Should petrol stations show the amount of tax?

[+Steve]

Should petrol stations show the amount of tax included in the price when you buy fuel?

[jirehn]

Maybe yes,for the people who refuels from them.

[Jan&tone]

Yes. Definitely. It would bring home immediately the amount we give the government everytime we fill up!

The tax should also include an amount to cover the road fund licence instead of the iniquitous way it's collected at the moment

(and bear in mind I don't pay any rfl on my Prius)

[crofter]

Surely that would be like twisting the knife.

Del

[Jan&tone]

Surely that would be like twisting the knife.

Del

Maybe you mis-understood my thoughts...

The government presently collect around 80/90 pence a litre from us in tax. If they put this up by 10 or 15 pence a litre and stopped the annual rfl then if you use the roads more you pay more as opposed to having a large 4x4 which is taxed at what 245 per year and sometimes sits in the driveway for probably 4 months a year in total...

If you drive 5000 miles a year, why should you pay the same rfl as someone that does 20,000 a year?

Bear in mind that I don't pay any rfl on my Prius, so I would lose out on the above, but surely it is a fairer way of doing things?

[Daveyonthemove]

I don't see the point personally. I still NEED to buy fuel no matter how much of the cost goes to the treasury.

We all know that the Gov't take a large cut of the cash we pay, but knowing exactly how much they take won't make the slightest bit of difference to us, as we will still be paying the full amount.

If anything it might confuse some people and cause disputes at the till.

If people really want to know how much the treasury take, then they can easily look it up online.

[Bibbs]

No, but make them put all their prices up.

How many places actually tell you the prices of the premium stuff before you lift the pump handle and think "f**k me, how much?"?

[balli hi]

So if the government were to scrap road fund license and add a further 10 or 15 pence to the cost of fuel instead, wouldn't that just come full circle ?, basically most of our food and other goods are transported to their final destination by road which means our hard pressed hauliers who are struggling as it is because of high fuel prices, will be hit even harder, they will have no option but to pass the rise on, back to us the consumer, so we'll all end up paying more in any case

And what about my own profession what are we supposed to do, the Taxi trade is struggling as it is right now, i'm not about to give you any hard luck stories but suffice to say that we couldn't sustain such huge rises in the cost of fuel duty without passing it on to our customers, the very same customers that are thin on the ground right now, which will only result in even fewer customers still.

[Daveyonthemove]

I agree that it's going to hit us all in the pocket in one way or another, but it is the fairest way to make sure that everyone pays for road fund tax, and the people who use the roads the most are the people that contribute more.

If we could come up with a way of making sure you can only buy fuel if your car is registered as being insured and MOT'd, then that would keep most un-insured drivers off the road and bring down our premiums, so it may balance out slightly.

[crofter]

Surely that would be like twisting the knife.

Del

Maybe you mis-understood my thoughts...

The government presently collect around 80/90 pence a litre from us in tax. If they put this up by 10 or 15 pence a litre and stopped the annual rfl then if you use the roads more you pay more as opposed to having a large 4x4 which is taxed at what 245 per year and sometimes sits in the driveway for probably 4 months a year in total...

If you drive 5000 miles a year, why should you pay the same rfl as someone that does 20,000 a year?

Bear in mind that I don't pay any rfl on my Prius, so I would lose out on the above, but surely it is a fairer way of doing things?

Jan&tone,sorry about the confusion.

My reponse was to the OP,and before I could post it I had to take a phone call and resulted in your post being no 3.

I favour the increase in fuel to offset the RFL,but what about petrol used in non road use machinery.

Don't think"Sorry dear,cant afford the petrol to cut the lawn this week"(pardon the pun) will cut it

Del

[PaulinhoT]

A few months back I helped put the data together for an article in a local paper about the costs of fuel and the running costs of a petrol station.

After the article was published a lot of people came into where I work and were shocked at how little money the station actually gets for all the work that goes into actually selling the stuff.

Put basically Fuel duty sits at 57.95 pence for every litre of fuel you have, then you have 20% vat (record high) on that cost per litre, then you have the fuel companies slice, which varys but is normally less that then duty the Government takes. Then you have forecourt costs after which you are left with the forecouts profit per litre, which is noramlly 1-2p per litre you buy. Now depending on how much you put in, but if you say for every £10 of fuel you put in your car, the site makes in "profit" less than the cost of a choc bar.. well it seems crazy.

The funny bit is that it's called "profit" but this is before you pay for staff, insurances, rates, electric etc.. and even for each electronic transaction. I think I worked it out that each member of staff would have to serve someone in under 30seconds to even break even

Thing is you make up the costs eles where.. i.e shop sales, workshop, car sales etc..

But who would like to own a company that sold a product that the Government took nearly 60% of every £1 you made... nobody would do it.