Road fund licence

[74Ceptor]

Hope someone can help.
Today I recieved my reminder to tax my car. Normally this is met with the frustration of having to pay an exorbitant fee for a car that does no more than five hundred miles in summer. But For the first time I anticipated this moment with glee as I believed my Interceptor would be eligible for free road tax.

So you can imagine how angry I was when I saw fees of £126.50 and £230.00.
My vehicle was originally registered on 01/08/1974 (N registered)so being over forty years old shouldn't it be eligible fir the new free RFL.
Unless it was a one off situation and not issued on a rolling basis then I'm sure im right. My brother has an M registered Rover 3500s (which is up for sale) and he taxes his car for free.

Regards

Robin

[JA51ON W]

I think you have to change the taxation class on the paperwork to historic vehicle, think maybe on dvla site ? Jason.

[74Ceptor]

Thanks I'll have a look into that

[JHV8]

I think you're going to be disappointed:-
From DVLA site
Historic vehicles

You don’t have to pay vehicle tax on vehicles made before 1 January 1974 (known as ‘historic vehicles’).

If they carry on the dates, and it's not certain, it took them 10 years to move from 1972 to 1973, you will have to send your log book off for a change in class to historic to get tax exempt status, it doesn't happen automatically.

[cantona7]

Robin, it should kick in for you from 1 April this year.

This time last year I bought 6 months tax for my 73 mark 111 and then got my 12 months free historic tax from 1 April and got a refund for the 3 months not needed.

Have a search on this forum as there were a few threads about this last year.

Jon.

[Chris_R]

Yes, Jon is correct. Zero rated historic vehicle tax only kicks in on the 1st April in the year following the 40th year of the car. So, 1974 cars become tax free from April 1st 2015, 1975 cars become tax free from April 1st 2016 and so on.
And, you cannot apply for historic VED status until 1st April. The message on the DVLA website will not be updated until that time either.

[74Ceptor]

So if I understand you correctly I can sorn it for four months then reapply ?

[Chris_R]

Yes.

[Keith]

So if I understand you correctly I can sorn it for four months then reapply ?

Or tax it, and enjoy it for four months, then reapply (and get two month's tax refund).

[Steve Payne]

I just went into my local post office on the 1st April last year and she just changed the taxation class and issued me with a free road tax. She then gave me a form for the refund for the remaining few months.

Obviously there is no paper tax discs anymore but the system should be the same.

Not all post offices seem to know they can do this but they just need to go down there screen and its there apparently.

Steve

[Yorkie]

I have contacted DVLA re my 1974 car and this was their reply;

It may help if I explain that a vehicle must be manufactured and/or registered in the UK prior to the 1st of January 1974 to be registered in the taxation class of 'Historic'.

Upon checking the vehicle record, the vehicle mentioned in your email is currently ineligible to be registered in the taxation class of 'Historic'.

I can confirm that it was announced in a previous budget that the date of eligibility will be changed to the 1st of January 1975 from the 01/04/2015. However, this is subject to change depending on any budget announcements. Please contact us closer to the time for further instruction.

We live in hope.

[Chris_R]

In 2013 it was announced the exemption would roll forward by one year to 31st December 1973. It was also stated at that time that it was a 1 year only change.
In 2014 it was announced that the zero rating was to become a rolling 40 years. So as things stand today, it will automatically roll forward by 1 year on 1st April 2015 to cover all cars manufactured before 31st December 1974.
But of course we've been here before hence the caveat in the DVLA reply. The Tories introduced a rolling 25 year exemption and in Gordon Brown's first budget in 1997 that 25 year exemption was frozen at 31st December 1972. So any future government can of course make any change they like, including completely scrapping the exemption.

[Mark Ell]

We used to have a DVLA office in Aberdeen, even though mine is a 72 car the paper work from DVLA was wrong. I went in and they altered it to a historic vehicle but only after I argued with them. The girl working there was unaware of the rules and had to call another office for advice.