This needs support ! Drop classic car age to 20 years old

[GasheadIan]

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/cars/news/whe ... lOM8e5ebyU

Nearly at 10000 signatures which means it gets reviewed

IMG_0841.png (171.04 KiB) Viewed 617 times

[mmm-five]

Direct link to the survey...https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/654884

...and original story...https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/ca ... -exemption

Bugger, looks like I've already signed it - will have to use one of my many alter egos

[E63]

Unfortunately I do not think anything will happen.

Someone tried to do similar in 2021: https://petition.parliament.uk/petition ... 20heritage.

The proposal was to reduce the age from 40 years to 30 and this was the waffle that they replied with:

The Government considers that classic vehicles are an important part of the country’s historical and cultural heritage. According to research by the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs, in their publication The 2020 National Historic Vehicle Survey, the historic car industry employed around 34,000 people in the UK.

Recognising the important role played by historic vehicles, the Government announced at Budget 2013 that it would be extending the cut-off date from which classic vehicles are exempt from paying Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) to 1 January 2014. At Budget 2014, the Government then announced that it would introduce a rolling 40-year VED exemption, which means that currently vehicles constructed before 1 January 1981 are exempt from paying VED.

The Government set 40 years as being a fair cut-off date that distinguishes classic cars from old cars. There are no current plans to reduce the tax exemption age for classic cars from 40 years to 30 years, but as with all taxes, VED is kept under review.

[mmm-five]

I'm not necessarily asking for complete exemption...but I'd like to pay a similar amount to a more modern vehicle that has the same emissions.

Or, simply get rid totally and tax those who drive the hardest & longest, in the most guzzling vehicles...i.e. directly via fuel use.

If they want to maintain the pretence of having VED to measure vehicle numbers for road planning, etc. then have it at a nominal £10/year or something

[MikeyH]

I think there is an unofficial 20 years that some insurance companies use to offer cheaper insurance.

[Pondrew]

tax those who drive the hardest & longest, in the most guzzling vehicles...i.e. directly via fuel use.

They already do that....it's called tax on fuel. It has been huge in the UK for many many years.
The RFL is an additional tax, supposedly to help maintain the roads. Yeah OK!

As for all these 'facebook' petitions.....not a chance. Unless it will lose enough votes the politicians won't be interested, especially if it potentially loses the Country easy revenue. Someone's got to pay for the millions of scroungers' latest I-phones and takeaways.
Get it to 10,000,000 signatures then it may have a chance, albeit still a slim one.

[E63]

The entire VED system is broken. My 650i is £695 a year to tax, yet an early one on a 55 plate is £415. No logical reason for the disparity when the mechanicals are pretty much identical. I think the same applied to early Z4 M Roadsters.

When the April 2017 changes came in place, something like a Skoda Octavia VRS registered in March will pay £35 yet the same car registered a month later will be £180.

And judging by the state of the roads, even newly-resurfaced roads which are crumbling away after 2 months, where exactly is this money going?

[Mr Tidy]

Well I've signed it even though I doubt it will make any difference.

Be great if it did though as my cars will turn 18 and 19 this year!

It's at 9,486 now FWIW.

[1536Z4]

I`ve signed it too . Why not ? it doesn`t cost anything and we can all say oh it won`t make any difference but at least you can try and make a difference . If more people signed things like this rather than being negative maybe ( just maybe ) things will change .

[Pondrew]

If more people signed things like this rather than being negative maybe ( just maybe ) things will change .

Sorry but don't agree.
These 'petitions' are bloody everywhere, all thanks to social media. The more there are the less seriously they will be taken by Gov. IMO.

I bet if I was to start one on 'free food for everyone over the age of 50' on Facebook, I would get over 100,000 signatures. Easily. So it would 'have' to be discussed in Parliament (at 10pm when there are 3 MPs there and two of them are asleep, pissed). Some employee in Whitehall would then write a one page response saying 'NO'. Same goes for all the others.

I have never heard of one of these public petitions that has made a toss of difference to Gov. policy.

Of course if you could get a 'celebrity' on side....I dunno let's say Marcus Rashford, it would get through instantly. That multi-millionaire is costing a us millions in 'free school dinners' for almost every child in the Country. I know, my wife works in a primary school and almost every child now 'qualifies' for free school dinners. It's outrageous!

[buzyg]

If more people signed things like this rather than being negative maybe ( just maybe ) things will change .

