Today, the TaxPayers' Alliance presents their new, online Green Tax Calculator which allows users to calculate, using their personal travel habits, household bills, and even specific make of car, the amount they are paying for green taxes and regulations.
In particular, the calculator sheds light on the hidden price ordinary people are paying for regulations that push up their electricity and gas bills. It is specially designed to take advantage of viral marketing with a range of options allowing users to share their results or embed the calculator on their own websites or blogs.
You can view the calculator here.
The bill facing a typical person
Using the Green Tax Calculator it is possible to work out the annual green tax bill of a typical person:
• Someone driving the most basic 2008 model of Britain’s most popular car, the Ford Focus, the average annual mileage (8,770 miles) will pay £469 in Fuel Duty and £145 in Vehicle Excise Duty.
• Someone who flies once to a destination in Europe and once to a destination outside Europe will pay £50 in Air Passenger Duty.
• Out of average 2008 electricity and gas bills of £424 and £618 respectively, a family would pay over £77 as the result of regulations like the Renewables Obligation and the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme.
• That is a total bill of more than £740 for taxes and regulations that do little to achieve their stated purpose.
Matthew Sinclair, Research Director at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said:
“The cost of green taxes and regulations is often hidden from ordinary people in increased prices. Politicians try to pretend they are the friend of the consumer when these prices rise, but their own role in pushing ordinary people’s bills up with stealth taxes and obscure regulations is seldom acknowledged. The new TPA Green Calculator uses the power of the Internet and viral advertising to provide personalised information that can let ordinary people know how much they are paying.”
• The calculator can be found here. Options to link to the calculator, individual results and to embed the calculator on websites are included in the calculator.
• An explanation of how the results were produced, entirely from official statistics and information entered by users, can be found here.
• An explanation of why the green taxes and regulations that impose such a bill on ordinary people do little to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, can be found here.