The Government plans to scrap road tax exemption for cars emitting less than 100g/km of CO2 as part of a major shake-up.
So say senior motor industry figures, who predict the move could hit private drivers in 2016, to follow 2015’s company car tax changes.
Westminster aims to meet strict EU targets to cut average new car CO2 from last year’s 138.1g/km level to 95g/km by 2020. But the Treasury needs to slash the road tax exemption band to maintain revenue. Industry insiders suggest only cars emitting 85g/km and below would be exempt in 2016 – excluding Ford’s new 87g/km Fiesta ECOnetic – and that this will be cut annually to 2020.
“The recent Budget signalled the need for restructuring VED,” said Ford’s government affairs manager Christophe Clarke. “In 2016, the diesel supplement on company car tax will be removed; this could indicate a timeframe.”
Paul Everitt, from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), agreed a shake-up was likely. “The better we perform at hitting CO2 targets, the less tax the Government will receive,” he said. But he expects “three years’ notice on road tax changes”, so plans for 2016 would have to be announced in next year’s Budget.
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Just a new way to make almost every car that has tried hard to get under 100g/km... not free anymore
Yay thanks MPs.
they say they need 2 rise road tax for green reasons but all it is as we buying lower co2 cars there is less money going into the goverment pot from road tax. there doing the same with fuel as cars uses less as they getting more effishant but all it is the goveverment ripping the driver off as usesl to pay 4 things not in the uk like help china with trees it should be on uk roads.
I've just received an email from Renault's local dealer to tell me that the Zoe with zero emissions and no need of fuel will be available from 2013. Personally, I can't wait!
If successive governments treat motorists as a soft touch and keep changing the rules, something's got to give. Lower emissions also seem to mean more mpg, so just when you think you're ahead of the game....you're not.
I've just renewed my mvl which was £30 and I'm determined to use my car as little as possible and seek out the cheapest fuel when I need it.
I'll suffer this as long as is necessary, but have no qualms about seeking a car which costs little, or nothing in annual fuel and mvl costs.
We may all be in this together.... but it seems that some of us are paying a disproportionate amount to get us out of the mess which was not really our fault.
Just to be clear, it's car tax or Vehicle Excise Duty which is a tax on emissions or engine size not on using roads. 'Road tax' ceased to exist in 1937.
People don't seem to get the fact the fuel (as a depleting resource) is never going to get cheaper. Tax on fuel is never going to go down because it's a pollutant and bit of a bad habit (think of it a bit like smoking). Tax on emissions will therefore never go down, and surely it's right that the goal-posts move to encourage motor manufacturers to step up the role they play in reducing emissions from vehicles. So driving less isn't really going to be a successful vendetta against the government - rather see it as benefiting all of us - less congestion, fewer emissions, better lives. Plus, if you drive less and walk or cycle more - you'll be contributing to a healthier society, which will save us all money in the long run with fewer taxes having to be levied against us all to prop up the NHS.
I will not think of what is both an essential part of my life and my main hobby as "a bit like smoking". I'm not sure how increasing the emissions TAX will give me a better life.
Once the manufatures get the cars below 100 the government decide to really lower the threshold we'll all be on bikes soon enough,even then we'll be taxed !
As the government will be taxing humans for emitting too much CO2 once they finally kill the economy and no-one can afford to drive.
This is to be expected, after all how is the government going to be funded. Will the roads be improved? Not a bit of it. Will transport be improved? Of course not. The motorist is just a cash cow for politicians - that's why they love these so-called Green scams.
@wingman
It's to give everyone a better life. See: External costs of motor transport.
Thousands of people in the UK, die every year as a direct or indirect result of motor-vehicle use, including: Air-pollution; noise pollution; people run-down on pavements; diseases of inactivity [through being frightened to walk or cycle]. The list is long.
@Bristolbluemanc,
Please do tell me if beer tax pays for more and better pubs?
I drive a car in the highest tax band (my choice admittedly) and pay £475 pa. However, I only ever cover a max of 7,000 miles pa. I cycle to and from work twice/three times a week and use public transport as often as I can. So, try telling me I'm polluting Co2 when my car is at home on the drive?!? I'm not. Too many drivers are buying cars emitting low levels of Co2 and doing thousands and thousands of miles each year. In doing so they are generating far more Co2 than me, yet, I'm doing what I can to reduce car use, but still being made to subsidise others.... The whole system needs overhauling..... Increasing duty on fuel and scrapping road tax is the only way to level the playing fields.
Scolesy
With more and more cars getting into the very low tax bands, the governments income from VED has been severely hit. They *have* to keep moving the goal posts in order to maintain revenue and encourage ever more efficient motoring.
I don't expect a major shake-up though. Just charging £20-30 quid per year for 85-100g/km and rippling upwards from there will probably be enough for a few years. Expect band M cars to creep towards £1000 mind. Rhetorical question: Why do you think they're asking the DVLA to introduce monthly direct debit? ;)
The barmy EU emission tests make cars with technologies like Stop-Start and soft hybrid appear much more economical and green than subsequently found in practice. Many of these technologies are switchable so that a great test result is obtainable, but the owner can then switch off the Eco mode (but still enjoy a lower VED) and enjoy spewing out loads of CO2 in sporty mode. Where switchable modes are built into a car, the test protocol should give results for all driving modes and VED levied on the worst case situation. It was predictable that as cars are apparently becoming cleaner, politicians would seek to change targets to protect their tax income.
It costs the DVLA money to maintain a car register. If someone wants to run a car, they should at least pay the costs involved. Why should the rest of us (all tax payers, not just motorists} subsidise them?
If the Government really is serious about encouraging people to be more economical, it's time that VED was scrapped altogether and the duty added to petrol & diesel (using a realistic break-even point of say 10,000 miles pa), so that those who use the roads most, and those who use the most fuel in the most polluting vehicles, actually pay for privilege.
