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Post by gabzimiev on Mar 17, 2014 17:27:41 GMT 11
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Post by markrmarkr on Mar 18, 2014 7:25:01 GMT 11
The thing about taxes is that they are not all bad. Good taxes try to have several (normally two) purposes, and it's not difficult to make them serve two purposes. The first is usually to raise revenue to pay for something relate to the activity being taxed, and the second is to encourage a change in behavior.
Tobacco is a classic example. Very highly taxed, and the taxes serve two purposes - to pay for some of the medical cost smoking will lead to; and to discourage people from smoking.
In the case of cars, I see taxing fuel as a good thing because it discourages people from using petrol while paying for road maintenance in a way that roughly correlates to the damage done to the roads by the size of the vehicle. This is rough because large trucks do damage equivalent to thousands of cars but don't use thousands of time the fuel. So it's not perfect. I don't think I need to go into why we need people to stop using petrol on this forum.
If we were to switch to a vehicle based tax system who thinks it would be as good or better than the fuel based taxing system? Not me.
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Post by riddick on Mar 18, 2014 10:14:23 GMT 11
I don't think we have to worry while our numbers are in the hundreds or even thousands. No one will change the laws as the implementation and changeover will cost way more then the result. There may definitely be a case by the time we are in the hundred thousands...
In the meantime, I do hope that petrol goes sky high...
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Post by Brian on Mar 19, 2014 19:02:07 GMT 11
The Government tax bean-counters may not like us because we are not contributing to their fossil fuel revenues.
But, unlike enlightened countries, we have received none of the incentives available overseas. So, I figure we need some break, however small.
A distance-driven tax would be punitive to us, and would not reflect the benefits we provide to city air quality. Just because, like Mr Abbott, we can't see it does not mean that all is well with our city air quality. Medicine is finding increasing evidence of the adverse health effects of airborne particulates produced by out fossil fuel burning brethren. Cities like Beijing, Paris and London are taking steps to reduce their air pollution.
Whilst I would support an increase in the fuel price as a means to wean the population off it's fossil fuel dependency, it must be born in mind that it would be inflationary.
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Post by stewartm on Mar 20, 2014 20:31:54 GMT 11
Whilst we have a conservative government in they wont tax distance driving on all the country people, that would not be seen as looking after the heartland. I do not that in Qld the registration duty is much cheaper for electric and hybrid,
Vehicle type Amount per $100
Hybrid vehicle (any no. of cylinders)
Electric vehicles $2.00
Vehicle with 1 to 4 cylinders
Vehicle with 2 rotors
Steam vehicle $3.00
Vehicle with 5 or 6 cylinders
Vehicle with 3 rotors $3.50
Vehicle with 7 or more cylinders $4.00
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