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Road tax rant!
Peter Everitt
✭✭✭
in Clubhouse
Just received my reminder - £270 for the year or £148.50 for 6 months. Normally I'd pay for a year but rather too many bills at once so 6 months would be better. But how can they justify a 10% premium for paying in 2 instalments?? I know it's 2 reminders and 2 discs but £27?? My pay has been static for 3 years, pension payments have tripled, utilities are going up and now this - it's a tax on paying tax and taking advantage, how can it be justified? If you have a historic vehicle the tax is free just as if you declare your vehicle as off road so their costs can't be that much....
Rant not over - just on hold.....
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Comments
Still thieving gits.
Get a more efficient car! Even mine's less than that!
I agree.
No duty on my pushy.
I can't afford a car so I cycle.
I'm tight really.
Spot the cyclist
I sometimes hear the rants of motorists shouting about the fact that "cyclists don't pay road tax".
Aside from the fact that there's no such thing any more, I DO pay the modern equivalent - on my car.
And although I can't remember how much is was, I'm damn sure it wasn't £270. Get a smaller car.
simple - and as others have said - get a more efficient car....
my BMW M Sport Tourer (2litre diesel) only costs £30 a year in VED as the CO2 emissions are very low - and it goes like shit off a shovel and is (when I take my lead boot off
) very fuel efficient
To be fair, as with the OP I don't really care if the annual amount is £20 or £20,000 it's wholly unfair to charge such a mark up for paying in two installments.
It may not be practical or realistic for Mr Everitt to get a smaller or more efficient car - we know not what his driving duties entail, what mileage he covers, how many passengers he carries nor what he may need to tow in the course of a working or non-working day.
Sussex Runner - you've got the right idea.
I wouldn't have a problem with VED if they spent it on the roads, especially all the pot-holes around this time. The trouble is it is a tax but nor a road tax just a tax.
However a smaller car would help you!
I deliberately bought a Fiesta Econetic because the car had zero tax due to its super low emissions. However, I needed it in a van form for work. Even though it's identical apart from no back windows or seats, I have to pay something like £250 tax because it's a van.
Thieving gits? I don't think so. Central functions need to be paid for by a civilised society. All we are discussing is the relative fairness of the distribution of the tax bill. Many of the above comments are broadly in agreement, even the opening post was to some degree. Road fund licence/car tax/vehicle exise duty is priced on a sliding scale to promote the use of fuel efficient vehicles and ultimately to dissuade the over-use of inefficient vehicles. It is not out to banish motor enthusiasts or to kill the motor industry. It is a very complicated mechanism of adding tax to fuel used in vehicles.
That leads us neatly on to the biggest question.
Why don't we abolish VED and put the equivalent duty directly onto fuel? Before you throw up your arms in horror, this has indeed been investigated. The total tax rasied by VED divided into the total quantity of road fuel sold in the UK works out at a mere 4p per litre. The price has changed by that much this week without anyone batting an eyelid.
Advantages:
-You can use your big engined weekend car if you want to, but will be incentivised to minimise the mileage.
-You can make a difference to your bills by driving economically
-The tax is really simple to collect
-All foreign visitors and truckers will pay their share.
-we can dismantle the costly bureaucracy related to VED collection and tax disk displaying. After all, it is now irellevant since computerisation of the MOT and insurance systems.
-Even the caravan dwelling population would have to pay.
Disadvantages
-There is a challenge politically, as petrol prices are seen to be a sensitive issue. Blockades of the refineries nearly crippled the UK far more completely than Al Quaida did.
-er that's it?
I think this was mooted a few years back. Your mileage would be tracked so that your road tax would depend how much you use the road. not bad idea but it was deemed 'unworkable'. not to mention a bit creepy.
no. it's just a bit creepy. a bit. not a lot. like i said it wasn't a bad idea.
Blimey, that prompted a few responses! I bought my car new 10 years ago before these new emissions based tax bands occured, which should answer a few questions. But my issue is not with the tax itself, it is the excessive surcharge for daring to not be able to afford it in one go. I just think a 10% charge is unfair. There must be thousands of families out there with people carriers for all their offspring that are also caught out - I thought the government was supposed to be out there helping low income families. I'm not one of those though, just got a normal medium sized car with a petrol engine, not a fire breathing turbo monster.
i didn't say that was creepy. that sounds like it would probably work.
i'm saying someone suggested something similar (but more complicated) before which continued to collect the money through a tax but using your idea of a pay as you drive, kinda deal.
Here's a more reasonable example - I pay my TV Licence quarterly and they charge £1.25 a quarter extra for the privilege. I'd ather not have to pay any extra but at least that seems reasonable.
If you collect duty on fuel classic vehicles, and those that are VED-exempt, would be effected.
We have two vehicles, one of which is liable to VED and one which isn't. The one that is is far more efficient and economical, even with its massive engine (anything between 6MPG and 40MPG), is the one that's liable. The VED-excempt one is a '72 VW T2, which is an unaerodynamic, fuel-gobbling, 2.0 twin-carb brick on wheels.
oh yeah that's true. i drive an MG and don't pay owt.