yankee99;285822 wrote: So this guy thinks because you can afford 300,000 in taxes you must be able to afford 360,000 in taxes. With this logic why not make it 200% instead of 123%.
maybe if they drop the tax motorcycles wouldnt be luxury items
I am as annoyed as anyone with these tax increases. Just when bikes got cheap... hmm.. yeah that's probably also why, as bike sales suddenly appeared on the radar. If you look at any other country, with the exception of the USA, big bikes are heavily taxed in most places. Most of the current taxes on bikes are import duties, not specifically targeted at bikes. Taxes between 5% and 20% on locally produced big bikes is not the end of the world.
It never made sense that cars had a higher excise tax than bikes. Last time I checked car excise tax was between 30% and 50%. The 100k you get on a new tiny car is a rebate not on the price, but a rebate on the
excise tax! Excise tax is absurdly high to begin with. PPVs (Fortuner and so on) 30%, and normal cars, even very small ones, are 50%.
Big bikes are luxury items. Scooters meet basic transportation needs - we buy the big bikes because they're fun - they're a luxury we afford because we enjoy riding. If we must get from A to B a scooter or car would do the same job.
PS: Anyone else think this has something to do with import duties going away? The Japan FTA is now getting close to 0 (how many years has it been now? 6, 7?). And Europe is negotiating a free trade agreement which should happen within the next 2 years. The reason for that is that Thailand is about to lose its 3rd world country status so EU import duties would suddenly skyrocket - if they didn't negotiate a FTA.
