Friday, October 17, 2008

That's a good moneyspinner.

The tax and licensing renewal for my wife's Yaris came up this week. The car is 11 months and a week old, and the Utah State Tax Commission tell me that it needs an inspection and emissions test this year. That's the US version of the MOT back in England, only a lot less rigorous.
What a racket. Inspection and emissions on a year-1 vehicle? That's just an excuse to print money. I called the state tax offices on this. It used to be that they required an inspection and emissions check every year from the third year on. Now it's been changed to every other year from new.
I know why.
In America, it's the norm for people to sell their cars and buy new ones every three years. If this happened at a dealer, a loophole in the law meant the vehicle was excused the tests that year, presuming the dealer would do them in order to verify the vehicle was fit for re-sale. Meaning the tax commission didn't see a penny in testing revenue until the fourth year of a car's life.
With the change, even if people sell their car after three years, the tax commission get one lot of testing revenue out of them at the beginning of the second year.
That's a good moneyspinner.

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