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| Veg Oil And The Government; i.e. tax and so on | |
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| Topic Started: Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:25 am (486 Views) | |
| dave_irl | Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:25 am Post #1 |
I love offset.
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I dont know if its the same here as there but can you just run your car on alternative fuel e.g. veg oil and dont have to pay the government tax or anything? As I heard someone here talking about veg oil but they were talking about being dipped by the law at the side of the road and getting busted for it, that conversation soon spiralled into stealth tanks and having receipts for tankfuls of diesel that werent actually being bought etc.. Is this true or was this person mega paranoid? It wouldnt suprise me if though they tried to stiff you because they were losing out some billionth of a percentage of their taxes they get :lol: |
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| Big Ben | Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:40 am Post #2 |
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The limit on usage is 2400 ltrs per year or 200 ltrs per month without having to pay road fuel tax. Very difficult to police though. |
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| dave_irl | Wed Jan 30, 2008 11:07 am Post #3 |
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I love offset.
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I would imagine so! Unless they fitted flow meters to every cars fuel system and then hooked that up to some SMS box that would report the usage every month.. and I cant see that ever happening  Black box pie in the sky no thanks.. |
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| kentronix | Wed Jan 30, 2008 1:00 pm Post #4 |
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The law is you have to keep a record of any veg oil you put in your tank. Its the putting in your tank part not the buying of the oil. That is the point where it turns from a food into a fuel, as it pours down the filler neck
 If hmrc ask you then you must show them your records. If you use more than your allowed you pay duty, if you can't produce records then you will be fined. Seems unlikely they will though, the rule seems to be there to tax people who produce biodiesel from used veggie oil. They will use larger amounts and therefore have to pay duty. I have a blog which attempts to clarify the laws on as many european countries as possible :- http://carbon-neutral-car-laws.blogspot.com/ It covers the uk, back in the archive somewhere. If anyone knows anything about oyther countries I would love to update the blog with more info. I will produce a simplified list at some point. |
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| bow190 | Wed Jan 30, 2008 1:04 pm Post #5 |
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explains why veg oil has gone up from 49p ish to between 79 and 90p, goverments covering its bases well.
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| kentronix | Wed Jan 30, 2008 4:46 pm Post #6 |
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UK - Legal and tax free for up to 2500 litres per year. If you use/produce less than 2500 litres of vegetable oil per year, then you should not need to register with HMRC or pay any duty on the oil, but you will need to keep some records: You should record the date of production and quantity produced in litres. For collecting waste oil you need to register with the environment agency as a waste carrier. France - ILLEGAL In France, it is illegal to run a car on vegetable oil. People have been arrested for it, although I have not heard of any convictions. It is unlikely they would prosecute foreign drivers because its a tax issue but its illegal none the less. Belgium - OK from approved sources. To use waste vegetable oil as a fuel is illegal in Belgium. To use straight vegetable oil is legal and tax free, as long as you buy it from one of the registered oil producers, many of whoom are just farms etc.. To use vegetable oil from any other source is illegal. Germany - Legal plus they have approved sources. There are quite a few german vegetable oil users and many approved sources. A few petrol stations even have a pump specifically for oil and there are many small plants which allow you to fill up from them. The law regarding svo from non-approved sources is complexed and slightly unclear but basically you should be ok. Veg oil is encouraged, and taxed at 0%. Austria - Legal and tax free. Pure vegetable oil (or Reines Pflanzenöl, as they call it in German) is totally legal and tax free in Austria. Italy - Must pay tax, heavy fines possible. Any product intended for use, offered for sale or used as motor fuel, or as an additive or extender in motor fuels, shall be taxed as motor fuel.(Article 2, paragraph 3, of Directive 92/81/EEC, as also stated in Article 2, paragraph 3, second sentence of Council Directive 2003/96/EC of 27 October 2003). Because of the tax rules it is virtually impossible to legally use vegetable oil as a fuel in italy. Slovakia - Legal and tax free. The law on taxing motor fuels is Act 98/2004 on the Excise Duty on Mineral Oil, as amended by act 667/2004. The law specifically taxes mineral oils, which don't include vegetable oil. There are provisions in the law about mixing "biogenic" material into fossil fuels. This specifically allows things from chapter 15 of the Customs Nomenclature "Animal or vegetable fats and oils and their cleavage products; prepared edible fats; animal or vegetable waxes.". While these sections of the act aren't directly relevant to someone using straight vegetable oil, they do implicitly acknowledge that vegetable oil can be used as an ingredient of fuel, and that it isn't taxed. Croatia - Legal and tax free. Croatian customs officials told us that it is legal and we are welcome to bring our "machine" to their country and run it on any kind of vegetable oil we choose. We cannot find any law to back this up, but the officials stated the lack of law meant it was ok. Luxembourg - Probably Legal and tax free. Information about the law in Luxembourg has been hard to find. Customs officials in Luxembourg have told us that there doesn't seem to be a law against it. This suggests that you can use SVO and WVO. Slovenia - Legal and tax free. In Slovenia, it is legal and untaxable to use Straight Vegetable Oil as a motor fuel. Switzerland - OK from approved sources. Vegetable Oil that is produced at pilot and demonstration plants, recognised by the Agriculture Office, is free of tax, and legal to use as a fuel. Other vegetable oil (including waste vegetable oil) from non-approved sources would be liable to the mineral oil tax. Crossing borders You can transport as much svo as you wish between EU countries, as long as it is for personal use. Most countries will require you to register before allowing you to collect waste vegetable oil (including the uk). When taking waste edible oils from one EU country to another for recycling as fuel, you do not need to notify the authorities each time. For traveling across non EU borders, I think you need to register in each country individually. There is a biofuel seller in ashford so if your crossing to france on the ferry and want to do it legally and environmentally freindly drop me a line I will forward his details. If you would like information on the approved sources get in contact I will see if I can dig them out. Hows that for an informative post For links to supporting docs see the link to the blog posted above. These were the laws as of Sept 2007. |
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| FredTransit | Sun Aug 23, 2009 12:00 pm Post #7 |
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Well if le French think I am going to siphon out the veg in Calais they really will have to think again......
Edited by FredTransit, Sun Aug 23, 2009 12:00 pm.
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| twopointsix | Sun Aug 23, 2009 12:24 pm Post #8 |
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"Well if le French think I am going to siphon out the veg in Calais they really will have to think again......" Just add some garlic, they'll never know any different
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| kentronix | Sun Aug 23, 2009 12:25 pm Post #9 |
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I have been many times and have never had a problem, when doing it for company publicity I used to ensure I was on bio for that bit but I dont bother anymore. Just be ready to play dumb, just in case. From what I hear its so hard for them to actually do anything because they cant tax you as your not from france and there are no actual fines in place. The worst you should expect is a couple of hours held at the side of the road but its unlikely. Last time I drove through, stinking of veg, lugging 3-400 litres of other veg with me. Nobody noticed seemed to care and they must of smelt it, lugging that much weight up the ferry ramps would have caused a stink. |
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8:58 PM Nov 25
