I will be submitting my observation that there are 307,407 vehicles that are totally exempt from Vehicle Excise Duty under the pre-1973 Historic Vehicle Class.

At even the basic VED Rate of £130 for any vehicle under 1549cc registered before 2001 that is a loss to H M Treasury of £ 39,962,520 in tax revenue. At the higher rate for vehicles of over 1959cc registered before 2001 of £220 that is £ 67,629,540. Obviously the exact figure lies somewhere between the two.

My proposal is to use the fact that vehicles can now be taxed via the internet with no need to display a tax disc to recover this money that was lost to the country under Chancellor Kenneth Clarke who introduced the exemption at a time when the internet and the facility taxing vehicles by the internet and computer did not exist.

They may had made sense then, the cost versus the revenue, but with a paperless tax disc they no longer do.

Since 1998 there has been a policy that motor vehicles must be taxed at all times except where an owner makes a SORN or Statutory Off Road Notification.

A SORN can now be done by computer on the internet.

So any earlier argument about the cost of historic vehicles being declared on and off road by physical paper notification or the issue and re-issue of a Tax Disc is now no longer valid, especially as the cost of said tax disc is annually £130 for vehicles pre-1973 under 1549cc and £220 for vehicles pre-2001 over 1549cc.

As said, when the Historic Vehicle Class was first commenced it may have made sense as the cost of a licence was lower and the "cost of the paperwork" may have, like the old Dog Licence, have exceeded the revenue received from it.

This is now now no longer, clearly the case!

These vehicles are not old cars owned by the less well off. They are in many case vehicles costing tens if not hundreds of thousands of pounds. For example a vintage Bentley or a 1960s Ferrari.

Are we really saying that the owners of such vehicles cannot afford an annual VED of £130 or £220 whilst the less well off owning cars of eight or nine or ten years old have to pay full VED?

This exemption should now be ended and all vehicles required to pay VED. The cost of declaring SORN is now, as it can be done on the internet negligible and if the paper licence is to be abolished again the cost of issue is again no longer relevant.

There is no exemption from the fee for a Shot Gun Certificate for an "historic class" of old shot gun nor from Council Tax for an "historic class" of old house.

Why is it that privately owned 1960s Aston Martic and 1950s Rolls-Royce motor cars should therefore uniquely pay no tax.

Are we "all in this together" or not?

RL, Leicester
Leicester LE9 2BN