Tax you for the miles you drive now?

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 8:41 am

I swear they will find any way they can to keep you from making money or saving money. Now they will tax you for the miles you drive!!

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says he wants to consider taxing motorists based on how many miles they drive rather than how much gasoline they burn.

of course they will have the ability to track your every move... and knock down the idea of getting a better car that uses less gas to help the environment.

A tentative plan in Massachusetts to use GPS chips in vehicles to charge motorists by the mile has drawn complaints from drivers who say it's an Orwellian intrusion by government into the lives of citizens. Other motorists say it eliminates an incentive to drive more fuel-efficient cars since gas guzzlers will be taxed at the same rate as fuel sippers.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/ ... sBySection

brembo · Post by **brembo** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 8:53 am

GPS is easily defeated. The cash outlay in the beginning would be prohibitive as well.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 9:33 am

A certain song by the Police is coming to mind....

Next...the new socialist government will tax "Every Breath you Take"

Have your own fresh water well providing H2O for your house? They'll take that by the gallon too.

Brk · Post by **Brk** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 10:01 am

Sava700 wrote:of course they will have the ability to track your every move

zomg tinfoil hat!

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 10:03 am

Burke wrote:zomg tinfoil hat!

I put that in there for you.. you took the bait.

SeedOfChaos · Post by **SeedOfChaos** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 10:18 am

brembo wrote:GPS is easily defeated. The cash outlay in the beginning would be prohibitive as well.

Prohibitive? The Netherlands will introduce such a system in the next decade, first for trucks, then for passenger cars.

While I'm strongly against any such system due to privacy concerns, I do understand where the legislation here comes from. Our system will have different toll rates depending on the road used and time of day, mostly to make some highways actually usable again - the core of the Netherlands around Amsterdam and Rotterdam is one big traffic jam every day. Also, it will make the extremely stupid BPM go away (a sort luxury tax on all cars... of more than 40% - in addition to the 19% sales tax...) as well as existing road tax. You pay for use, and that's it. Given that I only drive about 2k miles a year with my car, it will most likely be financially beneficial for me.

Tracking... blaaa - never keep your mobile phone on while you drive your car, otherwise you can easily be tracked already. Still, I don't like it. But since I do keep my mobile on, that traffic tracking bit won't hurt me.

brembo · Post by **brembo** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 10:36 am

SeedOfChaos wrote:Prohibitive? The Netherlands will introduce such a system in the next decade, first for trucks, then for passenger cars.

Yeah, with our population it'll be a big undertaking to outfit all types of vehicles that use the public road systems. I'm seeing 62 million registered cars in the US, whereas the Neds has a TOTAL human pop of 16 million and some change.

The road systems in the US are also a bit more complicated. The three big providers are FEDERAL, STATE and local MUNICIPALITY. If I got a tax bill from a local city for using a FEDERAL road I'd be pretty ticked. I dunno why they'd wanna scrap the gas tax which is essentially a free system to them for a GPS system that can be fooled by tech savvy people.

SeedOfChaos · Post by **SeedOfChaos** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 11:58 am

Not the gas tax, brembo. Road tax as in an annual or quarterly fee that you pay for having a registered car, in case of the NL depending mostly on fuel type (gas/diesel/lpg) and engine displacement. Gas will still be taxed...

Gixxer · Post by **Gixxer** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 4:17 pm

LaHood's talk of mileage tax nixed

White House and Transportation spokeswoman say idea won't be used

jeremyboycool · Post by **jeremyboycool** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 4:22 pm

brembo wrote:Yeah, with our population it'll be a big undertaking to outfit all types of vehicles that use the public road systems. I'm seeing 62 million registered cars in the US, whereas the Neds has a TOTAL human pop of 16 million and some change.

The road systems in the US are also a bit more complicated. The three big providers are FEDERAL, STATE and local MUNICIPALITY. If I got a tax bill from a local city for using a FEDERAL road I'd be pretty ticked. I dunno why they'd wanna scrap the gas tax which is essentially a free system to them for a GPS system that can be fooled by tech savvy people.

"GPS system that can be fooled by tech savvy people"

That's tax evasion. Some might be able to get away with it but there would be plenty of sloppy copy cats to fine.

Brk · Post by **Brk** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 4:28 pm

Well THAT's interesting, they replaced the original story with one about Obama nixing it...

Brk · Post by **Brk** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 4:29 pm

Sava700 wrote:I put that in there for you.. you took the bait.

If I thought you were smart enough to pull that kind of thing off, I would doff my cap to you.

jeremyboycool · Post by **jeremyboycool** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 4:31 pm

"Other motorists say it eliminates an incentive to drive more fuel-efficient cars since gas guzzlers will be taxed at the same rate as fuel sippers. " - From the article

This does not make any sense. An extra tax will only provide more incentive to drive cheaply.

jeremyboycool · Post by **jeremyboycool** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 4:33 pm

Burke wrote:Well THAT's interesting, they replaced the original story with one about Obama nixing it...

I didn't see the before. What changed?