Tax

Monday 28 July 2014

It's not 'Road Tax': it's 'Vehicle Excise Duty' and is really a Pollution Tax.

Ipayroadtax.com says it all so much better than I could !

There was a good comment on Helmet camera "vigilantes" show the cyclists vs motorists battle - [ YouTube ]

Cliffjumper24 4 months ago+Mark Twain Oh dear!

Such poor reasoning for hiding your bigotry (for nothing more than "they get in my way sometimes").

"The roadway is built for cars, not bicycles." Wow.... those Romans, they were so far ahead of their time, creating roads in Britain over 1000 years before the car even existed! "The roadways are paid for with my taxes on my car, my property, and the petrol I buy." Roads are paid for by MY taxes too. If you think Road Tax (properly known as Vehicle Excise Duty) pays for the roads, you're so very very wrong. Road Tax raises around £5 billion... But the budget for the Highways Agency is £6.5 ...... so it doesn't even pay for the motorway network that cyclists aren't even allowed on that! But that doesn't matter, because Road Tax and fuel duty go into a huge pot of taxation funds at the Treasury, where all the other taxes go... such as VAT (there's the '*my property*' part), inheritance tax, income tax and so many more. But remember, 9 out of 10 cyclists are 'also' motorists. I understand how frustratingly expensive fuel duty is.... we're one of the highest taxed countries when it comes to fuel duty. Hey, don't want to pay fuel duty..... but an electric car! They pay no VED either, but still take up space on the road. "Bicycle riders take, take, take, and pay nothing back. They are leeches." Oh really? The cost of congestion in the UK costs around £13Bn http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a50158ee-52de-11e4-a236-00144feab7de.html#axzz3hHj9Mswh Cyclists 'ease' congestion.... every cyclist during the rush hour, is another single person not in a car adding to congestion. Cyclists are more productive.... a ride to work gets the blood flowing, meaning they're more wired up for the working day. Cyclists are more fit... making them more productive because they take less time off work due to medical problems associated with with sedimentary lifestyles.... which eases pressure on the NHS (which we all pay for). Finally.... What pays for road repairs is 'Council Tax'.... and cyclists pay that. However, a cyclists weighs around 1200 times less than a car, and do virtually zero damage to the roads.... So far from 'not paying their way'.... cyclists are paying YOUR WAY.... yes, cyclists 'subsidise' motoring! So the opposite is true! "Pedestrians are not included. Please do not try to dilute your indefensible argument by adding pedestrians." What do you think pavements, pedestrian crossings, and pedestrian islands are? They're a part of the 'highway', which is what we ALL pay for in our taxes Less than half of the UK population drive vehicles.... the rest use public transport, walk, or ride bicycles. Lets not forget, that when we're not in cars or on bikes, buses, lorries, etc.... how do we get around? We 'walk'........ we are ALL pedestrians, and have a right to use the highway. So the conclusion here is that your arguments are poor, and you are ignorant of the facts.

I wonder if the Cycle2Work 'salary sacrifice' scheme adds to the perception that cyclists are tax-dodgers ?