South West Bikers | Motorcycle Forum

New road tax discriminates against bikers

New emission-based tax rates set to clobber motorcyclists in yet another bizarre Government-led initiative

UNDER NEW emissions-based rates of road tax announced last week in the Budget, vehicles that produce less than 100g of CO2 per/km will pay nothing - unless they are motorcycles. Despite emitting less than 100g per/km, many motorcycles will next year pay double according to the Environmental Transport Association.
The new rates discriminate against motorcycles despite the fact that CO2 emissions for motorcycles of all types are already below the average level for petrol and diesel-engined cars.

A 125cc commuter bike currently pays a vehicle excise duty of ?15 - the rate in 2009 will more than double to ?33.

Andrew Davis, director at the Environmental Transport Association said: ?A doubling of tax for motorcycles that produce less than 100g of CO2 per/km makes a nonsense of the revised rates of vehicle excise duty - it appears that motorcycles are subsidising the new zero rate of vehicle excise duty for the lowest-polluting cars. At a time when we are struggling to meet emissions targets and high petrol prices, a case must be made for motorcycles that produce less CO2 than cars and use far less fuel.?

money grabbing b'stards

It has to be Browns [Sh*t for brains] scheming way of recouping his losses now he's cutting congestion in the cities etc - may be the cars drivers are now opting for scooters and it's hitting Government funds... it'll be tax on pushbikes, windows and oxygen consuption next

All us Brit's will have to leave this Country soon anyhow - make room for poor & needy asylum seekers & all their F*!#%$g mates, I'm compiling my Farewell message now

SteveR3 wrote:All us Brit's will have to leave this Country soon anyhow - make room for poor & needy asylum seekers & all their F*!#%$g mates, I'm compiling my Farewell message now

I couldn't agree more, as soon as the opportunity presents itself I'm leaving. Apparrently the UK is officially the highest taxed nation in the world now, they keep waffling on about 'green tax' as if they are only putting the tax up to encourage us to lead better lives and save the world, but it's all bullshit - if every person in the UK suddenly vanished and we then create no further pollution it would make sod all difference, because China & America create far far more, and whilst I know the grass aint always greener, at least the poxy weather will be better!

Have you got any links to this info?
The ETA just looks like another green lobby/quango from what I can see, & there doesn't appear to be anything about motorcycle VED on their website....well, not that I can see

There's no mention of this on the Direct.gov site, & although m/c VED has gone up there's no mention of it being related to emisions.

VTR wrote:Have you got any links to this info?
The ETA just looks like another green lobby/quango from what I can see, & there doesn't appear to be anything about motorcycle VED on their website....well, not that I can see

There's no mention of this on the Direct.gov site, & although m/c VED has gone up there's no mention of it being related to emisions.

My thoughts exactly, any substantiating evidence? this isn't from the wind up Merchants Conclusion jumping No-it-alls, i'd take it with a pinch of salt otherwise.

Responses like those posted further above always make me laugh ...... if it's so cr*p here, why don't you go You say there's no reason to stay, so why are you still here Just filling up space bringing everyone else down with your negative attitude

Then there's the hypocracy ...... you complain about immigrants moving countries for a better life ..... so you're going to move to Poland/Somalia/Ethiopea etc., are you No, you're going to go somewhere you perceive to be better, so surely that makes you no different to the people you are complaining about Bet you'll be happy if wherever you go, you'll be met by a barrage of criticism/suspicion and complaints that you're just another sponger moving for your own benefit to the detriment of the countrymen where you're going ....

As for the taxation issue, not seen anything about it ...... but it's inevitable bikes will ending following the car system eventually, and let's face it bikes are hard to justify being so much cheaper than cars when you consider the average litre bikes uses no less/more fuel than an average family car, and the majority are used for purely leisure purposes ..... Not saying I agree with it, but if you look at it logically ..... personally I think they should do away with VED and add ( ) it into fuel so those who use most pay most

If they want a system to penalise high polluters (not necessarily the same as high fuel consumers) they can then impose a system based on pollutant levels recorded at the MOT

At the end of the day we all pay stupidly high taxes in order to line the MP's pockets (voting yourself a pay increase above the national level anyone?) and for them to have jet set lifestyles whilst not letting us know what they are spending our money on.

F*ck off labour, F*ck off brown. I want to throw a molotov cocktail at the houses of parliament.

Rant deleted by me due to fear of reprocusions

Moose is the voice of reason, I concur with everthing he says.

and why the hell does a thread on taxation have to drag in "asylum seekers".

I have looked at moving and working abroad in a fair amount of detail (only because I hate our countrys weather and my misses has an italian passport) - dont presume you will be better off abroad, If I did it Id have to suffer less money in my pocket overall (I have looked at Germany, France, Italy and Cyprus).

Incidentally my L200 hits the second highest tax bracket under the new regs and narrowly misses the first (over £400 a year). s hit happens. My bike is almost like a freebie in terms of taxation when you consider its nothing but a toy.

Actually Moose it's not hypocracy at all, I'm looking at Australia or NZ, so I'll have to prove my worth before going there and won't be able to claim anything at all from the government when I get there. As for why I don't just shut up and go, I have every intention of doing just as soon as my finances allow thank you very much.

TLS-Moose wrote: personally I think they should do away with VED and add ( ) it into fuel so those who use most pay most

If they want a system to penalise high polluters (not necessarily the same as high fuel consumers) they can then impose a system based on pollutant levels recorded at the MOT

Trouble with doing away with VED and adding to fuel is it would cost all of us a lot more. I run a small haulage business and my fuel costs last year were around £20,000 now if they put the price of fuel up by 20% then thats another 4k on my fuel bill which i won't be able to swallow so guess who has to pay, my customers of course and they will pass on the rises to their customers the consumer, so as everything we touch,eat or wear has been on a truck at some point in its life we all have to pay more so costs all round will rise not just fuel prices. Older people on fixed incomes allready hammered by the government will lose out and they have votes and imho its one reason it will never happen. To have a system based on pollutant levels at MOT would also be a non starter as there are a lot of low income families running older cars that allthough are not as frugal or clean as todays new cars still provide necessary transport economically compared to moving a whole family around on a bus and the government cannot afford to lose all these votes come election time. Ultimately i feel they will just allow the price of fuel to keep escalating until people are forced to use buses/trains to go to work and just keep a car for weekends,family holidays and weekly shopping trips just like in the sixties not as everyday transport, this way they can deny sticking the boot in to the car owners and blame it on the oil producers

Just my thoughts