Budget Day

Well..... how bad is it going to be. I have a 2.8td sitting at home in the drive way, after today the value could be half. On the radio this morning they were saying a 1.6lt could be considered a gas guzzler.

When you consider we already pay high car taxes, there going to increase them again because of the carbon footprint but yet on average, we as Europeans drive much smaller cc cars in Ireland compared to the rest of our european neighbours. Dont forget they gave themselves a very nice wage increase. They have to make up the short fall some where.

But 10% is still twice the rate of inflation. When they first mentioned recently the proposed increases for large engined cars, I thought I'd be OK; 1.6 and up!

I would have said; tax the heck out of 3.0+ (especially ministerial M-B's), but 1.6 - I was shocked...

larzyh wrote: I would have said; tax the heck out of 3.0+

 

I dont agree with this at all. Don520 hit the nail on the head there. It should be taxed on usage not engine size. I dont drive my Alpina that often, On a good week I might use it a few times over the weekend, sometimes I could go 6/7/8 weeks without using it but in order to drive it on the road it needs to have a valid tax disc on it. So if say I tax it for 3months and pay whatever it is now €350 or whatever it is and say I do 1000km over those 3 months, and someone with a 1.6 engine does 8000km over the same 3 months, all that is doing in penalising me for owning a second car, its doing nothing to help carbon emissions.

Whether they charge on engine size or usage doesn't matter too much to me.  Either way I'm screwed...... 

.... (3 cars, from 2.5l up and totalling about 40k pa miles between them)

Well, I think it's fine for society to put tax on luxury goods. I would prefer to have higher tax on large engined cars (or horsepower or emissions or weight) and less on fuel.

I think there should be more tax on alcohol, tobacco, large cars, large and second houses and fatty, sugary ready-made food. Less tax on staples like rice, pasta, potatoes and bread. Fruit and vegetables should have not VAT levied at all.

Yep! screwed at the pumps and again for tax!!!!!!!!! ouch.....why did i buy a 3.0l and a 2.0l.........

Anything we enjoy you have to pay for....fags,drink,driving fast cars....what ever next.....s##!!!  LOL

I think the public at large have been hoodwinked into believing that taxation on larger cars is the solution.
The simple fact is that the taxes are placed there because people will pay them and ultimately they will bring in a lot of revenue. Motor taxation whether its VRT or annual road tax has absolutely no direct association to the environment as it is based on one constant - engine size and not on usage which ultimately determines the environmental impact of cars.
If the government were to use the environment as a realistic factor in determining the amount of tax we should pay, then it would be fully based on fuel. However, as this would have several impacts such as rendering several civil servants "out of work" and also increasing the price of fuel to the extent that voters would become unhappy, it won't work. Also, if VRT were to be removed, what would happen the value of cars currently on the roads?
Lastly, if helping the environment was the reasoning for motor taxation policy, then why are no financial incentives given for keeping the older cars on the roads? Given the carbon footprint of a car over its lifetime, then surely we should be encouraging people to keep cars for as long as possible as the amount of energy used to create the car is huge?

Well He has Just said he is changing VRT into 7 sectors A-G ranging from 14%-36% based on Co2 from July 1st.

Motor tax is going up by 9.5% on cars under 2.5l and 11% on cars over 2.5l from 1st Feb. Well I think I will tax the car in January so.

Course they would so they could line their pockets even more by screwing you when you service the car and then give you feck all on trade in, I will never buy a car here again prefer to buy in the Uk and anyone I have bought is still on the road. Carbon Footprint

Well everyone knows that Road Tax does not go towards the roads its a tax for allowing you to drive on them not for the upkeep etc of them