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> I used to love that car. It’s the first nice car I’ve owned (in Denmark, there was a 225% tax (VAT included) on cars last I bought one, so most people get the
by notJim 7y ago
> I used to love that car. It’s the first nice car I’ve owned (in Denmark, there was a 225% tax (VAT included) on cars last I bought one, so most people get the smallest, crappiest car that can work for their needs).
Is this right? Apparently the base price for this car is around $60,000, so this person paid $195,000 ($60,000 + 2.25 * $60,000) for this car?
- Apfel 7y agoIt's a lease, I think. He mentions it in the article.
- Areading314 7y agoI feel that having no desire to spend money on such obviously material objects is a big "easy mode" in my life. It sucks to see so many people fall for all the luxury marketing and then go into debt to finance it.
- JTbane 7y agoThis tbh. I see a car as an appliance to get from point A to point B. Sure some cars are sexy and go fast, but you can't push them to the limit on the street, you're not on a track.
- avar 7y agoYou may have missed the part where the author of the article lives a short drive from German autobahns, or perhaps you don't count driving in excess of 220 km/h as pushing the car to its limits.
- marvin 7y agoSucks? Absolutely not! Everyone who buys an expensive car has that much less disposable income, and won't be able to bid up the housing market to even more extreme heights than the combination of cheap credit and restricted zoning already causes. I hope they buy two.
- Ninn 7y agoThe vat is based on the import/manufacture price, and not the retail price, that you pay in other countries.
- aembleton 7y agoThe eu vat directive requires it to be based on the retail price
- compsciphd 7y agoi can speak to Israel. Base price on cars is more expensive, then you basically pay 100% tax on the base price of the car. It makes cars a small fortune compared to the US. When I tell Israeli coworkers that I paid about $6K for a 3 year lease of my chevy volt (after state / utility company rebates), their mouths drop. That's basically free to them. Also in Israel it used to be common that a benefit you got from your company was a car (because it wasn't taxed as income). It could be similar in other european countries? which hides the cost of the car from many of the consumers. Now, Israel taxes cars basically like income so its not as common a benefit you see anymore (employees would rather have cash than a car). The only reason to get a car as a benefit if for some reason the company can get the car cheaper than you could have gotten it yourself.
- mikl 7y agoThe "get a car from the job" used to be a common trick in Denmark years ago, but they changed the rules to you get taxed heavily for it, so it there’s not much to gain that way.
- notJim 7y agoI think this was a thing in the US too back when taxes were higher, but of course we went the opposite direction ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- m463 7y agoHow much is gas in Israel?
- readhn 7y ago$7
- chowells 7y agoNo, he said it's the first nice car he's owned. Then he listed why - the tax in Denmark. The obvious inference is that he no longer lives in Denmark.
- joshAg 7y agoAccording to the author blurb, he's in switzerland now. The 225% VAT in Denmark is why he'd never gotten a luxury car before and instead just got the cheapest thing that could fulfill his needs.
- jimmaswell 7y agoI can't believe the electorate tolerates this kind of thing over there.
- thefounder 7y agoDenmark scores 1st as best country to live in so they must do something right.
- twoheadedboy 7y agoIf you're referring to the United Nations World Happiness Report, know that the metrics they use to measure those scores are literally just a measure of how socialistic a country is.
- thefounder 7y agoDoes socialism make people happy?
- twoheadedboy 7y agoNot necessarily.
- hanspeter 7y agoAnd we can't believe you guys over there tolerate that homeless people in the streets or no free health care is a thing.
- admg 7y agoThat must be wrong, I have the petrol equiavalent, a 320i and it cost me £32K brand new in the UK.
- dagw 7y agoThe 320i starts at £57K in Denmark
- mikl 7y agoIn Denmark, I would have, but I bought it after I moved to Switzerland, so I only paid a modest 8% VAT on the car. Also, it was a demo-car, the price was around $42'000.
- stanski 7y agoHe said he's leasing it. Whatever that means in terms of the tax application.
- isostatic 7y agoWhy don’t people buy cars in Germany or Sweden with such tax?
- chihuahua 7y agoBecause the government of Denmark has presumably thought of this obvious loophole and found a way to close it. I assume if someone buys a car in Germany or Sweden and wants to register it at their address in Denmark, the Danish bureaucracy says "sure, we'll give you the registration papers as soon as you pay the 225% tax on the purchase price of your new car". It's similar when you buy a car in Oregon (no sales tax) and want to register it in Washington (10% sales tax). If that was a way around paying the tax, every single person in the state would be doing it. The government has thought of this as well. And if you say "oh, I'm even smarter than that, I simply won't register the car in Washington", that gets you a felony conviction when you're caught. It's almost as if governments can anticipate some obvious loopholes and close them.
- avar 7y agoThere's a legal way to avoid this sort of thing, which is to buy a cheap but upgradable vehicle and retrofit "parts", which usually aren't taxed at the same rate. The most famous example of this sort of thing is the "Chicken Tax": https://www.econlib.org/archives/2018/03/why_the_chicken.html https://www.econlib.org/archives/2018/03/why_the_chicken.htm... So as a private consumer instead of buying a $100k BMW and that ends up costing $225k you'd buy the $100k one, and an entry level $50k base model, and have $75k left to spend on moving parts over before you'd break even. When that's considered tax fraud and when it's considered perfectly legal will differ by country. I assume it isn't illegal for danes to buy a new engine, seats etc. for their existing cars without needing to change the VIN.
- systemtest 7y agoExactly what happens in the Netherlands. Ford Mustang Ecoboost is €70k, a GT is €111k. For the difference of €41k you can easily put in a V8 with over 500 horsepower, change the wiring harness, change the ECU, brakes, suspension. For less than a GT you can pimp out your EcoBoost and create a better car.
- ianbooker 7y agoYes, in Denmark you buy a car and pay the same amount in taxes, and then you pay half of that in taxes on top ;) There is an exception for cars under 10.000, I think there the taxes are around 95%. For that reason, Denmark is full of super small cars and well serviced bigger and older cars. Yet, I guess the author now moved to Switzerland, at least the number plate does not look danish at all.