Remember that story about bikers evading tax?

[Kris]

Bikers pay £25 million more

18 February 2008
The Government got it wrong – bikers aren’t the big tax cheats they said we were. The revenue lost from motorcycle VED evasion was claimed to be £28,000,000 in 2006. In 2007 it could now be as low as £3,000,000 because officials massively over-estimated the number of untaxed bikes on the road.

The Department of Transport has admitted to mistakes that resulted in inflating estimates of Vehicle Excise Duty evasion in figures that singled out motorcyclists as major culprits.

They now confess that ‘misread registration marks tend to inflate estimates of evasion and that ‘detailed checking (of the 2007 survey) has removed this inflationary effect from the 2007 estimates’.

The latest figures now show evasion rates for motorcycles at 6.5%, a massive reduction on the much-publicised 38% published in January.
In January Tory MP Edward Leigh said: "Motorcyclists are particularly liable to evade road tax. Nearly 40% of motorcycles are now unlicensed,” adding: "If the DVLA's motorcycle enforcement regime is not to be a complete laughing stock, then the agency and the department must make the most of new powers to enforce VED on public roads."

At the time the British Motorcyclists Federation said that ‘the figures are quite simply flawed and do not represent the real world. In no way does the BMF support road tax evasion but these figures are a gross exaggeration.’

BMF bod Chris Hodder said: “We hope this puts an end to this persecution of motorcyclists, the vast majority of whom are law abiding citizens. We in no way condone those who evade tax and support measures to clamp down on those who do, but these figures at last put the problem into perspective.”


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www.prisonplanet.com

[T1z3R]

well thats a big two fingers up at the folks that used to tar me with a VED evasion brush
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duck my sick!

[Itchy]

But will it be publicised as much as the original story or just be put in a tiny side column ?
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Spain 2008France 2007Big one 2009 We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. In the end, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.