The following is part of an article I found from the Institute for Fiscal Studies which as you can see has figures for how much tax we motorists are paying which amounts to £40 billion a year, none of which is coming from the drivers of electric cars.
Taxes on motoring raise around £40 billion a year for the exchequer (around 5% of government revenue), equivalent to about £750 per adult in the UK. Most of this comes from fuel duties, which in 2019–20 are expected to raise £28 billion in their own right plus an additional £5.7 billion from the VAT payable on the duties. Another £6.5 billion comes from vehicle excise duty (VED) and £0.2 billion from the London congestion charge.
Once the production of petrol and diesel cars is halted one assumes eventually the vast majority of people will be left with no option but to drive an electric car which certainly at the moment are vastly overpriced compared to a petrol of diesel alternative, although in their favour the cost is offset by not having to pay petrol or road tax.
This situation will not last, electric cars are considerably heavier and one assumes must do more damage to the roads added to which no Government can afford to lose £40 billion pounds every year in lost taxes.
I’m not sure my calculator on my phone has enough noughts to do the arithmetic but I asked Google to do the maths for me and it appears £40 billion divided by the 32.7 million drivers in the UK means each one should on average pay £1223, do forgive me if the maths is flawed.
Obviously those of us who drive petrol and diesel are already paying our way with fuel duty currently levied at a flat rate of 57.95p per litre for both petrol and diesel, while VAT at 20% is then charged on both the product price and the duty, together with the Road Fund Licence which at the highest rate is a whopping £2245.
These people who drive electric cars should be ashamed of themselves for letting the side down so badly and I suggest perhaps they would like to make a voluntary donation to make up for their tardiness, initially I suggest £1223 each then more as it keeps track of inflation.
I don’t know what others feel about my suggestion but I would be interested to hear your views.
A reduction for seniors would be welcome, most people drive less after retirement. Alternatively, a road tax on annual mileage. Last year due to the pandemic my mileage was 200 miles, my road tax cost much more!
Ah well, I can but hope.
Tax on mileage does seem to make sense, those that use the roads more pay more, that seems fair I agree.
Here gasoline/fuel taxes (paid when you purchase fuel) are what funds road construction and road repairs. electric car owners just smirk and laugh that they no longer have to pay that yet still get to use the road ways – for free!
While privacy issues do exist if authorities/governments decide to create a tax per person based on mileage, something has to be done to make free loaders pay their share.
(The thing about electric car drivers, people, if you hated “Big Oil”, wait until you deal with what “Big Electric” is turning into….new boss the same as the old boss…once it’s the only option…)
Pretty much the same here.