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Tax sting for low emission cars


Dave
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What I don't get is the way that low emission cars are taxed for BIK as well as road tax.

OK, so at the minute, the govt is trying to encourage people to switch. But what happens in 10 years time (or probably less) when most people are on low emission cars and there's no money coming in from road tax and BIK tax? Stick the tax on emitting cars, or be realistic and make everyone pay tax.

Or would be taxing at the pump be too straightforward, whether it's petrol, gas or hydrogen?

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The list of the 13 cars which will fall into the lowest band is hardly inspiring although I did expect it to be full of Gee Wiz's etc at least there are normal cars on there such as the Golf/Seat/C30 etc but it's all the ones with 'Eco' in their titles. :(

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Makes a mockery of all these companies bringing out lower and lower emmission cars to fit in the narrowing band of low tax status BIK.

Why bother spending all that R&D cash just maybe for a few years of good sales.

couple that with different standards from different countries and the car companies won't know what to do. The only constant is the Euro 4/5/6 emmisions regs.

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Company cars are a mugs game . We long ago got rid of all our compan cars so the BIK etc don't apply.

The drive by government to switch people into low emission cars will ultimately lead to a big fall in tax income at which point the govenment will move the goal posts.

The Prius is a truly awful car to drive even if someone was to offer me one for free I would decline. A Polo Bluemotion is a much better choice IMHO.

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The whole taxing for the sake of the enviroment is a total farce. Does it really move people into lower polluting vehicles? Doing things like this then it's obviously less.

Motorbikes reduce congestion massively and generally run high mpg figures but even so the government is steadily pushing up the road tax. They're not trying to encourage anyone to do anything for the environment. It's being used purely as a tool to extract more cash from our wallets......but we all knew that. This is just yet another example of it.

:mad:

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What I don't understand is how they tax you on co2 g/km when it has absolutely nothing to do with how much pollution you actually produce.

i.e if you car is putting out 300 g/km and you do 5k miles a year, where as a diesel driver is doing 120 g/km and doing 30k miles a year - why should you be penalised driving a 300 g/km car when you are polluting less.

As for the BIK on company cars, it is a ridiculous system :ffs:

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i.e if you car is putting out 300 g/km and you do 5k miles a year, where as a diesel driver is doing 120 g/km and doing 30k miles a year - why should you be penalised driving a 300 g/km car when you are polluting less.

Exactly and I argued that point when I was doing around 6k miles a year in my 4.2 V8 S4.

The very obvious solution is to tax via fuel i.e. you pay what you use. However if the government said this then there'd be uproar as we already have a rediculous price for fuel. I've held the belief for a number of years that the whole thing is a big farce where they make us all pi55ed off with the unfair system so that the public then demands it's done via fuel. Effectively it means that public opinion would welcome it in place of the current unfair system. If however they just said we're gonna do it without the public behind them then they'd lose too many votes.

Or am I getting to close to conspiracy theory ? :confused:

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Exactly and I argued that point when I was doing around 6k miles a year in my 4.2 V8 S4.

The very obvious solution is to tax via fuel i.e. you pay what you use. However if the government said this then there'd be uproar as we already have a rediculous price for fuel. I've held the belief for a number of years that the whole thing is a big farce where they make us all pi55ed off with the unfair system so that the public then demands it's done via fuel. Effectively it means that public opinion would welcome it in place of the current unfair system. If however they just said we're gonna do it without the public behind them then they'd lose too many votes.

Or am I getting to close to conspiracy theory ? :confused:

I think that company car tax is not a vote loser as it doesn't affect enough people to really make a difference.

I also think that road tax isn't a big vote loser either, as the masses just want to see rich people in posh cars taxed to the hilt, regardless of the environmental implications.

Petrol prices are a tetchy issue which tend to attract a lot of press - although aren't we getting another 3p rise tomorrow, or was it postponed?

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What I don't understand is how they tax you on co2 g/km when it has absolutely nothing to do with how much pollution you actually produce.

i.e if you car is putting out 300 g/km and you do 5k miles a year, where as a diesel driver is doing 120 g/km and doing 30k miles a year - why should you be penalised driving a 300 g/km car when you are polluting less.

Which is exactly why road tax should be scrapped and all tax should be put on fuel - petrol, diesel, LPG etc.

Yes, I've got a toy that does 22mpg on the road and 9mpg on track, but I've got a daily driver that does 30+. Guess which I use more often...

Why won't someone in govt wake up to this (not my petrol consumption - the tax on fuel thing)

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I think, sadly from an political point of view driving and fuel are old hat and most people just expect to pay more.

ALot of people who had company cars (and cared) in the past say back in the 80s-90s are mainly retiring/retired. I suspect there main lines of thoughts are an increase in tax to keep paying for them now there old!

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