Car Tax - Surely theres enough of us

Seth Brundle

jozi wrote:

The tax is to pay for road maintenance, rite?

Lighter cars damage the road less, presumably. (wear and tear)

Why not pay tax in relation to the weight of the car? (to my knowledge they do it this way in holland)

If I have two cars would I have to pay for each one even though I can only drive one at a time?

jozi

kbannon wrote:

If I have two cars would I have to pay for each one even though I can only drive one at a time?

Good one!

You pay tax for all your cars now i presume?

Golferx

jozi wrote:

The tax is to pay for road maintenance, rite?

Lighter cars damage the road less, presumably. (wear and tear)

Why not pay tax in relation to the weight of the car? (to my knowledge they do it this way in holland)

Wrong. Motor Tax is NOT for Road Maintenance.

Some years ago when the spongers of Dublin decided they should not have to pay for their water supply, the Government caved in and let them off with the charge. Now, to the people of the countryside who do pay for their water, this seemed like a damm fine unequal thing to do. So Govt, in their infinite wisdom decide on two actions

1. All Motor Tax (Road tax) revenue would now go to the coffers of the Local Authority (Co Council, or City Council) for their day to day running expenses . (To compensate them for the loss of water charge revenue.)

and

2. They decided to offer a "Grant" to any country dweller who needed to change their water pump. To placate them for the City folk getting their water for free.

For Road Maintenance, each council applies to Central Government for funds.


The fairest tax would be one on fuel. It would penalise those who use the roads. How to implement it doesn't really matter because it aint going to happen.

vector

RobAMerc wrote:

Surely there is enough of us to get a petition together to make road tax based on usage rather than ownership of the car ?

I am sick to the back teeth of paying €750 odd euro for a "big" engined (2.2) which sits in my driveway because I choose to cycle or take the wifes smaller cc'd car to work (As the government suggests I do).

please don't mention this to the govt, they'll just keep the existing tax system AND introduce road usage charging

the current system is fine for me (I don't have much money to spare), it costs EUR 151 per annum for tax, and the price of petrol regulates how much I drive

Seth Brundle

jozi wrote:

Good one!

You pay tax for all your cars now i presume?

I only have one!
My point was that, given the discussion, most taxation options including the one in place are extremely unfair and do not follow the polluter pays principle. Having to tax a car based on its kerb weight regardless of the mileage covered is unfair.

McSandwich

Cion&#225 wrote: »

So everyone in rural ireland should jump ship to a city? - families might have owned that house / land for generations, some places in the west are miles from anywhere!!

No, urban driving wastes a lot more fuel compared to driving in the country.

ninty9er

I'd expect something along the lines of an annual tax as we know it based on the Co2 emissions quoted on the VLC in the 2008 Finance Act in December.

While not perfect, there are a lot of people who just couldnt afford the extra weekly cost of petrol...I'm even struggling at current prices!!

Cionád

McSandwich wrote:

No, urban driving wastes a lot more fuel compared to driving in the country.

My point is people in urban areas have alternates to driving (walking, cycling, public transport) that would often not be available to rural folk.

OKenora

There is another use for motor tax that has been overlooked. It is a simple method of checking that your car is insured and NCT'ed (yes there's ways about but in general)

Is it possible that if valid Insurance and NCT was no longer needed to tax the car that there would be a rise in people driving un-insured and with no NCT, possibly on forged discs ?

If the Gardai had a live online system to check Insurance at the roadside like most other countries in Europe then fine, as the possibility of fake insurance discs could be eliminated but they do not have a system even approaching this yet.

Right now a car un-taxed sends a warning to a Garda that there may be other documents not in force for the car.....

Tipsy Mac

A valid NCT is not needed to tax a car, also no check whatsover is done by the DOE to check that the insurance details you provide are valid, you could write your telephone number on it and it and chances are it would get through the system

Kadeshh

half road tax, half petrol prices, everybody happy.

theres not enough of us in ireland to make the slightest bit of enviromental impact whatsoever on a global scale (and besides by recycling and using windfarms we can justify it by saying its "carbon offsetting":D )