A taxing issue
There’s nothing like a new tax to get your attention. Since the DVLA announced that it was going to introduce vehicle excise duty (VED) rates to cars bought from this April onwards, a massive rush has taken place for people to buy their cars before the deadline. As a result, March was the best month in the UK for new cars to be registered in the UK - the number was up 8.4% on the same month last year, with 562,337 shiny cars going to new homes.
So is it that much of a deal if you missed the deadline? Well, that depends on what kind of car you’d be getting. One of the attractions of all those low emission cars that people have been snapping up in recent years has been the low – and sometimes non-existent - road tax. But if you buy the same car now, you won’t have the same bonus for being green. That’s because from now on, new cars – whether they are super low emission petrols or diesels - will pay the same standard fee of £140 a year.
The only cars that won’t have to pay the vehicle excise duty are zero emission cars, ie, electric and hydrogen vehicles. I’m happy about that of course, but I’m a little stumped about why there isn’t a variation between the tax that a low emission petrol car pays and a diesel…
I’m guessing that new cars are getting so much better at reducing emissions that soon road tax would become a thing of the past - this new tax means we’ll keep pumping money into the road system forever more. Apparently the VED income will be spent on motor related expenditure – hope they fix the pot holes down my street!
Oh, and for new cars that cost over £40,000 there will be a ‘premium’ levy, which means that owners will need to pay an extra £310 a year on top of the standard £140 for five years. Guess if you can afford a car for that cost then…
Before you start panicking about how your road tax might change, remember that if your car was registered before this April then there’s no change to the road tax you pay.
So is it that much of a deal if you missed the deadline? Well, that depends on what kind of car you’d be getting. One of the attractions of all those low emission cars that people have been snapping up in recent years has been the low – and sometimes non-existent - road tax. But if you buy the same car now, you won’t have the same bonus for being green. That’s because from now on, new cars – whether they are super low emission petrols or diesels - will pay the same standard fee of £140 a year.
The only cars that won’t have to pay the vehicle excise duty are zero emission cars, ie, electric and hydrogen vehicles. I’m happy about that of course, but I’m a little stumped about why there isn’t a variation between the tax that a low emission petrol car pays and a diesel…
I’m guessing that new cars are getting so much better at reducing emissions that soon road tax would become a thing of the past - this new tax means we’ll keep pumping money into the road system forever more. Apparently the VED income will be spent on motor related expenditure – hope they fix the pot holes down my street!
Oh, and for new cars that cost over £40,000 there will be a ‘premium’ levy, which means that owners will need to pay an extra £310 a year on top of the standard £140 for five years. Guess if you can afford a car for that cost then…
Before you start panicking about how your road tax might change, remember that if your car was registered before this April then there’s no change to the road tax you pay.
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