BVRLA mounts opposition to fleet sector 'tax attack' in Budget 2012
Mon 23 July 2012
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The British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA) has written to the Chancellor in protest at what it calls a fleet sector 'tax attack' launched in the latest Budget. The organisation has assembled a 'Business Car Taxation Taskforce' to develop lobbying strategies and technical arguments to oppose what it sees as discrimination against the sector.
The BVRLA says that the Budget announced last March introduced a series of changes to the company car tax regime and made it much harder for BVRLA members and their customers to claim tax relief (Capital Allowances) on lease and rental vehicles.
Documents obtained by the BVRLA under the Freedom of Information Act show that the Government hopes to earn an extra £2bn from company car tax between 2013 and 2017 and make nearly one million fewer business cars eligible for 100% first year or standard tax relief during the same period. The association believes that these changes will place an even more disproportionate tax burden on essential road transport users and remove a vital stimulus for the ultra-low carbon vehicle market.
BVRLA chief executive John Lewis said: "Tax incentives for reducing fleet emissions have worked too well and the government is worried about falling revenues.
"But these measures are ill-advised, unfair and over aggressive. There is almost total consensus across the road transport and automotive industry that the government is in danger of erecting a massive roadblock across the road to low-carbon motoring".
The newly-formed taskforce plans to commission an independent report that will use member statistics and other data to challenge unfair elements of the government’s Capital Allowances regime. In particular it wants to reverse the decision to remove the 100% first-year capital allowances available on low-emission vehicles from leased cars, which would also impact rental firms.
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