West Coast Connection Forum
Lifestyle => Train of Thought => Topic started by: Don Rizzle on May 18, 2006, 08:16:15 AM
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Lib Dems plan a £2,000 road tax
The owners of cars which generate the most pollution would face annual road taxes of £2,000 under Liberal Democrat plans to tackle climate change.
The figure - 10 times the current rate - would cover high-end cars such as BMW's 7 series, Bentley Continentals and the four-by-four Porsche Cayenne.
It would apply only to new models, with exemptions for "essential" vehicles.
Airlines would also be taxed per flight rather than by passenger, to penalise companies operating half-full planes.
The party's environmental spokesman Chris Huhne said it was vital "to use green taxes as a lever in order to make our behaviour sustainable".
He said he wanted to "change the cars that we buy rather than the cars that we're using at the moment".
This was because it was important "people know exactly what they're letting themselves in for" when considering a purchase.
Mr Huhne insisted the increase would not lead to motorists retaining dilapidated cars instead of replacing them.
"The idea is not to encourage people to go on driving 'rust-buckets'," he said, "but actually to encourage them when they're purchasing a new car to buy a car which is consistent with their environmental obligations."
Current tax levels
At present, vehicles producing the greatest pollution - carbon dioxide emissions of 225 grams per kilometre or above - are taxed at £215 per year if they run on diesel fuel.
Petrol-fuelled vehicles currently face excise duty of £210, with a £200 annual charge for those powered by alternative methods of energy.
At the other end of the scale, owners of vehicles with emissions of fewer than 100 grams per kilometre are exempt from vehicle excise duty. (not applicable to any car on sale in the UK)
The Liberal Democrats' proposals state the £2,000 tax would apply to nearly 200,000 cars in the so-called 'Band G', some eight per cent of all new vehicles sold in Britain each year.
They were unable to provide any proposed figures for other bands, saying it was too early do so at this stage.
Impact on airlines
Mr Huhne also insisted that air fares would not rise as a direct result of the party's proposal to replace air passenger duty with a single tax per journey.
"Airlines would reconsider how many flights they wanted during a day to a particular destination," he said.
"Low-cost airlines would actually pay relatively little per passenger, whereas airlines that are flying half-full would pay more, so there'd be an incentive to make sure you actually have higher load factors."
However, the party's shadow chancellor, Vince Cable, conceded that "people who travel in half-empty aircraft might well pay more than they do at the moment".
This was because it was "up to the airlines to decide how they pass on the charge that they would pay", he said.
Mr Huhne said any revenue raised from these green taxes would "go back to people in tax cuts elsewhere, particularly income tax cuts".
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk_politics/4992676.stm
Published: 2006/05/18 13:42:35 GMT
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Typical of Liberals here in America as well; everything they design is intended to give certain people benefits that others will not have (I.E., some pay no tax, others pay much more). Conservatives on the other hand strive to equally treat everyone the same exact way... same taxes, same schools, same benefits, etc. regardless of economic condition or class or color or whatever the fuck. that liberals are trying to tax people in your country is absolutely no surprise at all to me.
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Conservatives on the other hand strive to equally treat everyone the same exact way... same taxes, same schools, same benefits, etc. regardless of economic condition or class or color or whatever the fuck.
That's awesome because, as we all know, the wealthy areas need just as much funding as the poor areas.
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yea lib dems tax policies are insane....they also want to introduce a local income tax which is just nuts, people here have enough problem buying their first house and the ones who are able to do it are young couples on a joint income so it would just peanilise those who need most of the help
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Conservatives on the other hand strive to equally treat everyone the same exact way... same taxes, same schools, same benefits, etc. regardless of economic condition or class or color or whatever the fuck.
That's awesome because, as we all know, the wealthy areas need just as much funding as the poor areas.
Depends on what you're talking about. Every school needs the same funding whether the kids are poor or not. The rest amounts to charity and is the job of a church, not a government.