Fuel Taxes

I was under the impression that the VRT was keeping the rate of fuel tax down. If this is true then how much will diesel be in six months the way it is going

ART6 wrote: »

I read in today's newspaper that our wonderful ministers for transport and finance have decided that petrol and diesel taxes are to be raised to the levels of the UK and France in the interests of tax harmonisation. I wonder, does that mean that our VRT and VAT of cars will be reduced to those levels for the same reason?:rolleyes:

VAT - no chance, that's not how VAT works :cool: (VAT revenue for car sales will be minimal, relative to total VAT revenue)
VRT - will they f*ck :rolleyes:

UK (17%) and France (19%) have comparable VAT levels to IE (17%), and have comparable fuel taxation levels between themselves. Neither FR nor UK has a "VRT".

Like in IE, there is a tax on insurance in FR and UK, although of course premiums are a pittance over there (esp. FR). Note that FR does not have a road tax at all, but plenty of tolls (on motorways only).

This measure, if it comes in, is nothing more than an exercise to still get the pound of flesh out of all those types who've rushed into buying/importing big-engined cars (never seen so many 911s around Dub all of a sudden ) before the VRT changes in July, and thought they'd get away with big VAT/VRT/road tax bills :cool:

MYOB wrote: »

Our VAT is 21% not 17%. UK's fuel taxation is far higher. My car insurance quote when I lived in the UK was higher than Ireland...

My bad on the IE VAT rate, I should have known people would get shafted even more here

UK fuel taxation is higher indeed, as is FR. As I said, they are comparable between themselves. But then that's what the OP is about.

My car insurance premium when I lived in the UK was less than half (Admiral, early 2004, £355 f/comp) compared to Ireland (Hibernian, late 2004, €976 TPFT), with maxed-out NCB at the time. That was 4 years ago, going the other way around: moved from UK to IE, put the car from UK plates on IE plates.

My last car insurance premium with FR insurer for the same car still on IE plate but now residing in FR is about half (Zurich, late 2007, €185) of what I used to pay in the UK 4 years ago - so about a quarter of what premium I last paid to Hibernian (€875, 2006), still with maxed-out NCB.

That said, I've lived here long enough now to realise a UK insurer would be bonkers to insure anyone driving on an Irish driving license (hence the higher UK quote) - I wouldn't :pac:

I believe it goes on -
_ license (I've a FR one, so it's logical that I be quoted cheaper in FR and more in 'RHD' countries even though, technically, I've now driven longer in RHD than LHD)
_ residence (quoting for resident car and/or driver vs or one of them is not, e.g. UK quote for insuring IE car in IE vs UK quote for insuring UK car in UK)
_ remaining factors (car value, claims history, previous convictions, etc + don't forget the captain's age and today's barometer readings )

Whilst of course car insurance is an important factor when computing annual motoring costs, unfortunately I absolutely don't believe it can be factored in "transational comparisons", other than by arriving at a consensus that one country may be generally cheaper than another, but no more than that (i.e. impossible to turn into reliable hard numbers such as (e.g.) GVT fuel levy in % relative to barrel price, other than trhrough anecdotal evidence).

To begin with, one would have to establish that, for an exactly identical set of circumstances (which they always are when one rings around for quotes: still same age, same license, same car, same value, same history etc.), i.e. an exactly identical 'computed risk', the variation between quotes from insurers within a same country shouldn't vary more than a reasonable %age based on the company's willigness to take on the risk, so say (gee, I don't know... pull a figure out of thin air...) 25%? That sound fair enough? Gain factor between big and small insurers? At any rate, certainly not doubles and triples of one another, such as we regularly witness in this here sub-forum :mad: So, to cut a long rant/story short - forget insurance in this particular debate