No car tax payable on any car over 25 years old - why then do some pay tax?

[5129frederick]

I visited an veteran car show today in the high street in Sittingbourne.  All the cars had tax discs most of them reading NIL, but a couple which were well over twenty-five years old bore the "standard" tax price of £140.00.  I know it's down to the c.c of your car - that's why I put the word standard in inverted commas.  

I was told any vehicle over 25 old was exempt from car tax, and could be classified a a collectors/veteran vehicle.  A '65 Bentley had a NIL tax disc, and yet a thirty-year-old Truimph Dolomite had a tax disc with £140.00 on his screen.  My car - a Volvo 460 has only four years to go before reaching the 25 year deadline which is why I'm eager to keep it on the road.  Am I missing out on something?  It can't be that it has to be towed to the site, because all these vehicles were driven.  Or are you limited as to how many miles per year you van drive it or does it have to have special insurance or what?  I'm confused.

[genesis_1.31]

Click on the link below for information about Vehicles exempt from vehicle tax.

https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-exempt-from-car-tax

[5129frederick]

Grrr... thirty years, not twenty-five yearswhich would mean a wait for another nine years by which time I'd probably be too old to drive!  This twisted Government gives nothing away!  

[fishpieface]

Oh, only eleven years to go for my 19 yr old Astra then!  It really will be doing well

if it lasts that long.

[leoleoleo123]

Or, you could buy a tax exempt. eco friendly new car!?

( thats what they want you to do!)

[genesis_1.31]

HISTORIC VEHICLES

You don't have to pay vehicle tax on vehicles made before 1st January 1974 (Known as Historic Vehicles)

I make that forty years.

Check the link:

https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-exempt-from-car-tax

[5129frederick]

Precisely!  Even dictating what car you buy, and insurance companies put pressure on you to but certain colours.  You're more likely to have an accident in an olive green car than you are in a white Astra, and of course what will the Government do once it's hoodwinked half the country into buying what it wants?  Start raising the cost of the super low tax, which is exactly what they did with the cost of diesel - got everybody to pay through the nose to buy diesel motors, pointing out how much cheaper it is than petrol, then raised the duty on diesel fuel so now they've got half the country by the short and curlies.  The Government aren't fools - and neither are we!  

I HATE this Government, because they're always thinking two steps ahead of you.  Several years ago they started plugging these Save As You Earn schemes where whatever you paid in over the course of five years, you'd get out six years money tax free.  Then the dangled a bigger carrot under your nose saying if you left the money in for a further two years doing nothing, you'd earn even more.  I saw straight through that one.  I took my money at five years - eighteen months later, interest rates went dow, and down, and down.  I could save, but what's the point?  "Which?" carried out a survey which proved that just two of the 180 building societies put under the microscope were able to offer interest rates over and above inflation.  Five others just about managed to balance the accounts - all the rest knew investors would lose money in the long term.  That's why I don't save.  

And another thing .... 

[5129frederick]

I stand corrected - I never was very good at maths 

[cee-dee]

Things keep changing:-

The original rolling system exempted all cars more than 25 years old from paying VED in the UK, but that scheme was scrapped in 1997 freezing the cut-off date at classics built before 1 January 1973. Now many more 1970s cars, such as early MGB GT V8s and ‘Oscar India’ Astons will be eligible.

In recent years, both the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs and European body FIVA have been lobbying to have the rolling system reintrioduced, but for classics that are 30 years old.

On the one hand one website states:-

The Treasury insists that an automatic extension of the exemption is not on the cards. Instead it will be decided annually by the Chancellor.

A spokesperson said: “There are no plans to introduce a rolling system (as there had been in the past) instead the dates governing exemption from paying Vehicle Excise Duty will be set by the Chancellor on an annual basis.”

But another website says:-

From April 2014, the classic car exemption from VED will begin rolling from 40 years, with cars built before January 1974 eligible for a zero-rated tax disc. Then, from January 2015, the formerly fixed cut-off, will become a rolling one.

So take your pick?

[njchauhan]

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@5129frederick wrote:

I visited an veteran car show today in the high street in Sittingbourne.  All the cars had tax discs most of them reading NIL, but a couple which were well over twenty-five years old bore the "standard" tax price of £140.00.  I know it's down to the c.c of your car - that's why I put the word standard in inverted commas.  

I was told any vehicle over 25 old was exempt from car tax, and could be classified a a collectors/veteran vehicle.  A '65 Bentley had a NIL tax disc, and yet a thirty-year-old Truimph Dolomite had a tax disc with £140.00 on his screen.  My car - a Volvo 460 has only four years to go before reaching the 25 year deadline which is why I'm eager to keep it on the road.  Am I missing out on something?  It can't be that it has to be towed to the site, because all these vehicles were driven.  Or are you limited as to how many miles per year you van drive it or does it have to have special insurance or what?  I'm confused.

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my car is 25 years old - am i exempt from tax? please let me know thanks

[mustard-tree]

Vehicle could have been driven by a disabled driver. The tax disc would have disabled printed on it as well as NIL

Anyone with enhanced PIP for mobility gets free road tax.

[njchauhan]

my car is a 27 years old - do i have to tax it?it is 1992 mercedes230e

[cee-dee]

According to what I've read, a car has to be registered before 1979 to be eligible for free road tax.

https://www.gov.uk/historic-vehicles/vehicles-exempt-from-vehicle-tax

[nefr_21]

Just got tax though for pougoet 106 which I had for 18.year road tax has gone up 20a year for the last five years 25 pound this year a do less then 5000 miles a year. My insurance is only 150 pound a year having a laugh or wat

[nefr_21]

265 this year for tax

[njchauhan]

my car is a mercedes230e 124 1992 and is more than 25 years old then why ami paying £265 tax? can anyone help please. Thank you

[peteryola]

A few years ago the Government changed it from 25 years old to 40 years old, that's why.

[paulmgbgt1962]

I think the Government and the councils are taking the mick. As I am not able to drive my old car on the roads nowadays as the state of them all. Even the motorways. A roads. And the B roads. They are **bleep**. My car is at £29,000 pounds. Each tyre and wheel cost £3000. So l have to paye tax on a car and trailer. What a joke a!!!

[njchauhan]

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@njchauhan wrote:

my car is a mercedes230e 124 1992 and is more than 25 years old then why ami paying £265 tax? can anyone help please. Thank you

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same request - please try to help as to what to do nbext

[njchauhan]

same request that I am paying £265 Car tax on my mercedes230e 1992 which is 28 years old car and should be exempt from car tax.

I do not have anything to add  but ask to exempt my car from tax