That is insane. We have four vehicles. There are no plate fees in Ontario . Period. $0

How long have they been charging you these fees for the plates?

 

When gas tax revenues are down, and not fully replaced with EV taxes.

 

No, you are correct. Home charging is billed as consumption of electricity and yes if you are charging EVs at home, the only way to tax it is with the utility tax already in place.

 

But you get soaked even worse than that, and most of it all up front. Ontario charges an additional 5% sales tax on vehicles specifically, over and above the normal 8% rate, for a total of 13%. The second owner has to pay this 13% tax again (obviously a lower $$ amount due to the decrease in value), in order to register the vehicle. In most, if not all, US states, vehicle sales tax is the same as the general sales tax, and there is no sales tax for private sales of used vehicles.

Then on top of that, you pay an 8% annual tax on your insurance premiums. I can't speak for any other state, but in Illinois there are no direct taxes on insurance premiums.

So it's not insane. it's just different.

 

‘The sales tax on my 4Runner was $6240 back in 2004. If I was to apply $693 US like JD pays for his V8.., 19 years later (on my 04) the cost is $13,167USD.

That is an interesting way to put it. What is the sales tax in California?

 

It varies. But the registration fees you were so offended by were in Washington state, so let's go with that. Washington charges 6.5% sales tax, plus an extra 0.3% on vehicles (glad I said most, if not all ) , for a total of 6.8% from the state. Counties can then have their own sales tax rate, so the cumulative sales tax rate on vehicles appears to range between 8.3% and 10.4%, depending on your county of residence. 8% to 10.1% on other products, obviously. Looks like they just added a 2% tax on insurance premiums. So while they have to pay graduated registration fees and you don't, your vehicle sales tax "addendum" is 4.7% higher and your insurance tax is 6% higher. Excluding temporary COVID reductions, fuel taxes are roughly the same--14.3 cents/Liter in Ontario vs. 49.4 cents/Gallon in WA.

Where I live (the highest-taxed county--but not city--in Illinois), sales tax totals 10%. 5% state, 2% county, 1% transit, 2% city. But it's 10% on televisions, and 10% on cars. We don't pay 15% just because it happens to be a car. Registration fees are flat by vehicle class (I think $158 now), and no tax on insurance premiums.

 

We're talking about 3 year old cars, not 19 year old ones. A modern 4R Limited is about C$63k, and sales tax on that would be roughly $8200.

His car isn't going to be worth ~$60k for 19 years, and neither would the 4R referenced above. The registration fee will gradually go down, year over year. That's how the "value-based" component of registrations that work that way, work. Old, cheap cars are less expensive to register than new, expensive ones.

They're going to get paid somehow, the methods just differ.

 

I am not trying to claim taxes are lower here. Canada is like a giant California. There is a lot of tax. Very high. I’d rather pay everything up front and be done with it.

Edit: i just realized JD is in Washington…always thought he was in California


So the tax is on the value of the car?

 

That is, after all, what he said:

 

Good posts, good conversation. I didn't mean to pull us off track, but just wanted to use my registration fees to show that we get taxed both for driving a gas guzzler AND for driving a (relatively) efficient hybrid. They'll get you either way.

My sales tax is 10.8%, and my registration fees are high, as are many other aspects here, however, I have no state income tax so I figure it balances out for the most part.

 

Correct, it goes down each year. While my GS tabs this year were $653, last year they were $696.

 

]Is there a point where it bottoms out?

Its a very good discussion
​​​​​​​

 

depends on the state, its like in VA where they have to pay personal property taxes on vehicles...in MD all vehicles are basically the same to register

 

NJ has no state tax on EVs

 

All these taxes have removed any and all accountability from local, state and federal governments. They are more intrigued in new tax revenues rather than focusing on the wasted use of current tax revenue.