UK Historic road tax exemption

[Chris Spencer]

Whilst owners of Jowetts do not have a problem with obtaining road tax exemption for our cars - some of us have other classics in our ownership that do not qualify - the cut off date since 1997 has been 1st January 1973 - (my Rover misses the cut off date by 21 days and at £220 per annum for for a classic that travels a few hundred miles per year is not cheap).

In the recent govenment budget changes have been announced to the above - so as from 1st April 2014 vehicles built before 1st January 1974 will be subect to historic road tax status / free of charge road tax (means that I have to tax the Rover for only one more year before it is exempt ) it also looks likely that this exemption will become rolling so that all classics will become exempt at 41 years old.

Off road declarations will not have to renewed either - in other words once you have declared to DVLA that the vehicle is off road there is no requirement to confirm on a yearly basis that the vehicle is still off the road.

So some progress in world of classics with the govenment - but I am sure that they will recover this elsewhere from our pockets

[robert lintott]

Chris, re your P 6, as you say in para 2 the key criterion is build date and has been I think for the MOT exemption and the road tax exemption since inception . Naturally registration date is later but I understand DVLA will consider including cars registered in January as having been built in the previous year , whether they need factory records I do not know . If your P6 was registered on Jan 21, it might well be allowed in to the taxfree system now ? regards Bob