I was just looking to renew my “road tax” (Vehicle Excise Duty if you must) on my car and while I was wandering through the DirectGov road tax website I discovered that bicycles used for trade have to pay £66 tax.

This may be old news, but I’ve never spotted this before and a couple of things struck me:

a) Who checks if the bike is for trade?
b) Do trade bicycles need to display tax discs in motorcycle-style holders?
c) why the hell is it cheaper to tax a (private) band B car or a 600cc motorcycle than it is a “trade” bicycle? I thought the alleged point of this tax was to encourage greener choices?!

Posted 13 years ago

I thought the alleged point of this tax was to encourage greener choices?!

I think thats your mistake. VED has never had anything to do with greenery, it’s just been manipulated recently to benefit greener vehicles and the people doing so have no brain.

Posted 13 years ago

How bizare! No idea what is.

Posted 13 years ago

I like it. Should be applied to all bikes (an exemption for joining up trails on mountainbikes would be needed obviously).

Posted 13 years ago

I suspect you’ll find that “bicycle” is what the DVLA call a motorbike to distinguish it from a “tricycle” – moter trike. Certainly the tax disc on my VFR refers to it as a bicycle.

Posted 13 years ago

if VED were proportional to road wear then 40 tonne wagons would pay £1000000 pa and bikes 10p

Posted 13 years ago

an exemption for joining up trails on mountainbikes would be needed obviously

Why is this obvious?

Posted 13 years ago

Bicycles are zero emission so they’re exempt.

Posted 13 years ago

if VED were proportional to road wear then 40 tonne wagons would pay £1000000 pa and bikes 10p

Actually you’re not far off, but then cars would get 10p too, as modern roads are designed and constructed considering only the HGV traffic they will encounter as car-caused damage is so minimal it’s considered unimportant.

Posted 13 years ago

Ohhh – this has the potential to turn into a huge ranting thread on proliferation of taxes….

Posted 13 years ago

ummm, as far as I cen tell reading around the acts the trade licence actually applies to the business user who repairs or trades cycles and needs to use the road to test them or deliver them…I think.

Perhaps an LBS with a trade licence could confirm?

I dont think it applies to say, the sandwich delivery company who use a bike to do their drop offs…

Posted 13 years ago

car-caused damage is so minimal it’s considered unimportant.

I believe it’s proportional to the cube of the axle loading, so cars still cause a lot more wear than bikes

Posted 13 years ago

it’s vehicle tax,
road tax doesnt exist, everyone pays for the roads through their council tax it is the local authorities responsibility and they also get subsided by the treasury
so if like what happened to me some taxi driver shouting at you “get off the road! do you pay road tax!” then tell him where to go!!!

oh i also have a car so yeah i do pay “road tax” 😀

sorry a bit off the point

Posted 13 years ago

I would think the “Not over 450kg” might give it away. Even DH bikes are not that heavy!

SSP

Posted 13 years ago

Indeed it must mean motorcycles, mopeds and scooters. I was confused as it refers earlier to “motorcycles” as a distinct group. I naturally assumed “bicycles” meant, well, bicycles – but I forget that HM Gov doesn’t speak the same language as the rest of us – particularly regarding tax.

Panic over. 😳

Thread may now devolve into a general slagging of VED.

Posted 13 years ago

GrahamS – Im pretty certain it does mean bicycles (bicycles are never motorcycles, they are one of the other). As I said, I think it refers to licencing the road user to use any bicycle that is part of the cycle trade business, not an individual bike.

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1994/ukpga_19940022_en_2#pt1-pb3-l1g11

http://74.125.77.132/search?q=cache:dmjGx4TlJVsJ:www.dvla.gov.uk/media/pdf/forms/vtl301_170806%2520application%2520for%2520trade%2520licence.pdf+cycle+trade+licences&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk

Posted 13 years ago

I believe it’s proportional to the cube of the axle loading, so cars still cause a lot more wear than bikes

Not sure on the exact equation governing it, but I know (or I’ve been told) they dont bother calculating for cars at all.

Posted 13 years ago

Stoner: interesting – so do any of the bike shop employees on here actually have such a licence?

Posted 13 years ago

Design Manual for Roads and Bridges the DFT guidance for road design (as used on all HA projects). HGVs, PSVs and OGVs only.

Posted 13 years ago

VED rates are now based on carbon dioxide output so I recently worked out the total CO2 output of cycling with a mate (biomedical scientist).

We worked out that your average person (average on the basis of weight and fitness as it relates to efficiency of muscles converting the food into energy) puts out between 1.5 and 3.0 grams of Carbon per Kilometer.

Compare that with the most efficient car on the road today which puts out 98g/km carbon.

Anything below 100g/km has a VED of £0!

So why not let cyclists pay Vehicle Excise Duty – I’d happily pay my £0 per year per bike!

;o)

Posted 13 years ago

Actually it’s better than that because, unless you’re eating coal, the carbon that you release doesn’t come from “stored” carbon. It comes from carbon that is already part of the system. So arguably breathing is carbon neutral.

Posted 13 years ago

GrahamS yeah but we didn’t want to get into the full carbon cost of producing, transporting, preparing, cooking and eating cycling fuel (food / beer).

I guess if I ran on locally produced bitter rather than imported lager I’d be greener?

Posted 13 years ago

Fairly sure you’re wrong, and it’s just dodgy wording, Stoner. After all if it does mean bicycles in the sense we mean, then where is the licence for motorbikes? Also fairly clear from the context that it’s a licence for a motor trader to allow him to take motorbikes on the road for test rides etc. when it’s not separately taxed (in the same way as he will have trade insurance), rather than something additional because it’s used for trade.

Posted 13 years ago

I guess if I ran on locally produced bitter rather than imported lager I’d be greener

Yep. Put it down as “Bio Fuel” on your tax return and see if you get a rebate.

Posted 13 years ago

Well I’ve been in the bike trade for some years and it’s something I’ve never heard of. We obviously have insurance to cover test rides etc but I think as said above that refers to motorbikes.

Posted 13 years ago

It comes from carbon that is already part of the system

except that, with modern agriculture and transportation, every gramme of carbon in your food has many grammes of fossil fuel burnt to grow and deliver it to you 🙁 [unless grown on your own allotment and carried home on foot]

Posted 13 years ago

Singlespeedpunk – Member

I would think the “Not over 450kg” might give it away. Even DH bikes are not that heavy!

What happens if your riding one of those £69.99 full sussers from Halfrauds you’ll have to find somewhere to fit the tax disc 🙂

Posted 13 years ago

What happens if your riding one of those £69.99 full sussers from Halfrauds you’ll have to find somewhere to fit the tax disc

If that’s the case than you don’t ride, you have a bike.

Posted 13 years ago