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Comment by seanp2k2 | Hacker News Reader

Tons of rich people drive a Prius, because they get the government to give them a fat rebate for buying an EV, and Priuses are cheap to run + hold their resale value well. Teslas are also pretty popular now for similar reasons. There should be a limit on the tax break for hybrids, since you still get it on a Porsche 918 Spyder, and I very much doubt that that car will help reduce greenhouse gasses as much as I doubt that whoever is buying it needs a tax break. Stop subsidizing the rich.

Plenty also just have a cheap car because they don't see spending a ton on a car is worth it. Drive around some super fancy neighborhoods and you'll see plenty of minivans, normal pickup trucks, Hyundais, Hondas, etc. Part of it is also camouflage.

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>There should be a limit on the tax break for hybrids, since you still get it on a Porsche 918 Spyder, and I very much doubt that that car will help reduce greenhouse gasses as much as I doubt that whoever is buying it needs a tax break

Without the tax break they'd surely buy a similar car with a combustion engine so it still makes sense if the purpose is to reduce pollution.

The Porche 918 Spyder qualifies for a $3,667 tax credit. The car costs $845,000 for the base edition - and only 918 were made.

It meets all the criteria of the IRS EV tax credit. It's capable of 78 mpg while emitting only 79 g/km of CO2. Even the Prius only gets 58 mpg while emitting 111 g/km of CO2.

While I fundamentally agree that anyone buying a $845k car doesn't need a tax break - I also see that since it meets the rules as stated it should qualify.

It's not because they need the tax break it's because the government wants them to buy a hybrid over a combustion engine car. It's quite simple.

The tax breaks here in Denmark were more substantial, before they were phased out. Normal cars have like a 170% tax on them that electric cars were exempt from.

I'd rather have the tax break. WIthout it, the person buying the sports car might just buy a different, non-hybrid model. I'd much rather encourage folks to buy them, with the hopes that they'll eventually replace all-gas models as they become more popular. At that point, we can drop the tax breaks.

Where I live its not really the tax breaks, its you can get HOV lane stickers.

Heh. Here you get tax breaks and/or subsidized, get to drive in the taxi/bus lanes, plus you get to go through the tolls at a reduced cost (or maybe free). It is a really convenient thing, honestly.

As far as I know, they have planned phase-outs to some of this and I'd expect more of the same. After all, electric car ownership is already pretty high (I'm in Norway) and eventually they'll need the tax revenue. For now, though, I'm fully supportive of these sorts of incentives if for nothing else than smog reduction.

What is it? The top 10% of income earners pay 90% of the taxes? Who is subsidizing whom? A tax credit is not a subsidy.

>The top 10% of income earners pay 90% of the taxes?

Nope. According to several sources[1][2], the top 10% earn ~40% of total income and pay ~70% of total taxes, while the top 25% earn ~70% and pay ~90%.

[1]https://www.mercatus.org/publication/tax-burden-among-varyin...

[2]https://taxfoundation.org/summary-latest-federal-income-tax-...

Ok thanks, I didn't recall the exact stats, other than it is quite skewed.

I'm surprised that's enough to convince you that things are skewed. Shouldn't you also want the percentage of total earnings that go to the top 10%? And also take into account the diminished value of the marginal dollar?

Note that these numbers only look at income tax.

Payroll tax, Social Security and sales taxes are not included.

However, even when you do that the top 20% pay most of the taxes.

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