Government hopes to rake in $7 million in the next financial year by rolling back two tax breaks for seniors.Premier Paula Cox announced in her Budget statement yesterday that property owners aged 65 and older will have to pay land tax if their homes are worth more than $1 million.And seniors who own cars with a length exceeding 156 inches (licence class E and above) will have to pay for their licence fee, where previously they were exempt.Ms Cox said in her statement: “The yield from land tax will be improved in 2012/13 by adjusting the ARV (annual rental value) threshold that provides an exemption for seniors living in their own homes. The amount of recovered tax is estimated at $4 million.“The effect of the adjustment is that seniors whose properties have an ARV of less than $50,000 (an estimated market value of up to about $1 million) will continue to have full exemption from land tax.“Seniors with properties with ARVs above $50,000 will now pay the assessed tax on the portion above the $50,000 threshold.”The Finance Minister said the vehicle licence fee exemption for seniors, which currently applies to any size of car, would be restricted to classes A, B, C and D from April 1.“In 2007, Government put into place a policy whereby seniors who owned a vehicle did not have to pay to licence their vehicle,” explained Ms Cox.“Since the exemption came into force there has been a 26 percent increase in vehicles licenced to seniors.“Further, the largest class of vehicle, class H, that attracts an annual licence fee of $1,551, has seen an increase of 358 percent in registrations to seniors.“The present regime that provides an exemption for all classes of vehicles registered in the names of seniors has been abused with the tax loss amounting to nearly $4 million per annum.”The Premier, who revealed in December that the policy had lost Government $17 million in revenue since 2007, said the rollback of the tax break should recover an estimated $3 million in vehicle licence fees for Government in 2012/13.Opposition MP Louise Jackson said yesterday both policies were “put in place as irresponsible promises to seniors” and were not properly thought through.The One Bermuda Alliance’s spokeswoman on seniors added that seniors owning million-dollar homes and large cars didn’t need the tax relief.She said the lost revenue to Government could have been spent on healthcare, particularly on improving the FutureCare insurance scheme for the elderly.Age Concern said it would likely respond to the changes next week.