RE - UK car Taxes
All cars bought in the UK have Value Added Tax (V.A.T) [ Sales Tax ] @ 17.5% added to the total purchase price, along with a Vehicle Registration Fee.
Cars in the UK provided by an employer ( IE a company car ) are taxed on their CO2 emissions as well as the VAT... the higher the emissions, the higher the extra Company Car Tax ( as well as still having to pay standard Income Tax & National Insurance health care taxes ) will be taken from your monthly salary.
All cars also have to pay Annual Road Fund Licence (Road Tax) which is a legal requirement to be allowed to drive on public roads ( I currently pay £140 [ $280 CAN ] per year ) . Cars built after 2001 pay more Road Tax. Cars that produce more CO2's also pay more Road Tax ( up to £950 [ $1900 CAN ] per year from 2010 ) .
For a list of different Road Tax bands look here -
http://www.whatprice.co.uk/car/car-tax.htmlSome UK cities, London for example, also charge a daily tax to drive in the city centre, it's called The Congestion Charge, and in London costs £8 (£16 CAN) every day except weekends. If you drive a super efficient low CO2 emission car you are exempt from paying it. Incidentally, the old London Mayor, Ken Livingstone, was attempting to increase this to £25 ($50 CAN) a day for high CO2 cars !!!
Every time we buy gas we pay even more tax, called Fuel Tax, and we also pay VAT (sales tax) on the Fuel Tax - WTF !!!!. Depending on how you do the math, an incredible 81.5% to 117% (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_tax ) of the gas price per litre of fuel is Tax. So, when I fill-up my car with say £50 ( $100 CAN ) of gas,
AT LEAST £40.75 ( $81.50 CAN ) goes directly to the government as Fuel Tax & VAT ( Sales Tax ) .
...And North America thinks it's got it bad with current gas prices and taxes, wait till your guys governments taxes catch up with the UK & Europe.
M.
