Vehicle tax

[bigbob]

My Ghibli is only £285. v6 has lower emissions it would seem.

Yep the non S petrol is cheaper. They need to sort out the emissions of the S as it is now not competititve.

How's the remap?

 

[conaero]

I mean, I have 5 cars and I can only drive one of them at anyone time, where is the logic in taxing them all???

 

[zagatoes30]

I mean, I have 5 cars and I can only drive one of them at anyone time, where is the logic in taxing them all???

I agree, I have 7, but I also like the flexibility to drive what I want when I want too - hence where the fuel supplement would suit me - I only pay for what I drive.

I do SORN cars when I know I am not going to be using them and the DD system helps but generally I will have cars that are taxed and not used for a whole month.

 

[jluis]

A fiscalist in Portugal once said we can argue all we want about how tax is collected (this being because in Portugal around 30 to 50% of the price for a new car is tax and the fuel price per liter is more than 50% of tax)
At the end of the day, the goverment needs a certain ammount of taxes to run so it will only shift the payment from one tax to another.

You have to remember than in Europe today the fuel price already contains an horrendous amount of tax so raising it further would probably be highly unpopular.

 

[conaero]

I agree, I have 7, but I also like the flexibility to drive what I want when I want too - hence where the fuel supplement would suit me - I only pay for what I drive.

I do SORN cars when I know I am not going to be using them and the DD system helps but generally I will have cars that are taxed and not used for a whole month.

Agreed.

 

[TridentTested]

As a low mileage driver, I'm all in favour of putting the duty on petrol - despite have an 18 mpg car. It's relatively easy to do as GB is, for the most part, an island - popping over the border to fuel up in Luxembourg isn't really an option. Obviously cross-border traffic between Ireland and Northern Ireland would hot up.

Don't moan too much about road tax not tackling the pot-holes. Roads are paid for from your Council Tax and if motorists really paid the true costs motoring puts on the exchequer our fuel and VED bills would be going up quite a bit https://twitter.com/beztweets/status/555767128796954625

 

[daverichardson]

Well my rant has prompted 3 pages of differing comments
All equally valid
My moan really was about value for money from this tax and the fairness or lack of that it generates
I suspect there is no real answer, it is low on the governments priorities and they are quite happy to keep collecting as is.

 

[CatmanV2]

Given that VED has not been hypothecated since 1937 it's not clear to me on what you wish to base your judgment of value.

I've just been to the doctor, for example. My father had his leg amputated last week, and my mother in law also had an operation. Contrary to popular perception, the NHS seems to be working pretty well. (Yes I'm sure there are plenty of opposite views). From my perspective general taxation seems to be working OK.

C

 

[daverichardson]

Sorry to read about your family problems and I wish them well.
I agree with you about the NHS as evidenced in different thread and I have certainly had my money's worth
I paid my taxes and NI or whatever in order to access this service and that is fine but I am not sure what service I receive for the Road Tax payment, please enlighten me

 

[CatmanV2]

Sorry to read about your family problems and I wish them well.
I agree with you about the NHS as evidenced in different thread and I have certainly had my money's worth
I paid my taxes and NI or whatever in order to access this service and that is fine but I am not sure what service I receive for the Road Tax payment, please enlighten me

Road tax is part of the general taxation pool. It is spent on whatever the government wishes to spend it on.

In fact, as far as I can tell (and I am no expert) there are no hypothecated taxes in the UK, although the TV licence may apply (I am not an economist)

My point is only that the service you receive for your VED is the same as the service you receive for all your tax payments.

I'm not suggesting this is a good thing, though

(Most kind of your wishes. I was simply observing that I have had a series of positive experiences. The family are doing well)

C

 

[daverichardson]

This is most interesting (to me)
So if all taxes go into a bucket and are divided up as whichever government sees fit
Then what is the rationale behind VAT?
This replaced Purchase Tax and some things are exempt, but I innocently thought it was a tax on goods that were deemed to have a significant value. In the days of Harold Wilson VAT was levied on goods that were not essential and so Joe Public could do without the goods for a while until they had saved or borrowed to buy them

I think we had better kill this thread soon, we are straying............................

 

[CatmanV2]

This is most interesting (to me)
So if all taxes go into a bucket and are divided up as whichever government sees fit
Then what is the rationale behind VAT?
This replaced Purchase Tax and some things are exempt, but I innocently thought it was a tax on goods that were deemed to have a significant value. In the days of Harold Wilson VAT was levied on goods that were not essential and so Joe Public could do without the goods for a while until they had saved or borrowed to buy them

I think we had better kill this thread soon, we are straying............................

Just another way of funding our government. VAT is generally charged on 'non essentials' but the definitions are mind boggling.

So sanitary towels are are essential, tampons are not (if memory serves), and even worse googling for Jaffa Cakes and VAT should prove entertaining.

C

 

[TridentTested]

I think we had better kill this thread soon, we are straying............................

Thread drift is all part of the fun

Governments (that's us, in representative democracies) are always looking for ways to get tax from us for the things we want.

All have problems.

The problem with income tax is it has become, for the higher income earners, discretionary - with all sorts of legal and semi-legal ways of avoiding it. It's only the middle earners who really pay it - and they're not enough to keep everything going.

VAT is harder to avoid. It's got nothing to do with luxury goods, that's just a veneer for PR purposes. It's on everything, or nearly everything, because they can. But the problem is most countries have discovered 20% is the max people will pay. I'm from Ireland where we endured 33% in the early '80s. Of course such a rate is counter-productive as it simply turns the whole economy into a black economy; avoiding the Vat-man becomes socially acceptable and normalised. Revenues plummet. The economy slows down.

Motoring costs are actually quite heavily subsidised by the tax-payer - despite the cries of the "war on the motorist" - but as this thread demonstrates there is very little political appetite to expect Joe citizen to pay any more for his petrol or VED. And transport is needed in the economy, you can't tax it out of existence or the economy stops.

I expect future governments will turn to property. Council Tax (in the UK) is a bit of a strange tax; stuck to 1990s property values. A great big physical house is hard to hide and ultimately I expect governments to come looking for some additional property tax. It's happened in Ireland and Greece when austerity governments have had to look hard and find new sources of income.

 

[bigbob]

Yep the mansion tax is still coming but via a council tax revamp. Will hit harder in Scotland as aspiration and success are not encouraged up here at the moment. Still these things run in cycles so this is where we are for now.

 

[outrun]

Yep the mansion tax is still coming but via a council tax revamp. Will hit harder in Scotland as aspiration and success are not encouraged up here at the moment. Still these things run in cycles so this is where we are for now.

I like you're subtlety there Bob. Only socialist values and moaning that we are getting a bad deal on everything possible are encouraged up here right now.

The remap is epic, the best £360 (I know!) i've spent on a car in ages. The extra bhp is designed to come in during sport mode and so it retains the ability to be a cruiser and then to become a hooligan when the button is pressed. Wicked.

 

[TridentTested]

Ha ha, now we know Osborne reads SportsMaserati.

He is obviously worried about what we've been saying about pot-holes and has announced in today's budget that Road Tax will be hypothecated for roads.

 

[daverichardson]

Wow
We have some power!!!
Thanks mate I must read up on it