I do around 10k miles a year in a car that averages 30mpg, so I know I'll pay more than someone in a car that does 50 or 60mpg, but that's my choice. It would however encourage me to drive more economically if I wanted to save money.
At a stroke, it would put a stop to the millions of Pounds lost by government thanks to the ridiculous number of untaxed vehicles on the roads - a situation that according to their own statistics is rapidly getting worse. Collection of tax would be automatic - on the fuel.
Ah, it won't ever happen of course, because it would mean the loss of jobs at the DVLA!
VED takes in about £5.7b per year. That works out at about £170 per vehicle. Put that against fuel costs and most will be about the same, some worse off, some better off. You'd lose the yearly requirement to have insurance and MOT status checked and for what?
Current VED compliance is about 99.1% according to the DVLA. The missing 0.9% costs taxpayers about £46m per year, i.e. not much.
... the government completely misses the point.
It isn't grams per kilometre (g/km) that matters, it's GRAMS.
And the number of grams of CO2 (and other pollutants) emitted comes down to one, and only one, factor - HOW MUCH FUEL YOU USE!
It's simple, basic science. The CO2 (carbon dioxide) that a vehicle emits can only possibly come from the carbon in the fuel.
Scrap VED completely. Put the tax wholly onto fuel.
You'd also save the cost of collecting VED and the amount evaded.
These morons in government - and also the 'Green' fascist loonies, many of whom have posted here - should realise that many people have to rely on cars to get to work. Millions of people have NO CHOICE!! I have a 30 mile drive to work and I don't have any other means of getting there. Am I supposed to walk or cycle 60 miles a day? Of course not, so stop lecturing me about the health benefits of walking and the evils of driving. Infact. go and GET STUFFED! Personally I've had enough of this green nonsense that is constantly rammed down our throats every day. Duty on fuel is now so high that the government can easily afford to scrap road tax altogether. In the UK we pay among the highest duty on the planet. What more do these bastards in government want? A tax on the air we breathe?
Yesterday I drove a couple of hundred miles as part of my work. No public transport to any of the spots I went to but plenty of old railway bridges and track ripped up in the 1960s. Politicians get it wrong all the time. The trouble is transport is a difficult issue. Fuel was cheap when Ernie Marpels destroyed a branch line in Kent to allow eased construction of the Sevenoaks by-pass built by a company he had a big share in. That same line is now considered one that would carry capacity traffic today had it still been in existence. We are forced into cars. And we are also a cash cow. There is nothing any of us can do about it. Just keep the bile running in all directions.
Why are we all so surprised when Govmnt seeks to devise more sneaky ways of extracting shekels from our pockets, is this not what they have been working hard at since the car was invented. What I am wondering is how hard the ministers brains are working on a way to tax the use of domestic electricity when used to recharge otherwise ved free electric vehicles. As why is there any difference between the use of domestic heating oil to the use of domestic electricity but it is illegal to use heating fuel to run your vehicle but only as far as I can see because it is not subject to the same tax as diesel or petrol, so how long before we will have to pay for a seperate point with its own sealed meter to provide electricity at a different tariff to our domestic supply. When I suspect they have conned us into buying the same proportion of electric vehicles as they did with diesel and the initial low prices. Basically you can't win so you either put up or shut up. But I must say I agree with the usage situation as I do only 3000 miles a year but pay ved on a 6 year old 2Ltre petrol so my emissions are far less than tiny engined cars but I pay 4times the ved,It would not be viable to change vehicles as the loss of value would not come close to any potential fuel saving costs. Ah well sod it all have to get the shanks out, how much tax on walking shoes? Brian.
I think its time the government sat down and looked at how they charge us to drive there is a simpler way....
Put simply the amount you pay for fuel each year is dictated by:
the economy of your chosen car x the distance you drive
Its a simple formula even a politician could understand, just reduce the price of a VED disc to say £20, no excuse not to have one and ensures the yearly insurance and MOT checks are carried out. All the other income "milked" from motorists would be from the generous taxation of fuel. There would then be an incentive for people to buy vehicles purely on the basis of fueling them for their lifestyle.
Agree with all those who are not the least bit surprised at what is happening here. Seem to remember something similar when fleets swapped to diesel for cheaper tax. Tax for diesel shot up after a couple of years.The government relies on the tax revenue streams, and these are merely short term concessions more designed to help car maunfacturing than the man in the street. Its the same with these ludicrous Green schemes like wind farms. It only benefits the large manufacturers producing them (BTW, research about how enviormentally poisonous the process of mining materials for, and producing the large industrial magnets the turbines need)and wealthy landowners rich enough to pay for them and reap the subsidies. Its an industry that couldnt exist without enormous Tax payer funded subsidies. We can all use less water, gas, electric, but then pay even more for less as the suppliers then chase lost revenue for shareholders the next year. Its a stitch up right across the board. The truth is, although it would please the tree huggers, taxing ordinary people of the roads will kill the economy.
Does any innocent not think that the "greenest" of MVs will not be paying £200+ within a few years ? I'm guessing around the time the scientists start going on about Global COOLING again
How many politicians drive electric /hybrid cars! Not many I bet.
Don't see our government ministers being driven in this type of car as usual one law for those in power and the rest suffer.
Do you see the Royal family in fuel saving cars , I think not.
The normal family car driver in this country is being the target to earn extra taxes and the idiot greens are being used to make us feel guilty for trying to get to work and contribute to the economy. We pay very high taxes for the use of essential transport.
Why is it we, the consumer, are always hit by these rises. Surely it shouls be the manufacturer who pays the cost for not producing vehicles which come under this new ruling.