Motor Tax Changes

[Big H]

It's no surprise that with the arse falling out of motor tax takings due to the advent of the 'low tax' cars of the past decade (and will get worse as Hybrids/Electrics get further traction), some inevitable changes are in the pipeline.

While nothing formal has been announced, how do people see this going ?

In the short term, it'll just be probably a slight tweaking of the existing Co2 bands, but will the pre '08 bands be ammended also (as someone with a 2.5 & a 3.0 pre Co2 based car, this could get nasty)......

Thoughts

[JohnH]

While nothing formal has been announced, how do people see this going ?

I think it’ll be quite simple.

There’ll be a big hullabaloo about how it’s good for us all but in the end the average Joe in a regular family car will end up paying more!

[rebel.ranter]

As long as they screw the 2008-2018 cars I'm OK with that!

Really, they need to do a reducing balance approach but I'd say their systems are not capable of managing such a system. It is not fair that someone who can afford a €100k plus Tesla gets the cheapest rate of tax while those struggling to own a 2007 ford Focus pays multiples of the Tesla tax.

[kdevitt]

As long as they screw the 2008-2018 cars I'm OK with that!

Really, they need to do a reducing balance approach but I'd say their systems are not capable of managing such a system. It is not fair that someone who can afford a €100k plus Tesla gets the cheapest rate of tax while those struggling to own a 2007 ford Focus pays multiples of the Tesla tax.

To be fair, someone buying a €100k car is already handing over a fair chunk of cash to the revenue commissioners in the form of VAT and VRT.

[Ketron]

As long as they screw the 2008-2018 cars I'm OK with that!

Really, they need to do a reducing balance approach but I'd say their systems are not capable of managing such a system. It is not fair that someone who can afford a €100k plus Tesla gets the cheapest rate of tax while those struggling to own a 2007 ford Focus pays multiples of the Tesla tax.

Fairest way would surely be a set percentage of the current OMSP? Revenue already OMSP have figures, so say something like 2% of OMSP revised yearly?

I'd say diesels will be slowly targeted under some environmental initiative.

[kdevitt]

I’m kind of a fan of the Australian system. Road tax is fixed amount, based off the weight of the car. Then each car sale has stamp duty charged on it - you have to pay it when registering the car in your own name. Not such a big fan of their luxury car tax though!

[Big H]

Personally, I'm a fan of taxing usage (and not the car itself). As said already, if you're paying €100k+ for a car, you're already handing over a big wedge in VRT & VAT.

The only realistic way of doing this is abolishing motortax (or at least vastly reduce the rates) and increase fuel taxes, so the more you use, the more you pay. It's the only fair system really (yes I know it would hammer rural people more than city dwellers). At least you would have the option of not using the car and it would encourage car sharing, bus, Luas, walking, cycling, whatever.
At least you can have a car for weekend duties without having to pay for its large periods of non-use.

Why should I have to pay totally unethical motortax rates on a 3 litre petrol that will only do 5k miles a year versus someone in a 1.6 diesel Passat (paying less than €200 pa) but doing 30,000 miles a year ? Morally & ethically wrong !

[doyleeoin]

Personally, I'm a fan of taxing usage (and not the car itself). As said already, if you're paying €100k+ for a car, you're already handing over a big wedge in VRT & VAT.

The only realistic way of doing this is abolishing motortax (or at least vastly reduce the rates) and increase fuel taxes, so the more you use, the more you pay. It's the only fair system really (yes I know it would hammer rural people more than city dwellers). At least you would have the option of not using the car and it would encourage car sharing, bus, Luas, walking, cycling, whatever.
At least you can have a car for weekend duties without having to pay for its large periods of non-use.

Why should I have to pay totally unethical motortax rates on a 3 litre petrol that will only do 5k miles a year versus someone in a 1.6 diesel Passat (paying less than €200 pa) but doing 30,000 miles a year ? Morally & ethically wrong !

This is the only way it should be done in my view. Remove the annual charge and tax the fuel.

[NickThePartsGuy]

id rather see a usage tax instead of what we have now
tax on the overall annual mileage (more miles you cover the lower you pay as you car is then looked at as a necessity)

with fuel as it is already it could price a lot of the bigger cars off the roads altogether if you go down the road of taxing fuel

priushaus just doesn't have the same ring to it

[Dave]

id rather see a usage tax instead of what we have now
tax on the overall annual mileage (more miles you cover the lower you pay as you car is then looked at as a necessity)

with fuel as it is already it could price a lot of the bigger cars off the roads altogether if you go down the road of taxing fuel

priushaus just doesn't have the same ring to it

I think it would be the opposite, a the moment, a big petrol is 10 times the road tax of your average ecobox, if you were to put it on fuel, it would be twice to three times the tax paid on an ecobox. Also if you're running multiple cars, you can use them as you please rather than having to declare them on and off the road in three month stints.