THE European Car & Truck Rental Association (ECATRA) has called on the European Union (EU) to create taxation legislation allowing leasing companies to be refunded motor tax when transferring vehicles between EU countries.

In a consultation paper for the EU's ongoing CARS21 review of automobile policy, ECATRA said this was 'one of the main problems facing the industry', which often wanted to move vehicles to re-sell them.

It explained: 'Leasing companies in many instances suffer from being taxed twice for the same product - double taxation - that hampers competitiveness and fragments the (EU) internal market.' Another problem was short-term rental companies being forced to repatriate vehicles driven across an EU border by a customer before being rented again.

A key reason, said the association, was 'the large difference in the taxation of cars' amongst EU member states. A more harmonised system would allow a Brussels-based car to be re-rented in Paris, it said.