No Tax Credit Over $100K Income, Or Over $40K Vehicle, So Says The Senate, NonBindingly

[deadduck]

The amendment passed, 51-48. Senator Fischer took to Twitter to say that "everyday Americans are living paycheck to paycheck because of the sharp rise in costs due to #Bideninflation. We shouldn't be subsidizing luxury vehicles for the rich using money from hard-working taxpayers." (Inflation is mostly being driven by high prices for used cars, which in turn is a result of the chip shortage.)

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2021/08/senate-votes-to-restrict-ev-tax-credits-despite-climate-crisis/

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[JamieGeek]

Note the last paragraph, however:

Thankfully, Sen. Fischer's amendment is non-binding and is unlikely to be greeted warmly by the House of Representatives. Meanwhile, European market share of plug-in vehicles has now risen above 10 percent thanks to effective policies that require OEMs to reduce their average fleet emissions or suffer massive fines.

 

[EELinneman]

Who can afford a $50K MME on a $99K income? This whole politicking is crazy.

 

[BalsaDust]

I try to avoid the political climate, especially online since it can breed hate and dissent, but...

Fortunately its only an amendment that's not binding and the House of Representative will most likely vote it out.
There's too much at stake beyond what this article implies and by chance it does get passed (not likely) it would not make a difference to me. The Tax incentive was put in place to encourage the switch to electric vehicles going forward and in a small part to improve the environment.
I'm not a tree hugger but I like to do my part and with the current three ICE vehicles in our household, they will at some point in the near future be phased out for BEV's.

Tony

 

[RickMachE]

I am a strong proponent of EVs.

That said, at some point paying people to buy EVs is wrong. At what level of income that happens at, or level of assets, is not for me to say. But a billionaire shouldn't be able to get tax credits for buying anything.

No law should be retroactive though. And they should be announced in advance.

 

[iam-s-Hon]

Who can afford a $50K MME on a $99K income? This whole politicking is crazy.

You don't know.

 

[Scarpia]

The key word is "nonbinding". The chances of this actually happening are slim. This is at the stage of political gamesmanship.

 

[Deleted member 3663]

At what level of income that happens at, or level of assets, is not for me to say. But a billionaire shouldn't be able to get tax credits for buying anything.

Well apparently, you do know. You just wrote it.

 

[TheVirtualTim]

Global warming is probably the single largest threat against the planet and humankind. Over the history of the planet there have been 5 great extinction events. The Permian-Triassic event (also known as "the Great Dying") is believed to have been triggered by excess CO2 in the atmosphere ... released by the volcanic activity in the Siberian Traps. This raised temperatures enough that oceans warmed and began melting the frozen methane deposits ... methane is more efficient at trapping heat than CO2 ... which resulted in a run-away warming effect.

81% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial species were wiped out.

This is the fear of global warming ... that if we can't control the temperature increase by elimination of greenhouse gasses (most of which is CO2 emissions) then we'll increase the temperatures enough to start the melting of frozen methane deposits and at that point it becomes a runaway event that we can't stop even if we cut CO2 "cold turkey".

In October of last year, researchers have now confirmed that some of the methane deposits have begun to melt ...not good. Not good at all.

The responsible thing to do would be to heavily subsidize EV's... and pay for those subsidies by increasing taxes on ICE vehicles. Getting more people to buy EV's isn't a luxury ... it's a necessity.

[Edit: I mistakenly wrote "frozen CO2" when I meant to write "frozen methane deposits".]

 

[theo1000]

Its just a way to attack EV's, I bet you will find the finger prints of the API all over this one. It says something that the API is down to 51 votes. At one time this would have been 99-1.

BTW Billionaires don't pay taxes at all. In fact they can depreciate the cars on their business income and pay zero for the entire car. I'm not a Billionaire with a 'B' and even I can, and do, do that. The tax credit makes what all Billionaires do accessible to common folks, no wonder it is under attack.

EV's need to get to scale, for cheap offerings, read under $20,000 to hit the market. Incentives build the capital base, factories, machinery, supply, to get there. Hope we don't chicken out. Stay the course, we have come so far.

 

[Radish]

i would think the number of people who make less than 100k but pay at least $12,500 in income tax in a year is very small. With all the available deductions seems like that population would be almost non-existent

 

[Blanked]

#FLATtax

 

[JB20]

First off $100k in San Francisco is not the same as BFE XX state. 2nd, I pay enough in taxes that could buy a Mach E GT. It is time for me to get some of that back.

 

[jimbobiii]

I mean, I’m not gonna disagree that a Model S or X doesn’t need a 7500 subsidy.

but that cap is ridiculously low and the government should be doing everything in its power to transition to emission-less vehicles. We’re way behind Europe in this regard.

and as such, on the whole this is a very negative resolution.

CA has capped its rebate in good ways - off the base MSRP of the car (so options don’t push you out) and at a high income but not outrageously so and esp for this state.

a much more sensible approach, but I also get this is a senator from Nebraska (my home state) trying to stick it to people on the coasts, as they are the high income folks buying EVs in mass

 

[All Hat No Cattle]

You younger guys probably won't know about this, but Google "cash for clunkers".

The government has subsidized ICE vehicles for years, for the sake of cleaner cars.

Maybe it is now the BEV's turn.

Cash for Clunkers was a U.S. government program that provided financial incentives to car owners to trade in their old, less fuel-efficient vehicles and buy more fuel-efficient vehicles. The purpose of the program was primarily to act as an economic stimulus during the Great Recession by providing the population with monetary incentives to buy new cars, thereby increasing automobile sales, while at the same time reducing carbon emissions by replacing old vehicles with new, fuel-efficient ones.

The formal name for the program was the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS). The CARS program gave people who qualified a credit of up to $4,500, depending on the vehicle purchased.

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