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US bill proposes new national EV tax, while some push to slash gas tax to zero

electrek.co

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Re: US bill proposes new national EV tax, while some push to slash gas tax to zero

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The math doesn’t work out very well for Washington, and I’m leaving out federal gas tax in the math below. Washington has a gas tax of 55.6 cents per gallon. The tax on 405 gallons of gas in Washington is $225 Average mileage driven in US looks to be around 14,000 miles (plus or minus 500 miles), which means you’d need a car that averages 34.5 miles per gallon to pay less in gasoline tax than you’d pay in EV tax.

I drive around 5000 miles a year and still pay $225/year for my EV. However, Washington is moving to a mileage based system for EVs, hybrids, and high economy cars. They are just going to go by odometer readings, which is about the only way it will work in the USA.

And they’re planning to charge 2.6 cents per mile, per https://wstc.wa.gov/studies-surveys/road-usage-charge/

So that’s $364 per year for 14k miles. Vs. the $225 currently paid as an electrification fee.

Re: US bill proposes new national EV tax, while some push to slash gas tax to zero

#62
post #33
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We also subsidize fossil fuels at around US$800 B/year direct, and much more than that indirect (wars, pollution, warming etc). A 100% fossil tax is what we need to kick that habit.

>subsidize fossil fuels at around US$800 B/year direct I would like to see a source for that. Usually this is from someone who thinks corporate taxes should be on gross revenue instead of profit.

I think corporations should pay import taxes on services, that would fix a lot of tax dodging

Re: US bill proposes new national EV tax, while some push to slash gas tax to zero

#63
post #35
post #12

I'm getting really tired of every single attempt to be taxed into oblivion. Just leave me the hell alone

When it comes to any good or service, there are only two choices: the user pays, or other people pay. The status quo is that drivers pay a lot for roads through gasoline taxes and vehicle registration fees, but the rest of society (including non-drivers) pay through income taxes, sales taxes, and property taxes. Moreover, a lot of taxes paid for road construction/maintenance are not proportional to how much you drive…

> but the rest of society (including non-drivers) pay through income taxes, sales taxes, and property taxes.

The rest of society also pays for the transportation costs of consumer goods, which include diesel and gas taxes which end up funding roads. Every time you buy something that rode on a truck, a fraction of the price you pay is road taxes.

Re: US bill proposes new national EV tax, while some push to slash gas tax to zero

#64
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you could come up with a Constitutional way to tax only energy exports, that would be better still. The only constitutional issue with taxing energy exports is gettin Congress to pass the law and POTUS to sign it.

> only constitutional issue with taxing energy exports “No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State” [1]. [1] https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/ Art. I § 9

I learned something today.

They can just outlaw exporting energy, but not tax it.

Re: US bill proposes new national EV tax, while some push to slash gas tax to zero

#66

$130/yr? No matter how heavy the vehicle or how many miles you drive? This is all so silly. Every other mode of publicly funded transportation infrastructure has direct user fees based on usage, why not roads? Some combination of highway tolls and a weight-based mileage fee. But that would be an impossible sell because Americans have the impression that roads spring from the ground for free, since they're paid for in…

Some people don't want the government keeping track of what they're doing, unless the government has reason to believe they're doing something illegal. This sentiment is so strong to Americans that it is expressly stated as a reason for rebelling against British rule. Taxing consumables allows per-distance taxing without the tracking that comes from toll roads or mileage tracking.

Also, lots of publicly funded transportation infrastructure fees don't closely track usage. Many popular public transit systems charge a single fee for unlimited continuous usage or charge per day/month. There's other weird quirks, for example when going the San Francisco Bay area, I always plan my stops in a clockwise direction, because then I don't have to pay bridge tolls when traveling in that direction (north and east), but would in the opposite direction (south and west).

Re: US bill proposes new national EV tax, while some push to slash gas tax to zero

#67

Zeroing out the gas tax aside, the EV tax makes _some_ sense. Gas taxes provide the revenue that help pay for road maintenance and the rest of the infrastructure that cars use. Gas taxes made sense -- the more you drive, the more you chip in to keep the road system going. That infrastructure still needs to exist, and will still cost money to maintain -- but if fewer people are buying gas, then the funds will dry up,…

Why not tax tires?

Re: US bill proposes new national EV tax, while some push to slash gas tax to zero

#68

Zeroing out the gas tax aside, the EV tax makes _some_ sense. Gas taxes provide the revenue that help pay for road maintenance and the rest of the infrastructure that cars use. Gas taxes made sense -- the more you drive, the more you chip in to keep the road system going. That infrastructure still needs to exist, and will still cost money to maintain -- but if fewer people are buying gas, then the funds will dry up,…

Why not tax tires?

A disincentive to replace your tires? What could go wrong.

Re: US bill proposes new national EV tax, while some push to slash gas tax to zero

#69
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I drive around 5000 miles a year and still pay $225/year for my EV. However, Washington is moving to a mileage based system for EVs, hybrids, and high economy cars. They are just going to go by odometer readings, which is about the only way it will work in the USA.

Do you know how they plan to get the odometer data? Thanks.

Some states require annual vehicle inspections.

Re: US bill proposes new national EV tax, while some push to slash gas tax to zero

#70
post #69
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know how they plan to get the odometer data? Thanks.

Some states require annual vehicle inspections.

The honor system I think, Washington doesn’t require annual inspections.
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