Taxing questions
On behalf of a polar bear
On a related topic to flat fares for buses, I’m wondering
if you think it in keeping with the so called greener budget of last week to
increased road tax on large engined vehicles by such a derisory amount ? Why
does the UK not consider the example of Irish Republic, and increase road tax on
silly, unnecessary vehicles to a sensible level (ie engines over 3 l pay over
£1000).
March 29th, 2006 at 5:44 pm
Common sense would put the tax onto the fuel that is used. All mpg figures are theoretical and to judge an engine by its size (litreage) is wrong.
The UK government (despite many a protest) has it 100% correct in having a very high level of tax on the fuel. Now that insurance and vehicle registrations/MOTs are linked we should abandon road tax and increase fuel duty.
Maybe a luxury tax on cars over £20K would be a good idea, just to reduce the number of overpriced, over-equipped monstrosities
March 29th, 2006 at 6:05 pm
Dear Consultant K,
This is indeed correct, and taxing by CO2 produced, which equates to fuel used, is, ultimately the best way of doing it. However, most people do not think like that, and only consider costs when they come along in a big lump, or if they are larger. Thus, a larger road tax could act as a psychological deterent to the 4wd drivers.
Then again, if they are stupid enough to buy a 4wd to drive about a town….
March 30th, 2006 at 9:44 am
Dear Anonymous, I agree that people do recognise the pain of large sums of money but do still disagree that road tax is the way. Road tax is a very very costly to collect and recent govt statistics suggest that it costs almost £30 per disc issued. The UK is awash with taxes and the sooner we simplify the system the better, as it will make tax levels more transparent and also dramatically reduce the cost of administration.
Rather than car tax maybe we should have warnings on pumps in the same way that we have warnings on cigarettes?
March 30th, 2006 at 1:59 pm
Perhaps, along the same lines as smoking, we could simply ban the use of such unnecessary vehicles in unnecessary locations (i.e., town centres…)