Yahoo Answers is shutting down on 4 May 2021 (Eastern Time) and the Yahoo Answers website is now in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

Is it fair or reasonable that new cars are taxed at just £30 a year?

Some are even tax free!

http://www.whatcar.com/car-news/road-tax-rates-201...

I mean seriously, do people who can afford to buy a new car really need a tax discount? And who is paying for the shortfall? There are all these new cars coming on to the roads while old cars are being crushed because they "cause pollution" (of course there is no pollution at all involved in making a new car) but the Government is still going to want the same revenue.

4 Answers

Relevance
  • UK Dad
    Lv 6
    8 years ago
    Favourite answer

    It's time road tax was totally reformed and added to fuel prices, that way the higher road users would pay their share of tax. It would also catch drivers who don't pay tax.

    I am retired and drive my camper around 5000 miles a year but still pay £270 road tax.

    So called "green taxes" are nothing but a big con to extract more money from the already overtaxed public.

  • 8 years ago

    The government has decided to encourage manufacturers to produce lower emission cars and to get people to buy them by graduating the cost of car tax.

    While the tax is less the cost of buying is higher and so are the losses from depreciation.

    You are right to point out that making a car has a very high environmental cost and this is not taken into account in car tax.

    I am afraid this is an issue that people have voted on and chosen the party they wanted in government. We have a lot of government by sound byte now. Sounds good but the detail is not so clear and good,

    Such is the way of the world.

    My 1986 car is much greener as it has lasted so much longer than many new cars but I am still hit by the car tax.

  • 8 years ago

    Don't know if you have noticed but we don't have any heavy industry any more, take the car industry as you have mentioned it, 90% of all parts made are made abroad we only assemble them them here so the pollution isn't ours, so it don't count, we only use the end product, so a lower tax can be put on the carbon emissions, not the carbon it takes to manufacture, you have seen the pollution in China and India, that where all the manufacturing has gone, remember all the smog and fogs of the 50's and 60's where you could walk in fog and smog and go up stairs on a double decker bus and its clear blue sky that's where its all gone

  • ?
    Lv 7
    8 years ago

    It's a 'Reward' for buying a 'greener' car.

    Who is "Paying the shortfall"....? People like me, My Mitsubishi Shogun costs me £475 per year in Road Tax.

Still have questions? Get answers by asking now.