THE European Commission has proposed the abolition of registration taxes that it says impede the transfer of vehicles to the 16 European Union (EU) member states that impose them.

Britain is not among the countries concerned, but they include Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Austria and Poland. The commission is proposing that their car registration taxes be phased out between five and 10 years.

To keep taxes level, Brussels is proposing that the gradual abolition of registration taxes is accompanied by parallel increases of annual ‘circulation’ taxes, such as the British road tax, and if necessary, other taxes.

This, said Brussels, would ‘protect car owners from dramatic devaluations of their cars’. EU taxation commissioner László Kovács said registration taxes created ‘double taxation for European citizens’ wanting to move to a different EU country or buy a car in a foreign country.

Other states affected would be Portugal, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia, Cyprus and Greece.