Originally Posted by
BEagle
So your new rate will barely cover fuel costs if you drive anything half-decent, particularly if your commute includes a substantial element of urban driving.
BEages, you may not remember but before the brun one clunked his iron fist the higher rate, for tax purposes, had 2 rates - 40p/mile for mere mortals and 63p/mile for plutocrats. Also, at that time, Servicemen could not claim tax relief on the difference.
By a flook, I cashed in my Barclaycard £1000 cash back and splashed on on a Modeo Ghia X with a 2.5l engine. This coincided with a change of tax rules so I could claim tax relief on about 38p/mile. This also coincided with about 1,500 miles of PTR claims on resettlement etc. A very nice lady at the IR tried to recover my tax relief until I pointed out that the rules had changed
.
Clearly a reasonably generous 63p/mile in 1999 compares unfavourably with a meager 40p/mile 10 years later. Talk about stealth taxes.
Remember the other one - no car tax on cars over 25 years old? Gordon didn't recant on that, he merely changed the rules to apply to cars registered before 1972 or thereabouts.