When they tried this last year it was scrapped because there was no practical way to collect it. Are we going to have a national car registry? That would take more money than it would collect. If they just ask a question on tax filing, I'm just going to lie.
this post was submitted on 20 May 2026
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I dunno how this works, but I'd assume this national car registry already exists at the DMV because you have to register your car to drive it, no?
I don't know the correct answer to this exactly, but given that I've only driven my car (hybrid) about 4k miles total over the last 2 years since I got it (April '24), and paid less (but not $0) in gas tax, but still got hit with the full $130 extra fee is absolutely infuriating. I hadn't even owned it a full year yet but still had to pay a non pro-rated amount (my previous car was a regular gas car).
I'm basically paying almost 6x the rate per mile since I drive so little. I'm the one stuck paying extra because I can't afford to drive enough to justify the full amount, and subsidizing some high mileage driver out there.
I realize tracking mileage has privacy implications, so I don't know a perfect solution, but it fucking SUCKS to get ripped off this hard. While being on disability due to injury and other surgeries, too. I mean I'm still building strength and endurance back to be capable of working again, preferably this year, but I'm the meantime, taxes are fucking killing me.
At least with an EV I would have 0 in gas taxes instead of paying the "not paying gas tax" fee on top of the gas tax- while gas is almost $5 a gallon.
So much bullshit.
Does tracking mileage have any privacy implications if it was just a self-report type dealio or would that be too easy to lie on?
I'm guessing the privacy implications come in only if it's the car doing it for you, where it might be taking that data for itself too to add to your ad network profile or whatever.
My current thoughts would be I'd rather report my mileage difference each year or whatever.
It's never an option to tax the megacorporations that force us to use public roads that they don't pay for to get to work is it?
Good ol corporate socialism. Privatize the gains and socialize the losses.
Tax the megacorps more and use that to maintain roads and expand public transit providing an actual choice for people rather than forcing the individual to buy a car, pay for maintenance, for registration, for fuel, for a license, for tolls, all just to get to work.
I don't mind a road tax. I prefer it over tolls. We already pay gas taxes for infrastructure. My issue is that it is a set price. I honestly think it should be based on the price and weight of your vehicle, and your annual mileage. A subcompact for your daily 20 minute commute is less damaging to the road than a truck traveling 70k miles per year is.
My other problem, no guarantees that it will be used for infrastructure.
Yeah, like say, a set rate with your registration.
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Arkansas already charges an extra $200 annual registration fee for electric vehicles.
Just paid $500 for the privilege in PA ($250/yr, paid upfront).
That's usually the case, as electric vehicles don't pay taxes on gas which is used for roads. Basically a system to make people who drive pay for the roads (and people who drive more will pay more as well).
I would be happy to pay for that purpose, but it's way more tax than I would pay in fuel for the number of miles I drive.
Plus they've been waiving gas tax to make themselves look better on gas prices. So, right now, I'm subsidizing gas drivers.
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Probably an unpopular opinion but this is to offset a federal fuel tax they aren’t getting since it’s an EV. It could be calculated better based on miles but that opens up a privacy issue.
My solution is due away with all fuel taxes and tax tires. They have a know wear rate based on miles, and don’t have any privacy issues like location tracking.
I mean, they have inspections for smog and shit, right? Take your EV in for its smug check and they check its mileage and assess the road use tax.
People already run tires that are worn well past the point of safety, making them more expensive will exacerbate that issue.
And also what happens if your tire is damaged and needs to be replaced?
You're not wrong, but this would still happen if you're were free. People just can't be arsed to do anything.
Probably a much lower rate, but still.
Seeing as one truck does the damage of 10,000 cars on the roads, personal vehicles should not be paying the lion's share of road money.
So it shouldn't matter the type of tire.
Those tires are much larger so you could just tax them more. Plus a pneumatic tire can only hold so much weight which is why they are 18 of them on a huge truck. Not to mention more load causes more wear on the tire so they go through them quicker. I mean it’s not perfect, lots of things affect tire wear like road surface, road smoothness, alignment, etc. Maybe you keep the diesel fuel taxes and just tax tires on passenger cars. Maybe give a tax break to small diesel cars to offset the double tax. Just brainstorming…
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How many miles to pay $130 in federal taxes?
I heard that some countries charge a vehicle tax based on the weight of the vehicle. Some based on the number of cylinders.
One of the problems with removing the fuel tax is that affluent people will be able to avoid the additional registration tax by registering their vehicle in another state, such as where their summer home is. Having a gas tax allows taxes to go where the fuel is purchased and indirectly where the vehicle is using the roads. This doesn't work for electric vehicles.
I'm surprised no politician suggested toll booths all over.
Rich people with summer homes in another state are likely not a major percentage of drivers, I'm guessing.
You don't have to be rich to register your vehicle in Montanna. It happens all the time in California to avoid smog and taxes.
Also, just because the rich are a small percentage of the population obviously doesn't mean they should be taxed less, that's a wild statement.
Yeah, lots of military folk take advantage of service friendly laws to get their DLs and register their vehicles in Arizona and pay their income taxes in Texas or Washington.
California is actually going after people registering in Montana when their primary residence is California.
Just like NYC does for people who claim they don't live in the city to avoid taxes
That wasn't his statement, though. He was saying that the super-rich are a tiny outlier group, so even an infrastructure personal tax that they manage to avoid will have minimal impact on the system at large, because they are so small that even heavy abuse in this scenario is a rounding error.
I think he is insinuating that a system that works but allows tiny groups to fall through the cracks would still be acceptable for this, which I tend to agree with.
It is much like in the past when welfare recipients were vilified because a tiny number of them found a way to qualify even though they made a bit too much money for it, or managed to double dip somehow to get more than was intended. The system still fills a need and more or less works (its grievous underfunding and paperwork hell notwithstanding) and is far better than nothing, so the statistically insignificant amount of fraud or evasion is an acceptable cost to people that understand statistics and are speaking in good faith.
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Give us cross country high speed rail and you got a deal.
Interesting points to me are the fact that this 130 fee is:
- more than what the average fuel consuming car pay (70-90)
- Is on top of what many people already pay in state taxes to drive their car
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I pay over $250/year for that privilege in Washington state. The goal is to make up for the gasoline tax I don't pay - which is fair in principle, because gas tax is used to maintain the roads we all drive on. What's not fair is that it's a flat amount. I drive less than 6000 miles/year. The electric car flat fee is approximately the gas tax a Prius driver would pay to drive twice that far. So to drive an all-electric car I'm being taxed twice as much tax as if I drove a hybrid. Insane.
Roughly half of the money that gets spent on US roads comes from sales taxes, property taxes, income taxes, etc., and none of that bears any relation to how much driving you (we) do.
I'm really trying to figure out how that makes it OK to tax an EV for double per mile as compared to a prius. The only point I see you making is that roads are fucking expensive to maintain and they drain taxes from everywhere.
I wasn't trying to say "Therefore it's all OK," so much as "none of this makes any sense, none of this has ever been fair."
Even non-drivers wind up paying taxes for roads.
Oh if you are looking for sense from the government you are going to go mad. First lesson I learned working in a legal adjacent field. Well, second after going mad.
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What about all the subsidies we pay on gas? Maybe get rid of those if you want some revenue?
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