sell in the east of the country. Fine all well and good, what they fail to mention is that these sprouts/cauli whatever are loaded on a cargo plane everynight at Stanstead, flown to Poland for cleaning and processing and then flown back the next day!!!!! Mad or what
Must stop ranting now
Chris

[NickT]

I notice in the wordings that the tax is used to fund other things apart from a decent transport system, like helping those unfortunate people who don't want a job and like to have everything paid for them [RE: freeloading lazy gits]

"Vehicle Excise Duty also helps to support the Government's wider policy objectives by providing a valuable source of revenue from which important public services may be funded."

The co2/km over the cars lifetime is small compared to the amount of co2 used to make the car in the first place. Another thing is if the car's didn't have catalytic converters on then they could run leaner and be more fuel efficient.

I personally think that the hair brained schemes of turning the tv off instead of the 5 watts or so will save lots of electricity is a big waste of time. Converting your household lamps to energy saving ones will save more than that by a long way. I have saved mega-watts of electric in water-works, steel-works, paper-production, plant and automation just by optimising process with software and wiring in better power factor panels, soft start inverters/ drives etc and this is only being done because the energy price is soaring.

The other thing is why bother when other countries like China are building a brand new coal fired power station a week to make all of those poor quality goods that break pretty quick after transporting them halfway round the world. It's the same planet so why let other countries get away with it.

NickT.

[Rottbott]

Road tax is amazingly stupid in the first place. They split it into bands so that owners of fuel guzzling cars must pay more road tax -- why not just get rid of it and increase the duty on fuel to make up for it? Same effect, but without mucking about trying to 'guess' how fuel efficient a given car is based on engine size and such.

It would have the added benefit of being an automatic 'per mile' charge -- another thing the government wants to bring in (but in a really stupid and roundabout way -- road charging or tracking devices installed in cars).

Vote for me and I'll fix it!

[bozzzydmc]

Chris Hawes Wrote:Okay, the DeLorean still costs us £175 a year but if you have a large engineed car post 2001 it will cost over £200 per year.

£180 now as i found out this morning ... oh so that means its MOT and insurance time too...more things i love paying for

[bozzzydmc]

What ever do you mean .....


http://greatsubjects.com/2007/05/15/wor ... st-cities/

NickT Wrote:I notice in the wordings that the tax is used to fund other things apart from a decent transport system, like helping those unfortunate people who don't want a job and like to have everything paid for them [RE: freeloading lazy gits]

"Vehicle Excise Duty also helps to support the Government's wider policy objectives by providing a valuable source of revenue from which important public services may be funded."

The co2/km over the cars lifetime is small compared to the amount of co2 used to make the car in the first place. Another thing is if the car's didn't have catalytic converters on then they could run leaner and be more fuel efficient.

I personally think that the hair brained schemes of turning the tv off instead of the 5 watts or so will save lots of electricity is a big waste of time. Converting your household lamps to energy saving ones will save more than that by a long way. I have saved mega-watts of electric in water-works, steel-works, paper-production, plant and automation just by optimising process with software and wiring in better power factor panels, soft start inverters/ drives etc and this is only being done because the energy price is soaring.

The other thing is why bother when other countries like China are building a brand new coal fired power station a week to make all of those poor quality goods that break pretty quick after transporting them halfway round the world. It's the same planet so why let other countries get away with it.

NickT.

[Guinney1971]

Rottbott Wrote:Vote for me and I'll fix it!

Viva El Presidente!!!!!!!!!!!!!!