Tax on diesel fuel

[Wily Coyote]

Am i the only one cynical enough to think that as soon as diesel-fuelled GA really catches on that we'll be taxed as heavily as we are with avgas?

No doubt airlines will continue to benefit from tax-free fuel (and quite rightly too, imho) but I'm pretty convinced there will be a two-tier system where we'll be using identical fuel but paying four times the price. Perhaps it's just me being pessimistic but we read so much about the latest diesel aero engines, those fab new Diamond aircraft, flying for £5 ph, etc, etc but all I can think of when I read these articles is when will the government will want it's cut!!

Someone please tell me that I am indeed cynical and that it'll never happen :(

Wily

[tacpot]

The Government needs all the tax revenue it can get - so you can guarentee that if one revenue stream starts diminishing something will have to be raised to compensate!

Our only hope is that the small size of the market for aviation fuels will mean that once a number of us go over to using diesel, the government will realise that it is costing them more to collect the tax than the tax produces. Unfortunately this government has shown that it is very good at getting others (i.e. business) to pick up the tab for it's complex policy decisions. But in the end the customer (i.e. the tax payer) pays anyway, so we still lose.

[rotorboater]

They might not tax it, I have a boat that runs on red diesel and that is £1 gallon compared to my other one that is petrol and costs £5 gallon. It's been that way for years because of the fishing boats and I suppose it would be too much hassle to decide who was commercial and who isn't.
Besides the tax might be harder to collect when people start running their planes on central heating oil insted;)

[tacpot]

or used oil from Fish & Chip shops, :rolleyes:

[WelshFlyer]

Or JET-A1. The government has wanted to tax JET-A1 for years, and i mean commercially, but if they did that all the airlines would fill up somwhere that there isn't a tax levvied on JET-A1.

so I think that they'll let it slip.

WelshFlyer.

[astir 8]

There's all that tax exempt red diesel for non-automotive (agricultural) use too. I really don't think GA burns enough to make it worth the taxman's while to fiddle with that lot.

And Jet A1 also - too international

[Boing_737]

And how many people think that diesel engines are coming anywhere near a GA airfield near you soon? I read that it costs 24k to convert!! The cost-benefit analysis would only really benefit flying schools, and they are normally too tight fisted to bother with such an extravagent gesture. Even if they did, you can bet dollars to doughnuts that the cost of hire, or training wouldn't go down much. After all, we, the public, are there for the clubs convenience!!

"Convert the fleet, so people can hire them out for less? What more do they want, new aeroplanes?"

[Mike Cross]

Wily

Someone please tell me that I am indeed cynical and that it'll never happen
Sorry. I was brung up proper and therefore cannot lie to you.:(

Mike