Tim Wilson, Craig Kelly and Jason Falinski are among the Liberal MPs who argue that the federal government’s luxury car tax should be abolished, given that it was introduced to protect local car manufacturers. The tax on imported vehicles raised some $675m in 2018-19, and this is expected to rise to $750m by 2022-23. Meanwhile, Motor Trades Association of Australia CEO Richard Dudley describes it as an “unconscionable tax” that should have been scrapped when local car manufacturing ceased in 2017:
Josh Frydenberg is refusing to abolish the luxury car tax that forces Australians to pay thousands of dollars more on imported vehicles priced at more than $67,500 — even though the tariff was set up to protect Holden and locally made cars…
Liberal MPs derided the luxury car tariff on Tuesday as a “bad tax” designed to protect a domestic motor industry that would no longer exist after General Motors announced Holden’s operations in Australia would be wound up by June.
