Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has plans to reconsider the taxation of historic cars so that the date the law is calculated from is the registration date on the V5 document rather than the date the car was manufactured.

In recognition of the important role that historic vehicles play in the country’s heritage, the Government announced at Budget 2014 that it would introduce a rolling 40-year Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) exemption. This means that from 1 April each year, vehicles constructed 40 years before the 1 January of that year are automatically exempt from paying VED.

The Government uses the construction date of the vehicle as the main eligibility criteria for this VED exemption as it is most suited for determining the age of the vehicle. However, where a vehicle’s construction date is not provided on the vehicle’s record, the date of first registration is used to determine the vehicle’s eligibility for the exemption. There are no current plans to amend the basis of this VED exemption from vehicle construction date to vehicle registration date, but as with all taxes, VED is kept under review.