Dealer attack on car tax

Press, 10 October 1984, Page 29

Dealer attack on car tax

PA Dunedin Motor-vehicle dealers are collecting taxes for the Government at substantial cost to the industry, says the president of the Motor Vehicle Dealers’ Institute, Mr R. S. W. Inder, of Auckland. Mr Inder told the institute’s annual meeting in Dunedin yesterday that for the year ended March, 1983, sales tax on motor vehicles, including motor-cycles, was more than S34OM. “Although ultimately this vast volume of tax is paid by the consumer, it is the retailers who have to finance the tax content of their stock,” he said. “With the exception of firms which hold a limited wholesale licence, sales tax is paid as vehicles leave the factory floor and dealers do not recover it until the stock passes out of their showroom.” Although the industry was “uncertain” after record new-vehicle sales at predevaluation prices, Mr Inder said he believed maintenance of the present vehicle fleet would cause any buyer resistance to give way to replacement in the long term. Mr Gary Mclver, of Dunedin, was elected national president.