taxes

Stories about new or proposed taxes on electric cars are generally viewed as negative, even punitive, by plug-in vehicle advocates. Now, there's one that likely shouldn't cause all that much ruckus: Colorado is about to levy a $50 annual fee on any car that plugs into the wall to recharge its...

It was always going to happen: Several states around the U.S. have realized they can charge electric car owners a tax to make up for the fact they don't pay any gas tax. Unfortunately, several states have also lumbered electric cars with an unfairly high tax--but is New Jersey's proposed per-mile...

Elected officials in yet another state have proposed levying taxes on electric cars. And just to make things interesting, this time the debate is happening in Michigan. Similar initiatives have been discussed in states both red and blue, including Arizona, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, and Washington...

Today, electric cars and other vehicles that run on alternative fuels simply cost more. That's a fact. Now a new bill introduced in the California Assembly aims to trim a bit more off the costs of buying and registering these cars by reducing their assessed value. The brainchild of Assemblyman Al...

One month from today is Tax Day, April 15. Let us repeat that: Your Federal income taxes (and your state and local taxes too, if you live in places with their own income taxes) must be filed 31 days from today. So consider this our friendly reminder to start getting your paperwork in order if you...

Electric car-friendly Oregon may join the growing list of states imposing a dedicated tax on electric vehicles. Like other states looking to tax electric and fuel efficient cars, Oregon is pre-empting a rise in the number of electric vehicles on the roads and a subsequent fall in revenue from gas...

Last month, Virginia governor Bob McDonnell proposed dropping the state's tax on gasoline, the revenue from which has become stagnant in recent years. To make up for axing the state's gas tax, revenue would have to come from elsewhere--extra sales tax, new car registration fees, and a new $100...

Imagine if you were being charged tens of dollars to drive into the center of your home city each day. Around Europe, many drivers already face such a charge. London is one such city, and residents have been paying to enter the center of the capital since 2003. Low-emission vehicles have commonly...

If you bought an electric car to try and save a few dollars on gas, you may start to find it a little more difficult in some states. Texas is the latest to consider an extra tax on electric vehicles to make up for lost gas revenue, helping to raise money for road maintenance. According to state...

More than 13,000 people have put down deposits to join the waiting list for the Tesla Model S electric sports sedan. Each of us eagerly awaits delivery of our much-decorated, cutting-edge car. But as 2012 winds down, several hundred of us at the front of the queue are especially antsy. It's not...

One month from today, your 2011 Federal and state tax returns will be due. (It would have been a month from yesterday, but April 15 falls on a Sunday this year.) So consider this your friendly reminder to make sure that if you bought a plug-in car during 2011, you remember to apply for the Federal...

Until recently, most electric car drivers haven’t been expected to pay an electric equivalent of gasoline taxes to help keep the roads and bridges of their state in good order. But earlier this month, the Washington state Senate passed a bill to the House which, if passed into law by the...

For many years, Arizona was considered an electric-car friendly state, thanks to California-style tailpipe emissions and mandates which required automakers to sell a certain percentage of zero-emissions cars in order to sell in the state. But less than a month after the Arizona Governor’s...

The state of Kansas is famous for a lot of things, from its wild sunflowers and large wheat-fields through to its miles and miles of straight roads, an incredibly flat landscape, and a certain 1939 musical about a little girl, a tornado, and her dog. This week however, Kansas became one of the...

We've written before about the growing shortfall in gasoline tax revenues versus the highway and bridge repairs those taxes are supposed to fund. The Federal Highway Trust Fund now has an estimated backlog of $400 billion in repairs between now and 2015 just to bring the complete national highway...

Gas prices go up and down, lately more up than down. Today, however, the U.S. government has decided to release a portion of its strategic petroleum reserve, just as crude-oil prices continued a decline that started several weeks ago. Gas prices vary enormously from state to state, due to...

The CEO of General Motors, Dan Akerson, told a Detroit newspaper that the Federal tax on gasoline should be raised by 50 cents or $1 a gallon to encourage consumers to buy more fuel efficient vehicles.. In an interview last week with the Detroit News, Akerson said a higher gas tax should be part of...

This week is the heart of tax time. If you're like many other taxpayers or a small businessperson, right about now you're looking up the 2010 mileage rate that the IRS lets you use when deducting personal-vehicle use as a business expense. So here's the answer: The IRS mileage rate is 50 cents per...

One problem with raising fuel efficiency is that unless total miles driven rises radically, receipts from gasoline taxes will fall over time. And that poses a major problem for the steady stream of revenue needed for road construction and repairs. Taxing vehicle miles traveled has been one proposed...

Auto executives know how to get U.S. drivers to save a whole lot more gasoline: Raise the price of gas, to at least $4 a gallon. That was the message at the recent Reuters Autos Summit in Detroit this week. The simplest way to get U.S. drivers into cars with higher gas mileage is economic: Make it...