Scrap Vehicle Excise Duty

[Floppy]

Put the tax on fuel instead, saving money on admin, and still having the desired effect of taxing emissions.

[philipjohn]

👍

[otfrom]

but doesn't put a tax on the emissions of creating the vehicle

[Floppy]

I don't think VED does that now, and I'd prefer that embodied carbon cost (for everything) would be included in a proper carbon pricing regime. After all, under VED, a huge electric vehicle would still be zero-rated, as it's based on exhaust emissions.

[tmtmtmtm]

I'd prefer the argument for this was backed up by something stronger than "it seems fairer". This is presumably something that there's already been quite a lot of research into, and that different countries will have deliberately chosen different approaches to. Is there a good summary of the issue somewhere?

[Floppy]

Agree the "seems fairer" wording is vague. Is there a general principle of taxing the thing you're measuring directly as opposed to indirectly? What's that called? Direct/indirect is something else...

[Floppy]

A summary of "road taxes" from around the world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_tax. Most seem to be based on emissions, but such a tax is nowhere near universal, and some, such as France's, have been abolished and replaced with more direct measures.

[Floppy]

I suspect there is a different PR to be made on tax philosophy in general, but I'd prefer not to get into that here.

[PaulJRobinson]

👍

[Floppy]

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