They'll still have it from you one way or another, only two things guaranteed in this life, taxes and death.

The only way to avoid the VAT is to be in business for yourself, register for VAT, and do as many have, buy a twin cab pick up or crew van for the business.

Or, buy used carefully, but any repairs will still be subejct to VAT, they get your money whatever you do.

As for how tax is taken, i'm in the indirect taxation camp, my choice whether i want to buy the items and pay the tax, i don't so i don't.

this iniquitous tax which is plain government greed.

No incentive to buy a new car at all for a private buyer. None whatsoever.

Thank you for your help.

You want Free healthcare, free schools, unpotholed roads and a bobby on the street?

You and i and others have to pay for it. I remember when I was paying 33% basic rate tax on my earnings AND purchase tax and car tax on my cars.

I also remember when at the merest hint of something it was all out!

So if you are paying £5000 in tax How much is the car? £30,000 for a Citroen. (worth £15000 the moment yo drive it out of the garage) Get a grip. there are better choices and second hand better choices elswhere.

Like most here I have worked all my life, paid taxes and lots of them at higher rate and still continue to pay now retired, and pay what is due, but temper my spending to avoid such things as new cars to avoid depreciation and vat.

I agree. If you really object to paying iniquitous rates of tax, logically you should decline to buy fuel for your car.

VAT, which seems such an unpleasant surprise to you, is nothing new: it was introduced in 1973 and even then was a replacement for purchase tax.

And your point is? Some of you have gone completely off on a tangent here. For the record, JUST LIKE YOU I pay my Council tax. So yes, that pays for bobbies on the streets (on the rare occasion we ever see one), and again JUST LIKE YOU, I have worked since I was 16, I'm now nearly 70.Never claimed a bean in benefits even through some extremely tough times. I've had my own businesses, paid ALL my taxes (no offshore hidey holes) and given back to the 'system' as much as I have put in. So PLEASE be fair. Or are there trolls at work.......

The question was, quite simply, Is there a way of buying a new car without incurring so much VAT. THAT was all I wanted to know.

Seems like nobody apart from the first two responders, thanks, has anything constructive to say. So I'll go somewhere else to get some relevant information.

Thanks.

anyone planning to pay 30,000 pounds for a car can afford to pay one-sixth of that in VAT (the OP said 5K in VAT, so that's 25K for the car plus 20percent or one-fifth = 30K list).

I'm sure you can get a discount of 16.66 percent on a 30K Citroen C4 Grand Picasso - that's up at the luxury end of that model range. That's effectively zero VAT. They're still going to be paying eye-watering amounts of money in depreciation.

It's the poor families that can't afford new cars (let alone luxury new cars) that I feel sorry for. They need the tax benefits of the diesels for their families and then get clobbered by the huge maintenence bills. I honestly don't know how they do it. We can all moan about the tax we pay, but I have no sympathy for anyone planning to load up an ordinary family car to that degree.

Many other countries have far larger taxes on new vehicles.