Another UK Government Tax Grab !

Chuffer

CCCUK Member
Just heard that Chancellor Rachel ( from accounts ) Thieves is considering rescinding the free VED tax on 40 year old + classic cars to help bolster the governments flagging finances . The estimated annual income to the Treasury is £107 million which is a drop in the ocean compared to the money wasted on housing and benefits shelled out all the illegal migrants flooding into the country in rubber boats !! All it will do is encourage classic car owners to SORN their vehicles for months on end thus substantially reducing her perceived income plus potentially damaging the UK classic car industry worth several billion £ to the country`s economy . Shoot yourself in the foot or what ? Silly 🐮 !!
 

Nassau65

CCCUK Member
Always wondered how long before the free road tax would last before it was looked at again in relation to stopping or altering.
 

Roscobbc

Moderator
The whole car tax 'thing' is a joke with no logic whatsoever on how it is applied relating to age of vehicles. In terms of 'new' purchase cars we now see a ' blanket' annual tax that has been applied since April on new cars irrespectively priced whether the vehicle is petrol, diesel or electric. They can't make their minds-up on hybrid cars. Older vehicles (between 1 and perhaps 15 years or more is a total confusion and contradiction of applictions and prices. And now we hear that HMG want to change road tax to a mileage based calculation.......so much per mile travelled. So hows that going to be calculated? - will this replace the current milage related tax (taxing pump prices?)
 

teamzr1

Supporting vendor
The progress of Leno’s Law for a while is a disappointing update.
The bill, officially known as SB 712, which would have created a 35-year rolling emissions exemption for older cars in California, has been officially killed in committee.

Backed by Jay Leno and Senator Shannon Grove, the common-sense legislation was seen as a beacon of hope for the state’s classic car community, but that hope has now been extinguished.

The original idea behind the bill was simple and reasonable. It proposed that cars 35 years or older should be exempt from California’s notoriously strict smog testing. Proponents argued that these are well-maintained, rarely driven collector cars, and exempting them would have a minimal impact on air quality.
This would have been a huge relief for owners of Radwood era cars from the ’80s and ’90s, who often face an expensive and frustrating battle to get their aging, pre-OBD2 emissions systems to pass the biannual test a much stricter requirement than in states like Massachusetts or New York, which exempt cars after 15 and 25 years, respectively.

Unfortunately, the bill was slowly watered down in the legislative process. Fearing a loophole that would allow people to drive old, polluting cars daily, lawmakers first added an amendment requiring the cars to have collector insurance.
Then, in a move that gutted the bill’s core purpose, a later amendment completely removed the 35-year rolling rule.
The final version would have only exempted cars made before 1981, leaving owners of more modern classics with no relief.
This weakened version of SB 712 was already a shadow of its original intent.

Despite the changes and early bipartisan support in the Senate Transportation Committee, the bill met its end in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
The committee refused to bring it to the full Senate for a vote, effectively shutting it down for good.

The failure of SB 712 is a major blow to California’s car collectors, who will now continue to face one of the toughest regulatory environments in the country for keeping their classics on the road.
 
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