Taken from the BBC website this morning:
Full story here

Had anybody else heard about these "plans" ?

Just another excuse for more people to join the July fuel protest organised by the chief if you ask me. And another nail in the coffin for "New Labour."

 

They're just referring to the plans already announced in the budget to increase road tax on 2001+ vehicles from next year. Some backbench labour MP's have finally realised that it's not exactly going to be popular, especially after the 10p income tax fiasco...

 

Well I did wonder that, or whether they're thinking they can be snide - i.e trying to make up for the money they'll lose out on by postponing the duty rise on fuel later in the year, by restrospectively introducing emissions rules for vehicles prior to March 2001. I guess it's none too clear is it, but let's hope you're right.

 

I hope you are right!

 

AFAIK, they can't introduce emission based tax on the older cars as there won't be the specs from the manufacturers.

Increasing road tax on pre 2001 cars will just be because they've realised the £400 has just been blindly swallowed by the population so why not try your luck and do it to all cars. Makes a complete mockery of the justification of "pollution tax"

All these taxes are such a con. Why not just raise income tax? 3 bands - 15% 25% and 45%. That would pay for the fuel, the tax and have enough money left over to reform public services.

Sadly no government has the ***** to do it and the masses won't be able to see the bigger picture.

 

That's a good point - if they don't have the emission figures it would prob. make it very hard to do it.

Agree with the fact that taxes are a con, but rather than raising income tax they should just manage their own bloody expenses better and use the money they get to fund worthwhile recipients like the NHS, Police, Army etc. rather than wastes of public money like the Diana enquiry, the memorial fountain and the Millennium Dome and Tony and Gordon's £9k kitchens to name but a mere few!

IMHO if MP's and councils had to publish their outgoing expenses online I suspect we'd see where the money really goes along with proof that they don't need more of our money, they just need to remove the idiots who continually throw good money after bad.

 

Truth is, they're feathering their own nests. They won't make laws and taxes that cripple themselves and they're "favourite" people, they'll just keep nailing the little man................

 

And the reason they can't pre-2001 it is because the legislation didn't exist pre-2001 so how could you be penalised when your car was built before the legislation was passed?

Imagine being prosecuted for breaking a law that didn't exist when you committed the act? The law of causing death by dangerous driving can't be used to re-try an offence committed in the 1960's. . . . If you let your kid be in a passenger in a car without a booster seat back in 1992 you cannot be taken to court for it now. . . . . .

Also, pre-1992 (no cat) cars would have far higher emissions. . . . . . as would cars run with lead replacement. . . . .

 

I've said this before and I'm sure that again, it will attract the usual "well if you can't afford to run it" statements, but I just cannot see how I can be held responsible for a 7 year old car that is suddenly "evil" in the eyes of new green laws.

It's all very well giving new car buyers a choice, but for people like myself who skimped and saved for ages to afford to buy a nice (at that stage 5 year old) car, we're getting retrospectively screwed based on information we didn't know at the time of purchase. So effectively I AM getting taken for a ride based on a decision I made 2 years ago.

Not only that but it's effectively going to make a big dent in the used performance car market. But then industry doesn't seem to matter to this government. Or the public. Or anyone else except themselves

 

Are they talkiing about plans hidden in this year's budget to up the tax on pre 2001 model cars:

I looked closely at the published budget after reading the following Times article Secret tax adds £200 to cost of running family cars - Times Online and saw this: "With effect from 1 April 2010, the VED rate for cars and light goods vehicles registered before 2001 will be increased in line with indexation" - they didn't shout about this in the budget speech did they! I figured why bother with a pre-2001 car when we're all gonna get fcuked over in 2010 anyway!

 

Thanks mate - it looks like it's true then. I shall shelve my plans to switch to a classic forthwith!

 

it's only 20 quid mate............

 

How many times do we have to have the same debate?

This story is about the tax on cars registered between 2001 - 2006, which the government look like they are about to do a u-turn on.

These laws cannot realistically be applied to pre 2001 cars as they had no emmissions on their log books.

End of!

 

Well let's hope so.But nothing will suprise me about how far and low,this Goverment will go to change it,and stab the British person in the Back once again.They have been hitting us below the belt for so long now,it's second nature to them..

 

It shouldnt be based on cars registered between 2001-2006 it should be based on cars manufactured after 2006 IMO as this cripples the import cars aswell total rip-off.I mean you can get a 2005 hawkeye sti registered before the march 2006 deadline yet have an older car registered after march and get stung for effectivly the same car

 

I hope so but you just don't know where you stand with this deceptive government! Admittedly I have no idea what "increased in line with indexation" is likely to mean but it's there in black and white in 2008's budget (http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/media/...letereport.pdf - p.121): "With effect from 1 April 2010, the VED rate for cars and light goods vehicles registered before 2001 will be increased in line with indexation". We're all doomed... doomed I tell yers!

I also like the statement on p.89: "As a result in 2009 the majority of drivers will be better or no worse off". How do they come to that conclusion?

 

Paul, aren't you forgetting the "grey area" this government likes to live in.
You're telling me you reckon some boffin couldn't come up with a machine to measure emissions for older vehicles and then come up with a matching sliding scale for tax?

Laws like this could easily be applied - put simply, if the government needs more money they'll find a way. Don't you agree?

 

LOL - The Chief got a similar statement back from his local MP when writing to him regarding fuel prices. Something like "in relative terms, the motorist is no worse off than 10 years ago" - yet looking at fuel tax percentages, that statement is total bullsh*t - yet more spin from the masters of spin - aka Labour.

What gets me is that it's taken the rest of the country 10 f**king years to wake up to how sh*te Labour are. Perhaps the rest were suckered in by Blair's sh*t eating grin every time he made a speech!?

 

Quote:
"Laws like this could easily be applied - put simply, if the government needs more money they'll find a way. Don't you agree? "


Anything is possible, but people keep posting links to the same 2001-2006 story with lurid headlines concerning classics.

I don't think this government are going to push through an unpopular tax on cars that are already 8 years old and nearing the end of their lives. And as I said they can't do it on emmissions anyway, so it would be a major hassle for cars that will be off the road fairly soon.

 

True - however the story I posted did state that plans were indeed in the loop which would indeed effect classics. The Telegraph confirms this - it's not just people making stuff up - Labour had obviously been looking into it.
See here
Labour signals retreat on road tax increase - Telegraph

I quote:
Looks like they won't get away with it, but evidently the plans were there...

 

Increased in line with indexation means basically keeping in line with inflation. Any more consiparcy theories you've detected recently?


I find it unlikely pre 2001 cars will have their tax significantly raised as the higher band post 2001 as highlighted by Paul.

 

Quote:
"True - however the story I posted did state that plans were indeed in the loop which would indeed effect classics. The Telegraph confirms this - it's not just people making stuff up - Labour had obviously been looking into it."


fair enough, but that's just a misprint, further down in the story it says after 2001.

 

Well I would like to know why the aviation industry currently enjoys £9 billion tax breaks and subsidies a year and why the governement blatantly refuses to tax aviation fuel.. but that's another rant and not for this forum.

 

Aha - zis appears to be true! So in fact it's just a conspiracy by the newspapers to make us hate Labour even more than we already do then

Thanks for pointing that out - I retract my previous statement

 

According to my X-Files encylopedia it's a plot by cloned leaders (made by aliens) of governments around the world to seed the atmosphere with aviation fuel. This will kill all humans by climate change and leave a perfect habitat for the lizard aliens.