SUV Tax Break For Irish?

[silvtr1000]

The arial on my Corolla is broken, so I only caught a broken account of this, but Cathal Mac Coille interviewed David Begg of the ICTU Congress about a €5000 tax hike on new SUVs over 2.4, proposed for introduction in the budget for 2005.

Booming SUV market in Ireland? Yahoo! Let's see who can cash in on that...

VAT is already huge here on all vehicles - 21% to the Government.
VRT on imports - not a fixed percent, but generally about one quarter to one third of the value, again to the Government.
Import Duty on imports - 10% to the Government.
Insurance - I got a great deal at under €600 fully comp, but over €1000 is more typical.
Road Tax - €821 for 2.4, over €1000 for a 3.0 to the Government.

And now add your €5000 "Vanity Tax"...

The persecution exists everywhere, eh?


Incidentally, I always like listening to Cathal, but he annoyed me this morning - he made a couple of the typical cliches - "gas-guzzlers", "dangerous to pedestrians", taking up too much space".




http://www.rte.ie/business/2004/1026/ictu.html

[Morr]

Hey, it will push up the price of existing vehicles such as ours

Seriously tho, I hope this does not happen, as a union member all my working life the ICTU are certainly not speaking for me here (funny that, like they ever have!)

So what happens if "SUV's" are priced out of range?
Well I for one would simply have to return to driving the type of vehicle I had previously which is I guess their intention.
But hang on, I had a couple of Jags immediatly prior, they're wider than my Surf, longer than my Surf, get less mpg, can't burn more environmentally friendly fuels such as biodiesel and vegoil, wear out tyres quicker (hence more oil used in production of)......
I'm sure I could come up with more, oh yeah driving a faster/sportier car (which I most certainly would as I have done previously and will again If 4x4's are denied to me) can encourage a faster, potentially more reckless style of driving, surely presenting an increased hazzard to other road users and pedestrians than my non-bullbar equiped, non-speeding, properly driven veggie burning Surf does.