DVLA clamps down on VED exemptions
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by Nicky Clarke • Thousands of vehicles will begin paying higher tax rates this year as the Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency attempts to clarify which vehicles are exempt from HGV taxation.
The Freight Transport Association condems the move as an "undisguised revenue collection exercise". The DVLA's efforts will earn the Treasury an extra £3m a year in previously lost tax.
From 1 April, rather than establishing whether vehicles are subject to plating and testing regulations, the DVLA will be sending out letters to operators asking if they have a plating certificate. If not, exemption as a restricted vehicle is likely to be lost.
Restricted vehicles are those with no plated weight and those vehicles "specially built for a specialist purpose and not a goods vehicle that has been modified," says Bob Oliver, DVLA's group manager of vehicle policy.
But transport lawyer Jonathan Lawton says: "The question of whether a vehicle is required to be plated is covered by law. This is an exercise by the DVLA in circumventing the law. It's nothing to do with taxation." Oliver says his department is responding to pressure from the industry which originally complained that some operators were paying lower tax than they should.
"We've not changed the rules, but we're making sure that those who are entitled to an exemption get it and those who are not, don't," says Oliver.