Would you pay a bit more for fuel if it meant no vehicle excise duty?

[Shogun]

They don't have road tax in France but they stick it on road toll charges,just took a truck from Calais to Paris and it cost £125 in road tolls,if they don't get money out of you one way they will get it out of you another way,what annoys me most about road tax is if you have more than one vehicle all of them have to be taxed when you can only drive one at a time,the Germans have the best system you have a number plate that is in your name and you put that on the vehicle that you drive they pay road tax on the number plate rather than the car,the whole road tax insurance and MOT system in this country is mad,

[laineyiow]

As my "car tax" is zero rated I certainly wouldn't want to pay more than I do now for petrol.

 

I would much rather petrol prices be decreased than increased.

[Eater Sundae]

I wouldn't welcome it at all - my road tax is only £30 per year - that wouldn't buy much extra-priced petrol!

 

My 'road tax' is also cheap, and I do a fairly high mileage, so I'd expect to lose out if there was a change. However, I think it would be the right thing to do:

 

1. Because it is morally valid in that the more driving you do, and the less efficient your car, then the more you pay, and

2. It removes a specific 'tax' and all the associated infrastructure and paper work needed to collect it. Increasing the duty on fuel would be cheaper to administer.

 

The only advantage of the current system is that it lets the government fine tune the slope on the playing field in favour of small, low CO2 cars. But I think that fuel dutyor tax is more fair.

[Eater Sundae]

I think it would cost more than a penny or two a litre.

 

I do about 10,000 miles a year - pretty close to the average - I reckon I get about 30 mpg given a fair bit of my mileage is around town. That means I buy 333 gallons of petrol a year. My car tax is £210 pa for my Mondeo - a pretty average sort of car.

 

So to generate the same revenue from a pretty average car doing average mileage petrol would have to go up 63p per gallon or 14p per litre.

 

Even if I had a smaller car - eg a Fiesta then I reckon we'd easily be looking at about 5p per litre / 22p per gallon.

 

 

For the same revenue return, drivers doing high mileage in cars emitting low CO2 would pay more, and drivers doing low mileage in high emission cars would pay less. But overall, there would be an extra cost per litre such that the income by the exchequer would be the same. There will be individual winners and losers, but overall the tax burden would be the same.

 

However, to achieve this similar income the country would no longer need to administer the (fairly complicated) VED system. Each different tax costs money to collect. One less tax, then the country as a whole saves money, which is of benefit to us all.

[Longcol]

For the same revenue return, drivers doing high mileage in cars emitting low CO2 would pay more, and drivers doing low mileage in high emission cars would pay less. But overall, there would be an extra cost per litre such that the income by the exchequer would be the same. There will be individual winners and losers, but overall the tax burden would be the same.

 

However, to achieve this similar income the country would no longer need to administer the (fairly complicated) VED system. Each different tax costs money to collect. One less tax, then the country as a whole saves money, which is of benefit to us all.

 

We'd still need some visible display on the windshield to the effect that the car was insured and MOT'd IMHO. We've got a system which seems to work pretty efficiently - would it be any cheaper to administer by another means?

 

And am pretty sure the big losers would be people currently driving low emission cars!

[Andy90]

So a sticker in a windscreen would show you have insurance? Well that's a fool proof system, I better now print one my self. Why do you think that it's all online now, because a paper system is flawed at best. I've driven round with an out of date tax disc for three months, I have one, just can't be bothered to display it, no one checks because that system is rubbish,

 

They might be losers (a bit harsh for you to call them that though) but who says its right that low emission pays less car tax? They still put wear on the road.

 

Just my 2penneth

[medusa]

So a sticker in a windscreen would show you have insurance? Well that's a fool proof system, I better now print one my self. Why do you think that it's all online now, because a paper system is flawed at best. I've driven round with an out of date tax disc for three months, I have one, just can't be bothered to display it, no one checks because that system is rubbish,

 

They might be losers (a bit harsh for you to call them that though) but who says its right that low emission pays less car tax? They still put wear on the road.

 

Just my 2penneth

 

If a police officer happened to walk past your car while it was parked somewhere and noticed the out of date disc then you'd still be up for a fine and some points on your licence because not displaying a valid disc is an offence too, even if you possess one.

 

I don't pay for VED because my car is a Motability car, but it is still an offence to not display a valid disc, even if that disc says '£0.00' on it.

[Andy90]

I know, but how many police have walked past my car? quite a few, anyone mentioned it? Not sure they care as the know the computers will stop me.

 

Lol didn't know that, weird, but makes sense I suppose.

[Shogun]

I have classic cars the tax is free on them so how would that work out if you paid the tax on fuel,would I get the fuel free of Tax there would be some fiddles going on there I could see.

[Eater Sundae]

I have classic cars the tax is free on them so how would that work out if you paid the tax on fuel,would I get the fuel free of Tax there would be some fiddles going on there I could see.

 

You would pay higher fuel tax/duty like everyone else. If you use your car for a few miles each year (which was why classic cars were allowed to be VED free in the first place, so they could be kept roadworthy but not burden the owner with an annual tax for a car he barely uses) then the cost to you would be minimal. You have already had a tax relief - its not so onorous to have a bit clawed back. If the system had already been totally fuel based, as the OP proposed, then you wouldn't have needed the tax relief to have been given to you in the first place. However, if you use your car as regular transport, and clock up lots of miles, then you should pay more anyway.