PETROL PRICES - A MUST READ!!!

[Guest kingfisher]

Get a diesel motor and run it on cooking oil.

[Newt]

US Federal Tax Rate (the income figures are after all adjustments/credits for alimony, charitable gifts, excess medical expenses, etc. have been subtracted from gross income)

 

15% - single to $27K | Married to $45K | Head of Household to $36K

27.5% - single to $65.5K | Married to $110K | HoH to $94K

up to

39.1% - all making $297K and up

 

State tax rates vary widely. For instance, Alaska with huge oil revenues has no state tax but pays a credit at years end that may range from $2K to $4K to each adult in the state. NC where I live is

 

6% if you make from $13K to $60 and 7.75% above that.

 

But I can take the amount of state tax paid from my taxable income for federal next year.

[Paul_H]

As another point, do you honestly believe that the Petrol companies (not forecourt operators) and the goverment don't want the price as high as possible (without causing protests) the goverment because they get more in revenue. The petrol companies don't mind the tax (they would prefer it to be profit mind you) but as they don't pay it YOU DO, it doesn't really bother them.

 

Years ago when the forecourt owners were bothered by the taxes and wanted to raise peoples awareness of how much tax is actually paid. They came up with a very simple solution you put the price per litre pre tax then after tax then after Vat instead of just pre and post vat on peoples reciepts. Instantly people would be able to see exactly how much the goverment is taking etc.

 

Why did this not occur you have to ask yourself, one reason only, the petrol companies supply the consoles to the forecourts and they don't want the customer to be truly aware of prices so they don't program the software in the console to print out this information.

 

I did notice that when the petrol strikes were going on this idea was raised again, by the petrol companies this time, was this possibly to deflect attention from themselves to the goverment one asks?

 

Maybe I am just suspicious but it seems to me they both like the satus quo, ie blame the other, nothing happens that way, the oil companies make huge profits the goverment get their tax revenue.

 

For those that may not understand how the creative accounting part occurs I shall give an example a bus company i know well, makes no profits, year after year. They can prove this to their employees so every year it prevents them from putting up their wages. What the employees (well very few) don't realise is that the bus company is paying rent for storage of its buses every night, to another company in this instance an overseas (tax haven) company. The rent per bus is quite high almost £20 per night for storage because technically they don't own the depot they rent it. But if one searches you will find this same company actually owns the bus company so who are they paying the rent to themselves (in reality) but not on paper it allows them to move the money out out of the country and lowers their taxes.

 

One big motor retailer I worked for didn't make any money because they borrowed (at extortionate rates) from an overseas bank all the money to buy their cars, their premises etc. Who owned the bank oh yes the owner of the company who lives overseas.

 

Nothing wrong with it that is how business works, just don't believe it when people say they make no money. But keep on trading for years and years and are always trying to increase their market share.

 

[ 10 May 2002, 02:42 PM: Message edited by: Paul_H ]

[Alan Fawcett]

Sorry can't keep out of this any longer.

 

We have got a fuel station on the outskirts of Stafford.

 

Every night we have to use the alcatel & dail through to france.

 

The first screen that pops up is the fuel price list, we dropped the price on U/L tuesday night by 1p the other stations within a 2 mile radius have now dropped theirs to match.

 

For every pound you spend on petrol approx 95p goes to the goverment, 2.5p goes to the fuel provider (in our case total) & .5p goes to us.

 

A lot of people don't realise there is more than one tax paid on fuel, you have your VAT & then you have fuel duty (which is the one that sends the prices through the roof).

 

One old fella came into the garage & had a right go at my mum over the prices "you must be rolling in it with what you're charging for petrol" my mum being her usual self tried to politley explain things but this old un was either deaf or stupid " you should drop your prices then you'll get more customers but while your being greedy & ripping people off you won't have my custom again"

 

So i in my usual diplomatic way stepped out of the office & asked him if he knew what he was on about then i explained a few things "1 We don't own the fuel we sell it for total 2 If it was upto me i'd sell it at a £ a gallon 3 I then explained about the goverment who don't have to worry about how much fuel costs because they claim the lot back on expences (well their chauffers do)"

 

He apologised to my mum & left after saying that he didn't realise the goverment are the main cause of the prices in the fuel stations.

 

You've got to laugh though when you consider that Petrol (a by product of oil refining) was thrown away for years untill the internal combustion engine was invented & what was once rubbish is now the most sought after comodity on earth.

 

[ 10 May 2002, 11:31 AM: Message edited by: ALAN FAWCETT ]

[Colin Brett]

Do you know that as from 17th May, the money you earn will be yours! It takes that long to pay the government it's taxes for the year.

How long before Gordon has us working until June before we earn a penny for ourselves?

Colin.