Victorian electric car owners win High Court challenge against controversial tax
Victorian electric car owners win High Court challenge against controversial tax
The High Court found Victoria's tax is an excise and therefore cannot be imposed by the state.
Bit of an ouch for Victoria, likely going to prevent other states from doing a similar thing (NSW was about to implement one as well) So this would now mean a EV road user tax will need to be done by the Fed
Hmm not sure how I feel about this.
On the one hand I think it's absolutely insane to have a tax that applies exclusively to low emission vehicles. We should be subsidising those cars, not taxing them!
But on the other hand, I've long thought a tax on kilometres driven is far better than the way we currently tax vehicle use so it's a little sad to see a fundamentally good idea shot down because it was poorly implemented.
The fuel excise is already sort-of meant to be a tax on km driven. Buy more fuel, pay more tax. So I can see where the government is coming from.
But yeah, I also think we need to make low emission vehicles more attractive. The upfront cost prices out too many prospective buyers. You basically need to also own your own home and have solar panels installed to really get the best out of them.
I wonder whether the people who drive the most statistically are the people who buy electric vehicles. I suspect they aren't.
The precedent set, where "a prohibited state excise was a tax closely related to the production, or manufacture, sale, distribution, or consumption, that could affect its manufacture or production" is a bit concerning though.
Motor Vehicle Stamp duties, and some environmental fees on electricity are probably dead in the water.
This could also apply to freight railway access fees paid to v/line or even gaming taxes, as it could be argued the fees impact sales of trains or poker machines.
So they knock down tax which mostly applied to rich and about start taxing petrol cars more, so poor will pay more taxes. How typical.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The High Court has thrown out a controversial Victorian tax on electric cars which applies to zero and low-emission vehicles.
The state government charge has been applied at a rate of about two cents per kilometre and was designed to match the contribution drivers of fuel-powered vehicles already make to road maintenance through a Commonwealth fuel excise.
It means drivers of plug-in hybrid and fully electric vehicles must pay for the distance they travel on public roads, both in and outside Victoria.
But electric car owners Christopher Vanderstock and Kathleen Davies mounted a High Court challenge, arguing the tax was illegal because it was an excise, which only the Commonwealth could impose.
But, today, the High Court found the tax was an excise and therefore could not be imposed by the state.
There is much at stake as a result of the judgement, not least because of the rising numbers of electric vehicles on the roads, which in turn will lead to falling revenue for states and territories from fuel excise.
The original article contains 195 words, the summary contains 165 words. Saved 15%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!