Vehicle excise duty evasion: 2004

Main results for Great Britain:

• Vehicle Excise Duty evasion is estimated to cost £129 million in the year 2004/5.
• The revenue lost from VED evasion is equivalent to 3.4 per cent of the total revenue that should be raised. The equivalent figure in 2002/3 is now estimated at 4.8 per cent. This decrease in evasion is equivalent to a gain of around £77 million per year.
• In the Private and Light Goods tax class which accounts for 87 per cent of vehicle stock, evasion fell from 4.4 per cent of vehicles in use in 2002 to 2.7 per cent in 2004.
• The survey also showed that vehicles that are not correctly licensed have on average lower mileage than properly licensed vehicles in all tax classes.
• Evasion is highest among motorcycles and other vehicles, as was the case in 2002.
• Evasion rates are higher for older vehicles. Evasion among vehicles in PLG more than 10 years old is five times the evasion level of vehicles less than 10 years old. Evasion is around 10 times higher for vehicles whose owner details are not known.

Main results for Northern Ireland:

• Revenue lost is equivalent to roughly 10 per cent of total revenue, down from roughly 12 per cent in 2002/3.

Publication details

Published on 2 December 2004 by Transport Statistics

Available by telephone order on +44 (0)20 7944 3077

E- mail vehicles.stats@dft.gov.uk for queries concerning this bulletin

For information about release of this product see National Statistics Online