Transparent car taxation (1)

The Malta Transport Authority declared that "All second-hand vehicles imported from EU countries will be evaluated for registration tax and VAT as per Glass's Car Guide Book as from July 30. Applications submitted before July 30 will be evaluated according to the current procedure, which was evaluation for registration tax and VAT as per Glass's Car Guide Book."

Before July 30 the use of Glass's Car Guide Book for evaluation purposes was kept from the public. From tomorrow, this guide book will be used as before but its use is being made public. This gratuitous information will lead to compliance with only one morsel from the demands listed in the infringement procedure on car taxation instituted against Malta by the European Commission.

Citizens have now been assured of the Commission's demand for a 'transparent' means of vehicle evaluation. Just how the authorities will convince the Commission that a guide book used to evaluate used cars in the UK market is relevant to the Maltese market has yet to be seen.

This guide book seems relevant to the Maltese authorities simply because they are still thinking in terms of 'value of imported goods' and the application of registration tax and VAT is being used in an equivalent manner to pre-accession use of import duty.

The use of Glass's Car Guide Book and the persistent application of minimum registration tax does nothing to guarantee that second-hand cars imported from another EU member state are taxed by an amount which is equivalent to the residual registration tax remaining after depreciation of similar vehicles of similar age already registered in Malta.