Filed under: Car Buying, Maintenance, Trends, Hybrids/Alternative
Tax hybrids to pay for lost revenue?
Tax buyers of hybrid vehicles to make up for the revenue (from gas and diesel taxes) lost by the state?
That’s the reasoning behind an unsubstantiated report found in the Alabama news source, the Cullman Times. But it reflects a concern over the effects of hybrid vehicles on government coffers. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, twenty percent of the price for each gallon of gas is directed towards taxes. That can equate to a good-sized chunk of change lost on such vehicles as the new Civic hybrid, which sips less fuel than its gas-powered counterpart and therefore requires less gallons of taxable gas to keep going.
Such taxes (called disincentives) as well as “pay by miles driven” programs are being considered in state legislatures such as California (where hybrids are very popular) and Oregon.
And Alabama? State officials deny such reports. Says Representative Jeremy Oden: "They're (hybrid cars) really not prolific enough in Alabama to impact our tax structure much. I don't know of anything concerning hybrid cars being talked about right now."
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Charles S 6:38PM (2/01/2006)
Oh, that's a good one.
I guess with the same logic, we should go ahead and import more oil, give away our money to Middle East, because selling more oil to the public is a good thing, right?
To attack hybrids, haters want to make it seems that hybrids are taking money away from the public. So let's see how taxing hybrids will help:
1) hybrids are so expensive that people stop buying them.
2) since there are fewer fuel-saving cars around, demand for oil does not change, and with the trend in the past, it'll probably increase.
3) gas prices increase due to shortage in supply, and all the tax collected from gasoline sales end up offsetting increase in municiple and state cost for their own fuel consumption.
So for the amount that was lost in sales of gasoline, the gov't just pay more money to buy gas for themselves, and really just giving money away to the corporations and the Middle East.
Yeah, that's smart.
Hybrids help America by using less gasoline, thus help keep the price down during a shortage. Yes, taxation is a source of revenue for the gov't, but it is also a tool that gov't use to push its policy. We can live in a dream world and think that "market" will correct itself, but in most cases, the market will never react fast enough if prices spike too high, too fast.
If oil prices goes up to $5 a gallon, do people think any automakers, US or Japanese, can survive the dramatic drop in auto sales? Not even Toyota can live on selling just Prius/Yaris alone in 2006.
Instead of helping the Middle East get more money from us by guzzling more gas, we should promote lower usage for foreign oil!
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Charles S 6:44PM (2/01/2006)
By the way, isn't gas tax a set number? Not a percentage, right?
So as prices for gasoline increase, and people end up using LESS gasoline, doesn't THAT mean the gov't get even less revenue?
If if gov't tax hybrids, and slow its sales, the result gas shortage will end up that the gov't collect LESS revenue anyway, and WORSE, because of higher prices, gov't will pay MORE for its own gas.
I'd suggest that taxing gas-guzzlers size of the equation would help us lower prices at the pumps, and help make up the loss in lower volume sales of gasoline.
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Lee Gibson 6:47PM (2/01/2006)
It's pretty simple.
If you use more gas, you pay more taxes.
If you use less gas, you pay more taxes.
It's almost like the organization that benefits from taxes gets to make new taxes. What a brilliant idea that was!
"Mr. Fox? Would you please watch my henhouse?"
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Justin 7:11PM (2/01/2006)
This is the dumbest idea I have ever read by far. Why would you discourage people from buying fuel efficent vehicles?
STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID
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iQuack 7:14PM (2/01/2006)
I think it's funny (the ha,ha, kind of funny).
So lower gasoline usage results in less gas tax revenue for the states--perhaps the same states that try to encourage conservation.
Two observations:
1. There are unintended consequences to almost everything;
2. Be careful what you wish for. You might get it and be bitten on the ass, too.
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Gary 7:46PM (2/01/2006)
Remember that NOTHING can get in the way of more revenue for the state. Not high-mileage hybrids, not the Bill of Rights, NOTHING.
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K 7:50PM (2/01/2006)
Good idea. Tax hybrids for not burning fuel.
Then, gather records and tax owners who minimize driving to save fuel. The fine can be paid with the car license fee. Tax used car sales if the car has low miles.
Tax car leases that limit miles per year.
Tax people who use mass transit and don't do their share of driving.
Tax stations who don't sell enough fuel.
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beken 7:51PM (2/01/2006)
That's as funny as the post office calling on the government to tax internet service users because email has taken away their business.
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Kesey 8:42PM (2/01/2006)
With this logic they should tax me and my bicycle (you read me, tax my bicylce too). I mean, I use the roads without paying my 20%.
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rip 8:42PM (2/01/2006)
hahaha, its like the cigarette tax.
They say they have the tax to stop people from smoking. But the dirty little secret is that they don't actually want people to stop smoking. They'd rather have the tax revenue. Hypocrites.
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Ryan 9:09PM (2/01/2006)
One thing is for sure, that has to be the most bad ass picture (above) of the Prius I have ever seen!!! :-)
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Alan 9:36PM (2/01/2006)
Now that's pathetic. Not only pathetic but absurd.
It's weird how lobbying is so explicit in the USA. But "disincentivating" people into adopting cheaper and cleaner energy is crossing the line, I think.
