tax per mile

I have never lived in a state that pulled over any significant number of drivers for bad tires. And even when they do, the legal tread limit is far down the safety curve, far beyond where tires should be changed in rainy and snowy climates. Do you really spend any time away from SoCal?

I'm all for increasing fuel taxes on regular cars, and putting another tax on vehicles that the fuel efficient rigs cannot escape. But loading a heavy extra tax on a safety critical but vague end-of-life item like tires, beyond what is needed for their disposal issues, is real backward logic.

 

Let's not overlook, with tire tax economics, tires that last of the life of the car will come out roaring of the lab.......causing yet another shift of what can be taxed. (This is both humor and not humor.)

 

We spent three three weeks in Italy in October & November. A lot of public roads, particularly around the big cities, are pure horror. The A1 Autostrada North-South is privately operated and maintained. Yes, it cost us € 13 (close enough to $20 US) to go from 50km North of Rome to Naples. But the highway was a dream- continuous excellent pavement without a single chuckhole, signage clear and everything marked, and great rest areas that even had good food available. In Italy, when you pay directly for something it's generally first class. Anything public tends toward a tragedy of a commons. Lesson?

 

Perfect solution is the one we have. Tax gasoline as more gasoline one uses the more one uses the car which is true no matter mpg of the vehicle. In addition the gas tax discourages gas use which is good public policy due to high cost to the nation of oil use, in oil imports costs ($400B), military costs ($500B) and pollution costs ($500B?).

Gas tax is very simple, easy to collect and direct.

Now would be perfect time to raise gas tax $1/per gallon.

 

Spend more on public roads.

 

Gov spends more time collecting and redistributing wealth in America. I remember one year I worked after hours and increased my hours from 40 to 50 hours a week. My wife said I hardly see you anymore. That year my income increased 12 thousand dollars. I was so happy. However it launched me into a larger tax bracket and after the smoke cleared on my Federal and State tax returns I made less than the year before. I paid more taxes an netted less. My wife laughed and I was so tweaked.

 

You need to learn about the FICA maximum. What happens is when you earn more than the FICA minimum, they stop taking it out. This is nearly a 6% boost in pay for that money. Even if you are in the 28% bracket, you'll still get 4% take-home.

The first year it happened to me, I waited until the second pay check before calling payroll to find out what was going on . . . did they make a mistake? Then I used to measure where I am by when it occurs.

So how to best to handle the claim of too much Social Security expense? . . . eliminate the FICA limit . . . problem solved. I believe it is about $110,000/yr but having looked it up, yet.

FICA is a regressive tax that those making less than the maximum, pay the maximum rate. Those making over the FICA limit, get a big break. Make FICA a flat tax and the problem is solved.

Bob Wilson

 

I like that Bob. I hope social security is sound when I retire because I will need it.

 

Something else was going on there. You don't lose money by going to a higher tax bracket because that higher tax rate only applies to income above the minimum for that bracket.

Correlation ≠ causation

 

So you hit a marginal tax bracket of greater than 100%? I'm strongly doubting that. Something else happened.

 

That only happens in europe. and the handfull of countries it happened in, IIRC have changed those rules to stop just shy of 100%.

Tax rates go up for just about everyone this year. The exception - hollywood and NASCAR and a few others got new tax breaks. Some folks that paid off our government will get the rates lowered.

 

The one I remember is this 'accident' from 1976: SWEDEN: The 101.2% Solution

So you also noticed that last week's newly increased taxes on 'the rich', an additional $86 billion, were simultaneously squandered on new tax breaks for other rich folks?

Same Stuff Different Day in D.C.

 

Behold the AMT

 

I agree, raise the gas tax!! Maybe more people will buy more FE vehicles. I also like the tire tax; the larger the tire size, the more tax you will have to pay. These 18- wheeler trucks do tear- up the roads, they should pay more taxes.

 

Heavy trucks do pay higher taxes. They are highly regulated. You may wish to tax them more. Do you think that my 2 flat tires in the prius should cause me to pay more road taxes? Or should the road hazzards remove my tax. You know we could build a new department to decide how much each tire was taxed.

 

Good point. I'm sure that the heavier weight of 18-wheelers takes a proportionally greater toll on roads and highways, compared to cars. In spite of the slightly greater heavy weight of Prius, I think it is reasonable to believe that the conservative engineering of a hybrid car to produce less road wear per gallon of gas consumed, compared to many other cars. You can't get the kind of mileage that is typical for Prius, if you're expending energy as road friction. It seems like tire-life is better for Prius than what is typical for many cars, supporting the lower road-wear hypothesis. Maybe we Prius drivers should demand a gas-tax rebate.

 

The current solution isn't tied to road use well. As the article noted by the OP points out, how do electric users pay for road use? For that matter, how do natural gas or other alternative users pay for road use? Why should landscapers or off-road operators or stationary generators pay a road tax when they use gasoline? Finally, we pay the tax but our roads are neglected because the politicians spend the money for other things. I say abolish the road tax completely and sell all the roads to private companies. Let them compete to provide the best, safest roads for the lowest cost. Road construction and maintenance is too important a service to let incompetent, stupid, and corrupt public officials have any hand in it.

 

I will take the public highway officials over the profiteering corrupt business pukes any day.

 

I understand some prefer serfdom to the Duke of Madness on the motor way so the Duke can collect his toll (and we won't call it a tax.)

Bob Wilson

 

And there in lies the divide between parties (at least theoretically). I'd argue that neither solution is perfect but history has taught us well that capitalism wins over public ownership and central command for efficiency. Despite the last 5 years of angst about capitalism, the most robust economy in the history of the world is the US. It is also one of the more politically conservative countries in the developed world.

But - while a road tax has some component of fairness going forward, I think most people would agree that the gas tax is crazy low and hasn't risen with increased road costs appropriately on the federal level. My Red state is one of the few states that raises gas tax with gas cost (ie like a sales tax). An increase in gas tax is so sorely needed for equity and would raise 100 times the revenue of taxes going after EVs, that is makes 100 times more sense.

10 years from now, a road tax may be necessary but we are still at the point where the entire tax policy should be focused on reduced energy use.

I wonder if we are ready for an increased gas tax. I love it because it is regressive which helps to balance the excessive progressivity of our income tax.

FICA was always meant to be a separate issue - not a mechanism of redistribution. It definitely redistributes compared to its original concept. I suppose the whole concept should be thrown out because it gets everyone clamoring about how they paid into "it" their whole lives and they "deserve" it. Lets be honest that this is currently a very generous plan for those in retirement years now and they most certainly did not pay enough for it in their working lives (especially when you include Medicare).