[s-cars] MORE SUV's on the ROAD?

[CyberPoet]

Just as we get ready to go to war (supposedly not over oil), Mr. G.W.
Bush comes up with a new one...

http://ens-news.com/ens/jan2003/2003-01-21-09.asp

Tax Credits Could Boost SUV Sales
WASHINGTON, DC, January 21, 2003 (ENS) - A tax credit proposed by the
Bush administration would allow small business owners to purchase
large sport utility vehicles (SUVs) almost for free.

One of the tax cuts included in a package proposed by President
George W. Bush would increase from $25,000 to $75,000 the amount that
business owners, including wealthy self employed doctors and lawyers,
could claim as a tax write off if they buy a large SUV for their
business use.

The so called SUV loophole, first reported yesterday by "The Detroit
News," is part of a tax proposal that the administration says would
help stimulate the economy by allowing a higher deduction for
business equipment. The deduction was $17,500 in 1996, but was raised
to $25,000 in 2003 under the Bush tax plan.

"This is a plan that says that if you are willing to take risk and
invest more, that there's a benefit for doing so," Bush said when he
announced his new tax initiative on January 9. "It will have a
positive effect throughout our entire economy."

But environmental groups say the proposal could have a negative
effect on the environment, encouraging small business owners to buy
the largest SUVs available, rather than more fuel efficient, less
polluting vehicles. The Internal Revenue Service defines any vehicle
with a gross weight of 6,000 pounds or more as a truck, including
large SUVs, and business owners can write off such trucks as
necessary equipment.

But they cannot write off as equipment vehicles that do not meet that
weight requirement. A business can claim a deduction for the
depreciation in value that a car experiences as soon as it is driven
off the lot, but the maximum deduction is just $7,660 - far less than
the proposed cap on business "equipment."

Even the tax credits offered for alternative fueled cars, which
qualify for a $2,000 clean vehicle deduction, do not bring the
incentives for buying cars up to the level of the proposed incentives
for buying large SUVs.

"Leave it to the Bush administration to try to make an even more
outrageous a taxpayer rip-off that benefits the rich," Daniel Becker,
director of the global warming and energy program at the Sierra Club,
told the "Detroit News." "I'm sure there will be a fight over this."

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