So I get pulled over this morning......

[Diesel JD]

I think they should do away with fuel taxes altogether and collect the necessary funds from vehicle registration. That way, you could base the assessment soley on vehicle impact and miles driven. BTW I would ONLY go along with this if all fuel taxes were dropped. Around here, they will levy a fuel tax saying its for road improvement and then use the funds to "beautify the roads and streetside landscape" or promote bike paths and public transportation. It gets old after awhile. With the IRS agents, I think under current law you have to cooperate with them. At least on the income tax side, the burden of proof is on you to show that you didn't break the law. Also the government is the only agency allowed to imprison you for debt. Taxes are a necessity but that is overly heavy handed. Why can't they just have to collect their debts like an ordinary person or business does? Its not as if you don't have recourse in the case of force or fraud.

 

[yARIC008]

I dunno, i think my favorite is tolls. When they opened some of the toll roads on here they promised that after the road was paid for their get rid of the tolls. Ha... that never happened.

 

[Compu Doc]

I think they should do away with fuel taxes altogether and collect the necessary funds from vehicle registration. That way, you could base the assessment soley on vehicle impact and miles driven. BTW I would ONLY go along with this if all fuel taxes were dropped.

If they did away with fuel taxes and tied it to the registration then in the long run you would be paying more. With the fuel taxes you can control how much or how little you pay by how and when you drive your vehicle. If my vehicle is parked for a week and no fuel was added then thats a week that I did not pay a tax. In New Jersey I already am required to pay the commercial rate for my registration even though I dont have commercial plates or registration. It is based on the GVWR of the vehicle and being that it is 11,000 GVWR I pay $153.00 a year. I wouldnt want to pay more in the registration if they eliminated the fuel taxes.

Also if they eliminated the fuel taxes don't you think that the oil company would raise the price of fuel?. They would figure that the public is paying the high fuel prices now, if the taxes are eliminated we could raise the price to what it currently is without the taxes and the public would pay it.

 

[Compu Doc]

I dunno, i think my favorite is tolls. When they opened some of the toll roads on here they promised that after the road was paid for their get rid of the tolls. Ha... that never happened.

Eric, You should know by now that if the governemnt imposes tolls or other taxes they never eliminate them as they have a new source of income and dont want to let it go.

 

[sle2115]

Boy, is the taxation problem true. I wouldn't want to pay it on the registration either. My truck sits 350 days a year, if they imposed a tax there, I would really have to consider how much I need it!

Our county here in Ohio (communism reigns here) has a $15.00 road use fee on every license we buy. To my knowledge, it is the only county in hio doing this. It was never voted on, etc. (taxation without representation) yet even my little 200 lb(dry weight)/2000 lb (GVW) trailer, that used to cost me about $18.00 per year is now double that. I have 4 vehicles, a boat, two trailers, etc. so I spend $15.00 x 8 each year. Then, anytime you sell a vehicle, you pay state sales tax on it. Not to mention that I drive through 5 counties each day to and from work. Our county has BY FAR the worst roads. Instead of paving our county and US roads, they just chip and seal them. I drive off NICE new blacktop roads in non $15 road tax counties onto what US roads that you might as well call gravel roads...makes no sense. I can tell you that the streets in the town of Athens are well maintained and there are pretty little flowers everywhere you look!!

 

[f-two-fiddy]

I agree, the funds are often misappropriated, But that is not the fault of the taxing system. It's the fault of our elected offcials.

Here in Mn. Last year we approved, by a state wide vote, to put all funds collected from vehicle registration into the transportation fund, instead of the general fund, as it was previously.

But it's prolly to little, to late. As the I-35 bridge collapse can attest.

The hell of it is, after the collapse, there's talk of raising the fuel tax, in order to fund road maintainence. BUT No-one is even mentioning the fact that the transportation fund is going to have a major cash infux allready, by passing the new law. So we're prolly going to have a increase in registration fee's AND a $.05-.07 fuel tax increase. Freaking polititions!!!

The worst part of the whole deal is that the money all goes into a "Transportation Fund" which includes bus's, trains, car's, AND BICYCLES.

The sumunabeaches just sunk multi-millions into a bike trail up the N.Shore Of Lake Superior. Complete with fancy new bridges over every creek that flows into the lake. I drive up the road that parallels the trail, it prolly see's less than 100 user's a month.

Let's not even get started on the Wayside Rest Stations that cost us over 2 million each!!!!

So it's not a faulty tax system, it's the fact that every Politition in the state wants as much of the money in their district as they can possibly get. No matter what the money is spent on.

 

[oldmisterbill]

Oh well this reminds me of a TRUE story from a few years back.SO I guess you have to hear it whether you like it or not
I believe it was on the origional deisel stop.-smoeone had started a thread on fuel additives.I chimed in that in the days of the old non turboed cummins,238 detroits& maxidines, we usedd to occasionally throw some White kero and atf then run them hard for a few hundred miles.(it would make a difference in how they ran seemed to clean them out some).Most companys in the early 70& late 60s didn't use additives,just ran them.Any way there always seems to be sombody that picks every minute problem up (a few qts of ATF in a 150 gal tank wont change the color much.) So this guy posts that he wouldn't use atf because red fuel was illegal. I returned the post with "all you need is a can of Redbegone! Next day I got a pm from a guy in Woburn MA(30 miles away)asking me where I got Redbegone because he too used ATF sometimes.He gave me his phone # so I called him with a big S--t eating grin.As it turned out he was in the redpower club(collectors of antique IHC tractors).I knew the local chapters president and Vice president. Had to tell them AT the next show they had a big 5 gal pail beautifly lettered with Redbegone and a printed paper label full of muddy water. It som how wound up in front of his tractor right next to his picture framed plac telling about his tractor. Of course I took the blame (I was innocent,except for gum flapping.

 

[h2odrx]

Mr Bill you doing ok?

 

[oldmisterbill]

Me thinks I am

 

[h2odrx]

Ok just checking on ya!

 

[Diesel JD]

My idea would be to have the fuel surcharge based not soley on GVWR but on how many miles you drive(based on an odometer reading) Scott you only use your F350 a few days a year so maybe your only driving 1000 miles a year, so perhaps your tax would be base registration + $38.00, about what you'd pay in state taxes in fuel on the 150 gallons of fuel you would need to run it. The bad thing about that would be if you taxed road use that way, you could rack up a big bill if you drove a lot...so perhaps you would assess it on a per month basis or something. What we would want is to be fairly close to revenue neutral and be even handed. We pay a TREMENDOUS amount of money in fuel taxes, but since they are included in the price, no one knows what it is. That's the way the gov't likes it.

 

[ttman4]

I think I have the Best Answer to it all......Fuel Taxes, Road Taxes, Income Taxes, Sales Taxes, Past Taxes, Future Taxes, Inheritance Taxes, Named Taxes, Unnamed Taxes,......just taxes in general! Lump 'em all together under one tax thingie!!!
And here's how it's done! Just file your taxes using the IRS Short Form!! It just has 4 lines of instructions & to fill in.....& 'ya don't even have to sign it either!!!

IRS Short Form #123456789
1. Your Name
2. Your Social Security Number
3. How much did you make last year before deductions?
4. Send It!!!

 

[Wanderer-rrorc]

another nice thing about havin a diesel VAN....


unless theyre RIGHT next to me at a light..they'll NEVER know its an oilburner..unless I push the skinny to the floor..even took the badge off the back...and it just looks like it has an exhaust tip..

be INCONSPICUIOUS!!