Hopefully, it won't go too far.
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JGN 10:11PM (2/01/2006)
Tax Hybrids for doing good but turn a blind eye to the record setting profits Oil Companies are making? crazy.
Exxon Mobil could be paying 5% more in taxes and still be making some of the best profits ever recorded.
It just shows who is running this country.
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Rastus 10:48PM (2/01/2006)
It all starts with you (and me). Remember that you fat ass overconsuming swine out there, stuffing your face in the trough of filth called "individualism" (ie, F-350s and Suburbans to get to work and back)...that Yes, there is an interdependency on this planet called earth.
Oh sure, that idea strikes you as "socialist" and it flies completely in the face of your "rugged" Marlboro individualism...but one of these days there will be a reconkoning. You will one day look at your kids (typically the ones you can't afford to feed, because we know what kind of person you are)..and say "well, GDammit, I got MINE! Go to hell!!".
I agree, that IS a beautiful picture above...very much so :+) Why? Easy, because GM for all its much touted "Worlds Largest Automaker"...still to this day, in 2006, can't build one ;D
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Rastus 10:51PM (2/01/2006)
sp...reckoning
Love all you Prius owners out there...thanks, somone out here appreciates it.
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Charles S 11:22PM (2/01/2006)
I know there are a lot of anti-taxation people on automotive board, but roads don't build themselves. Tax is a necessary part of the government. Yes, I know that gov't can be wasteful, that is why our gov't should be transparent, and not secretive like Cheney holding secret Energy Policy meetings with oil executives. We can control our gov't if we only participate and watch what our elected officials are doing in our name.
Tax is also a way for the gov't to push an agenda; such as tax breaks for homeowners.
The point here is that we can't let "market forces" regulate the gas prices anymore. Any sudden shortage in gas will hurt everyone, and our economy could even spiral out of control. How many of you have retirement savings in the market? If market spiral out of control, you will own nothing but useless papers.
If Bush is serious about weening us from oil, he'd start taxing the crap out of gas-guzzlers. Hate hybrids? Take one Hummer off the road and you are welcome to get rid of THREE Prius. Yep, one Hummer traveling the same distance will use up MORE gas than three Prius together.
Distracting us with promises on how Bush supports ethonal mean little today. It's no different than telling us that soon all cars will be running on hydrogen. Hydrogen or ethonal, all these things will take a few years to a few decades before see some real results. If there is a war in Middle East next month, there is a protential of a lot of a serious economic downturn.
Tax the heck out trucks that are NOT used for what its intended to do, and in return give breaks to truckers who are delivering goods to our stores.
Want simple tax codes? Go live in Russia for awhile and see how great such a "tax-free" society is like. No, it's not that they don't have a tax system, but people often do not pay. Russia is essentailly a capitalist paradise, the rich few run and own just about all the profittable enterprises. Gov't with little revenue do practically NOTHING for its citizens.
Seriously, we got it real good, and we have so much money as a middle class that plenty of us can afford cars, and spend time here arguing on the internet.
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WHAT !? .. 12:40AM (2/02/2006)
who the F thought of this stupid tax ?? GM, Ford, Chevron or Mobile ?? You tax people for saving gas ?? WTF ?? If this tax ever goes through, I'll be moving to canada.
stupid F' American.
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Dr. Woo 4:36AM (2/02/2006)
Punishing people for being efficient is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard of. Hopefully any legislation introduced for such a purpose will be shot down with a Patriot missile.
Taxes are a necessary evil for such public services as police, firefighters, roads, and the military. While I'd love to see more organization and restraint (cut back on the military, focus on homeland security, increase the pay of police and firefighters, keep our roads smooth), I'm not counting on it. Nobody knows just how big our tax code is. It's bloated out of control, and just adding new taxes is only feeding the problem.
We don't NEED new taxes. We need fiscal responsibility, tax code cleanup, cuts in spending, then finally cuts in the taxes that we DO pay. When taxes run so rampant that politicians can get away with outrageous embezzling for years before anyone notices, it's time to sit back, take a look at what's wrong, and fix it.
What's saddest of all is that I couldn't live as a citizen anywhere else. We may have a ridiculous tax code and no fiscal stability, but our taxes paid pale in comparison to many other Western countries. Ask a Dutch man how much he just paid for his VW Golf, then have him tell you how much of that was taxes.
Okay, that might not be so sad. I love America. I love her so much that I want things changed so I never have to move away. But don't tax people who are making an attempt to be more economical and sensical. Talk about totally defeating any incentive to do so.
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M1EK 9:13AM (2/02/2006)
I'm a hybrid driver who wouldn't mind paying more for the roads at the time I drove - as long as they were tolls, and they varied by time of day (to serve as an incentive to make more efficient use of the roadway). This should, at first, be used only to displace road funding currently obtained from property and sales taxes (which are particularly heavily used for roads here in Texas), since that's the worst disincentive of all, far worse than doing anything with the gas tax.
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bernie 9:15AM (2/02/2006)
I like the Alabama officials in their infinite wisdom saying "they juss ain't all that many hybrids and fern cars around heuh to worry about."
They missed the point should have looked at it and called it what it is... a stupid-ass idea.
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