TAXATION OF MOTORS [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR, —The
figures given by your Motoring Correspondent in your issue of February 16th are absurdly inaccurate. Surely the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders cannot have lately issued these " useful and interesting data." The tax in England on a 20 h.p. car is given not as £20 but £31 8s. Why ? In France as £6 7s. In Italy as £7 8s.
My present car is rated in England as 17 h.p., tax 117 ; in France as 14 c.v., tax £11 4s. 6d. ; and in Italy as 24 h.p., tax £1610s. These figures can be verified from Guide Michelin, France, and Annuario R.A.C. Italia. In addition, petrol is heavily taxed. The present price in Italy is just over 2s. per gallon, and in France, Switzerland and in Spain where I was in the autumn, little if any less. England is one of the cheapest countries in Western Europe for the private motorist, not the most expensive as the Society claims. The circular is, I suppose, issued as " propaganda " for a reduction of motor taxation, but it certainly should not be quoted without verification.—I am, Sir, &c.,
ENGLISH MOTORIST Al3ROAD.
(Our Motoring Correspondent writes :—" The tax in England on a 20 h.p. car, maker's rating, the car being a 23 h.p. Austin, was assumed to pay an additional £8 a year in petrol tax. In France both the application of the horse power and the rate of tax per horse power have recently been increased, while in Italy the formula has remained the same but the rate of tax per horse power has increased, so that altogether the corre- sponding figures would be substantially greater than those quoted for the year 1927. They would not; however, be sufficient to discount the excess of the English tax over those of the other countries compared."—En. Spectator.]
Previous page