Sorry but don't agree.
These 'petitions' are bloody everywhere, all thanks to social media. The more there are the less seriously they will be taken by Gov. IMO.

I bet if I was to start one on 'free food for everyone over the age of 50' on Facebook, I would get over 100,000 signatures. Easily. So it would 'have' to be discussed in Parliament (at 10pm when there are 3 MPs there and two of them are asleep, pissed). Some employee in Whitehall would then write a one page response saying 'NO'. Same goes for all the others.

I have never heard of one of these public petitions that has made a toss of difference to Gov. policy.

Of course if you could get a 'celebrity' on side....I dunno let's say Marcus Rashford, it would get through instantly. That multi-millionaire is costing a us millions in 'free school dinners' for almost every child in the Country. I know, my wife works in a primary school and almost every child now 'qualifies' for free school dinners. It's outrageous!

I disagree. A petition I and many others signed. On right to wild camp in the Dartmoor national park, has stared up plenty of discussion in parament. You need more than just signatures on a petition though. You need people actively demonstrating their views and generating national media coverage before parliament will give any thing a second thought.

[DaveP]

Absolutely zero hope of reducing road tax on such a massive number of cars on the road. The treasury would be shooting itself in the foot and needing to raise taxes from elsewhere to fill such a huge gap.

This feels like a very niche (and quite selfish) sort of view of the world, which is backed up by the small number of signatures. I own several cars in this age bracket, and wouldn't sign this.

[pvr]

I am afraid that I have completely lost faith in anything that the government or government department does. Just look at HMRC and the home skivers that we pay for, nothing that makes sense ever gets done and everything that would make no sense is done the next day.

We had other huge number petitions like not granting Tony Blair a knighthood - waste of time.

We are the worst performing country since COVID from any developed economy, so you can forget requesting anything constructive from the mammoth of lazy, woke departments

[DaveP]

We are the worst performing country since COVID from any developed economy, so you can forget requesting anything constructive from the mammoth of lazy, woke departments

I rather suspect that has less to do with COVID or "woke", and more to do with the economic suicide of Brexit. But that's wildly off-topic.

[Any1else]

So that'll be a "No" then ...

Government responded:

The Government has no plans to reduce the tax exemption age for classic cars from 40 to 20 years. While the Government keeps all taxes under review, we consider 40 years a fair cut-off date.

The Government considers that classic vehicles are an important part of the country’s historical and cultural heritage. According to research by the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs, in their publication of the 2020 National Historic Vehicle Survey, the historic car industry employs around 34,000 people in the UK.

Recognising the important role played by historic vehicles, at Budget 2014 the Government announced that it would introduce a rolling 40-year Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) exemption for classic cars. This means that currently vehicles constructed before 1 March 1984 are exempt from paying VED. The law does not specifically define a vehicle as historic or classic for registration purposes, and it is widely recognised that there are many factors other than age which influence whether a car is considered as classic. The Government has therefore set 40 years as being a fair cut-off date to distinguish classic cars from older cars.

At the end of 2023, the Drivers and Vehicle Licensing Authority reported that a total of 338,697 classic cars had registered keepers, of which 12 percent had a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) in place. Reducing the threshold from 40 to 20 years would result in significantly more vehicles being categorised as classic cars, and therefore benefiting from the exemption from VED, with a corresponding revenue impact.
The petition also referred to the costs of annual VED for a vehicle that is infrequently used. The current VED system is a tax on vehicle ownership rather than mileage, with rates based on factors including the vehicle type, engine size, date of first registration and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. However, motorists additionally pay fuel duty on the petrol or diesel which they purchase, so those who complete significant mileage in cars that run on petrol or diesel will generally pay more in fuel duty than those who drive fewer miles.

Revenue from motoring taxes helps ensure we can continue to fund the vital public services and infrastructure that people and families across the UK expect, however the Government also recognises that transport is a major cost for households and businesses. That is why at Spring Budget 2024 the Government also announced maintenance of fuel duty at its current rate for an additional 12 months by extending the temporary 5p fuel duty cut and cancelling the planned inflation increase for 2024-25. That represents a saving for drivers this year of overall around £3.1 billion and for the average car driver around £50.

While there are no current plans to reduce the tax exemption age for classic cars from 40 to 20 years, the Government keeps all taxes under review, and welcomes representations from the public on improvements to the tax system.

HM Treasury