France To Hit Supercars With Luxury Taxes

[cawimmer430]

France To Hit Supercars With Luxury Taxes



French President Emmanuel Macron is set to propose a tax which will affect supercars, luxury yachts, and precious metals.

Since taking office, the former banker has scrapped the country's long-standing wealth tax and is set to replace it with a new tax on goods which fail to contribute to France's economy, such as supercars.

No indication has been given as to how steep the taxes on supercars would be but they wouldn't be without precedent. In Australia, for example, the Luxury Car Tax imposes a 33 per cent levy on vehicles that cost more than $65,094, those which consume more than 7L/100 km and $75,526 for those more fuel-efficient exotics.

Speaking to The Independent, leader of the Republic on the Move parliamentary group Richard Ferrand said, "The idea of the wealth tax reform was that there should not be a brake on contributors to economic production, that we suppress taxes that deter investors.

"Taxing real estate wealth is compatible with this, but goods such as yachts, luxury cars or precious metals do not contribute to the productive economy either."


Link: http://www.carscoops.com/2017/10/france-to-hit-supercars-with-luxury.html

[Xer0]

Replacing a wealth tax with a consumption tax I'm totally cool with.  But holy hell, 33% on anything costing more than 65K in Australia?  Damn, that explains why some cars are so expensive in Australia.

[cawimmer430]

Replacing a wealth tax with a consumption tax I'm totally cool with.  But holy hell, 33% on anything costing more than 65K in Australia?  Damn, that explains why some cars are so expensive in Australia.

Not just Australia. To my knowledge similar luxury car taxes like this exist in Norway, Denmark, The Netherlands and Belgium.

[SVT_Power]

Just a technicality but I read the other day in one of the European countries because of free flow of trade/people laws in the EU, the government couldn't impose a import duty if you circumvented the local sales tax by buying your car elsewhere in Europe. Instead they charge you a huge % for registering the car instead, which apparently is fine to do.

[veeman]

Well something/someone has to pay for universal healthcare, free college, extended maternity/paternity leave, lots of holiday, and refugee resettlement. 

[MX793]

Just a technicality but I read the other day in one of the European countries because of free flow of trade/people laws in the EU, the government couldn't impose a import duty if you circumvented the local sales tax by buying your car elsewhere in Europe. Instead they charge you a huge % for registering the car instead, which apparently is fine to do.

Works that way in a number of US States as well.  If I buy a car in a state that doesn't have sales tax and then try to register it in NY, I pay the NYS sales tax on the value of the vehicle at the time I register it.  Other states base annual registration fees on the book value of the vehicle, so you're basically hit with a "wealth" tax every year by driving an expensive vehicle.