road tax

[Ministerofsillywalks]

Just had my reminder for my road tax. £59 for the year. The last time I taxed a car (1.0 litre engine) it was £20. How can the tax for something with a 330cc engine be 3 times what it is for something with an engine 3 times the size? I know road tax bands are calculated on CO2 emissions, and modern cars have low emissions technology that bikes don't, but surely a 330cc engine can't produce 3 times as much CO2 as a 1000cc engine?

My theory is that motorcycles (and scooters are classed as motorcycles) are regarded as leisure vehicles, and are taxed higher for that reason. The problem with this is scooters are not so much for leisure as transport. I think scooters should be regarded as a separate class based on their use as transport. And taxed accordingly.

[Eskam]

My 250 X-Max costs me €15.10 a year in tax. In Spain the amount of tax (ITVM) is set by the local council, so will vary from town to town.

And whoever owns the vehicle on 1st January pays the ITVM. Sales of vehicles on 2nd January are quite high, as you get 364 days "free" tax. And around here, this has to be paid by 11th May either at the office, by bank transfer or by Direct Debit. And if not, penalties are levied on the owner.

[capitano]

Just had my reminder for my road tax. £59 for the year. The last time I taxed a car (1.0 litre engine) it was £20. How can the tax for something with a 330cc engine be 3 times what it is for something with an engine 3 times the size? I know road tax bands are calculated on CO2 emissions, and modern cars have low emissions technology that bikes don't, but surely a 330cc engine can't produce 3 times as much CO2 as a 1000cc engine?

My theory is that motorcycles (and scooters are classed as motorcycles) are regarded as leisure vehicles, and are taxed higher for that reason. The problem with this is scooters are not so much for leisure as transport. I think scooters should be regarded as a separate class based on their use as transport. And taxed accordingly.

Occupancy - cars on average carry 2.6 people, motorcycles barely above 1

Subsidies/incentives - certain car groups are subsidised, some aren't and pay heavily

Cost/benefit - motorcycles aren't the revenue generator that cars are. Scooters even less as a subset. The VED has risen for motorcycles in line with inflation, whereas the cost / benefit is focussed on cars (see subsidies/benefits above)

[Ministerofsillywalks]

I didn't think of it that way. Makes sense. But on the other hand it would make sense for the government to reduce taxes on powered 2-wheelers to encourage more people to commute this way to reduce congestion. Except this would be a waste of time. Because in the view of the majority (who have never had one) motorcycles and scooters are dangerous, cold and wet etc. So they wouldn't take up powered 2-wheelers anyway.

[Andym]

It's a tax. The level is set (as is any price) by the point at which people walk away (because there is no alternative supplier in this case), riot, or vote in another way.

Anything else is just political lies. How does money taken off you reduce CO2 levels? They spend it on mostly bureaucracy, which involves activity that increases CO2 emissions, all those civil servants drive places, have warm offices etc. An honest system, where you paid the road provider, would reduce the non-productive activity and hence both cost and emissions.

Road Tax was abolished in 1937. Neville Chamberlain obviously didn't want to get caught not using the money raised on the actual roads. Vehicle Excise Duty money is just tipped into the black hole of general taxation.

The fact I doubt the level of VED will influence how anyone votes suggests to me they got the pricing something like.

Andy

[Ministerofsillywalks]

They can tax motorcyclists and scooter riders as much as they like because there aren't enough of us to have influence. And car drivers are in the majority so they do have influence.

[MrGrumpy]

Car taxes vary a lot, depending on age, and CO2 emissions. I pay something like £180 for my Suzuki Swift, so £59 for a Tmax is a bargain!

[Andym]

2016 Toyota- £35.

Another number they daren't back date, not that I'm complaining. Begs the question if they actually make any money. You'd hope costs for me paying online are minimal, but a fixed share must go to that and another slice to enforcement?

6000 DVLA staff puts a wages bill at £300M plus. 42M vehicles, so the first £7.50+ is cost, call it a tenner if they go to an office. At least it isn't a loss making tax like the 60% income tax threshold mess.

Of course, if they just abolished it and put the missing revenue onto fuel we'd all be better off as soon as the redundancies were amortised. That's another tax trick though, better to pay the 50+% they take off you slice by slice so you don't notice.

Andy

[mottza]

It's the inconsistency of road tax that gets me. Older dirty diesels get free or cheap road tax. But my ev is £195.

[Alan29]

Yes my old CRV diesel had road tax of £35. An absolute bargain compared to the NT1100 I had which was £121.