The Next Big Government Scheme: Taxing You for Every Mile You Drive
It’s an underhanded way to decrease your carbon footprint.
by Eric Peters
July 21, 2022, 11:42 PM
One of the biggest economic incentives to drive a hybrid (or a full-boogie electric car) is not having to buy gas and — by dint of that — not having to pay the extortionate tax applied to the purchase of gas. These total around 50 cents in taxes applied to every gallon of gas. Proportionately, gas taxes are just about the most regressive taxes after those applied to cigarettes, with the difference being that no one has to smoke while almost everyone has to drive.
And even if you don’t drive, you still pay — because the cost that others (truckers) pay for their gas plus taxes is folded into the cost of the things you buy, such as the food that is trucked from A to B.
But the government doesn’t like it when people evade paying, such as by driving a car that uses very little or even no gas at all. Notwithstanding that the government is pushing for such cars.
The solution? Make those who bought them pay by the miles they drive rather than by the gallons they no longer buy.
Virginia is the latest state to initiate such a program — purely voluntary, of course … for the moment. The Mileage Choice Program, as it is styled, offers participants the option to “save money” — the carrot — by not having to pay the annual highway user fee (which is of course a tax) that owners of hybrids and electric cars are otherwise required to pay to make up for the gas taxes they thought they would be able to avoid paying and thereby actually save money. Leaving aside the money they spent on the hybrid or electric vehicle to “save” it. (READ MORE: Electric Vehicles Are Ruining Everything We Love About Cars)
The electronic monitoring device makes paying so … easy.
more
https://spectator.org/withholding-tax-pay-by-mile/
