Jump to content

HOAX: Proposed Federal Bill to Tax Our Cars


AVS619

Recommended Posts

I have just heard that Senator Chuck Schumer is drafting a bill that will tax antque, historic, collector and race cars (well, actually all of the cars we love) as personal property and at a 10% (starting) yearly rate! This will be over and above what any state may do. The intent, I am led to believe, is to set up a branch of the IRS to go over all club rosters (in case you try to 'hide' your car and not report it on the 1040 form as he wants), find out who owns what, use auctions and the like to establish value and then tax us. Cars in museums, not regsitered and/or nonfunctional will still be taxed. The result will be the end of the car hobby, the closing of restoration shops and services (who will put money in a car if they face a 10% tax?) and plummeting car values. Let's not forget the hotels, gas stations, restaurants, and the like that make income from our tours and meets. The government generates tax revenue from all of these sources. By the way, Chuck says we are all rich and we play with our cars on the 'backs of the poor'. Give me a break.

Is this true? Does anyone else know about this? Most important is, how do we stop this? I have spent forty-five years building my collection, mostly brass era, from already taxed dollars doing it piecemeal as funds allow and I could not afford to pay this yearly tax. I too am 'poor' now due to the direct result of Chuck Schumer and Barney Frank who destroyed the real estate lending industry putting me out of work (who needs a real estate appraisal?). Now he wants to take away my hobby and passion. We must stop this! But how?

Edited by Rawja (see edit history)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello Steve! I hope this is indeed just a joke but searching the internet I found information that seems to make it true. As a joke, it is a REALLY a bad one. I am taxed enough already and as I stated, the government has actually killed my buisness. Thus, something like this has a ring of truth to it. And, if it is a joke, I hope no one in Washington is looking as they may find it to be a good idea!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This thing has gone viral! Someone must have forwarded the "story" to every car club internet forum. Just Google "Charles Schumer collector car tax" and see the reactions that are being flamed across the country.

Has Rich Kopec confessed to the prank? At some point, it will be necessary to help a few of the most-outraged to cool off.

But, I take the point that it's bad to plant ideas in the heads of our legislators, either state or federal. Do we think that Schumer's office is being barraged with angry phone calls and emails? Some might find THAT funny!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kopec has sent a letter of apology to SEMA. It WAS an April Fool joke and Shumer's office has been barraged. That is not funny! There are serious issues in this country for his office to deal with (I am not a supporter) and the worry is that someone will be so upset with car collectors calling that they will actually think of writing this legislation. There was and is nothing funny in Kopec's column in my opinion. This has taken a lot of time for people to refute and has caused me and our office hours of work. The fact that SEMA felt it necessary to send out an alert says it all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The original link for this joke was to a supposed New York Times front page with the article on Schumer and an accompanying article about low cancer rates in polka players. Given the date of that "paper" and the placement of these two articles above the fold on the front page of the NYT, my first reaction is: exactly HOW gullible are you people????? This is also a sad testament to how inaccurate info on the web gets sent worldwide in seconds. Can we at least learn SOMETHING from this?

By the way, the word "gullible" isn't in the dictionary. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

High school journalism 101- lead story and cutline goes front and center or slightly left since that's where most people's eyes lead, especially if there's a photograph. Secondary stories go right or lower on the page, as the polka thing did.

Bottom line Joe- the whole thing was in very poor taste. Dealing with Virginia's 14th District House delegate has me very skittish when something like this shows up, especially knowing that local governments are grasping at any straw they can find to raise revenue. In a poorer area of the state like mine, that generally means the folks who have decent-paying jobs or professions end up paying proportionately way more than their share.

Edited by rocketraider (see edit history)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Joe, I hate to take issue with a fellow Olds guy but I respectfully feel that this was not a case of people being gullible. Most people in the hobby are very passionate about it and these emails were sent out to some very prominent people in the hopes of duping them. We all saw something that was dangerous to the hobby and reacted before examing the document. Who would have thoght the subject was an appropriate April Fool's joke? Real smart to bombard a Senator with hate mail from our hobby! In an era that we need legislators behind us someone pulls this stunt. As Glenn said, poor taste, poor judgement and not at all funny.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...