Do you think tax on petrol and things penalise the poor?

Answer 1

Tax in general, not just fuel, penalises the poor. I don't hold much sympathy for the 'poor' as the majority of people in poverty won't help to better themselves and so readily get caught in the poverty trap.
How do you define poor? Can you make a comparison between being poor in the western world, as opposed to being poor in the third world? The homeless numbers here in the UK are barely a fraction to the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of poor and homeless in Africa. Worlds apart but both considered to be poor.

Answer 2

Taxes on consumption are considered progressive because if a poor man earning $100 is taxed $10, that represents 10% of his income, but for a rich man earning $1000, it represents only 1% of his income, for the same level of consumption.

In that sense, petrol tax, lik eother consumption taxes penalises the poor.

There are ways round this however.
The idea is simply to decide what products are considered necessities, and exempt these from consumption taxes. Some examples could be foodstuffs, medicine. Whether petrol is considered a necessity is debatable.

Chances are, in areas where public transport is not very good, and people have to cover long distances to get to work, then petrol is a necessity.

If the public transport network is efficient, then driving can be considered a non-necessity and be taxed.

Answer 3

Tax is a penalty incurred by everyone, whether it's tax on what we earn, or what we spend. With regards to what we spend, however, we do have choices; the more disposable income we have, the more we spend, and the more we spend, the more tax (VAT) we pay. If we choose to own luxury items, then we must accept the tax we pay to maintain those items and that includes cars and petrol, although I do understand that for people in rural areas, a car is a necessity rather than a luxury, I question your definition of 'poor' though; being poor, means not having enough money to eat properly, not having enough money to heat your home in the winter, not having enough money to replace clothes that have seen better days, etc. I think the majority of people in the UK have forgotten the real meaning of 'poor', and that's because the UK is one of the best countries in the world in which to live! (No matter how much we complain). And nice countries don't come cheap!

Answer 4

What do you mean by things? All taxes penalise the working man and are non-discrimatory. If you are talking specifically petrol taxes, then if you can't afford the petrol, insurance and road tax - then don't have a car!!

Answer 5

yes tax on petrol does penalise the poor and disable.

Answer 6

Yes - all taxes penalise the poor.

Answer 7

Well of course they penalize the poor! The poor, who make this country function by doing all of the work, have to commute across this urban sprawl we have created to go to work, the grocery store, take their kids to school, and when it takes half a days wages to fill up the old car, (which likely gets bad gas milage, but they cannot even begin to afford to replace) It HURTS!
So do cigarette taxes, Which ammount to half or more the price of a pack, and are mostly marketed to who? the poor, of course.
So do food and restraunt taxes which several states still impose. You have to eat even if you are poor, so hey, lets tax those who can least afford it!
Anyone who's family is forced to live below the poverty level, should be TAX EXEMPT!
Why would a govt. of the people, by the people, and supposedly for the people, have the gall to demand these taxes of the poorest of it's citizens?
A govt. born of all things, a tax revolt??!!!???!!!

Answer 8

How can it penalize the poor?

The poor, the really poor, do not own a car!!

But I know what you mean. If there was a different taxation for each consumer, based on their earnings like income tax, then it would be very fair. Unfortunately with consumer taxes, it would be just about impossible as it would be very complicated. Think about VAT??

Answer 9

The final consumer of product always pays all the tax. If the fuel is used to produce widgets the final purchaser of the widget pays the tax on the fuel to make the widget. If the fuel is used in a car the tax is paid as you burn your fuel. Rich people only pay tax on what they consume. on everything else they are just collecting taxes by charging enough for their product to pay them. Every tax penalizes the poor, they are the ultimate consumers. The only thing they can sell is their time (labour) and that is taxed as well.

Answer 10

Tax on petrol - no, if they can afford the car they should be able to afford to run it, the tax on the fuel means that the "fat cats" get hit harder as they cannot get out of paying for the huge mileage they clock up for no reason.

The tax that gets the poor is VAT - it is only charged on luxury items apparently, remember that the next time you get arrested for "exposing" yourself (OK i was drunk alright) and try explaining to the police"person" (best be politically correct) that you were only neglecting your luxuries in life. And as my wife always reminds me (once a month) Sanitary Produce is not a luxury item, but they charge VAT on it.