In California, all pickup trucks are considered commercial vehicles – vehicles used to earn an income. All of them. Doesn’t matter what you use it for; nor its size, nor trim, nor make nor model. Like Plato’s forms, if it appears to be in the form of a pickup truck, it’s a pickup truck, and California slaps a special tax on it.

I wonder if there is confused pandemonium among the Morlocks at the DMV when someone tries to register a Suburu Brat.

Is it a car? Is it a pickup? Is it a carkup? Is it a pickar? You decide!

California defines “commercial,” among other things, as a vehicle “designed” to provide a commercial service. So the fact that a pickup truck could, potentially, possibly, carry something for someone for money, by design, at least once, that makes it commercial 24/7. Never mind the fact that a lot of SUV’s have more carrying capacity than the very pretty bubblegum shortbeds all over California.

So for this variant of pre-crime Government stupidity, where you are found guilty BEFORE you actually offend the Crown, every pickup truck owner in California gets to pay a weight tax….ahem…I mean a weight FEE. No, I mean a tax. We gotta call things by their PROPER name, after all.

For a basic truck it’s about $80 a year on top of the standard registration costs. That’s a 40% tax. FORTY.

Meanwhile, the CA DMV has issued a statement that all Uber and Lyft drivers should be registered as commercial vehicles, but there appears to be little enforcement of it and both Uber and Lyft are not interested in adding another barrier to entry for drivers, therefore the vast majority, if not all of these drivers, are using their vehicles for commercial purposes; 7% as a full-time job and the rest part-time, but under non-commercial, personal vehicle registrations.

Now, to be clear, California shouldn’t be taxing your personal property anyway. You shouldn’t need to tithe the Crown for the freedom of using your own car for whatever you want to use it for.

So, in summary, in the great State of Taxifornia, the majority of people drive their pickup trucks for personal use, never using them for commercial purposes, but must pay a commercial tax, while all of the Uber and Lyft drivers that use their vehicles for commercial purposes, pay no commercial tax.

Sounds like Government to me!

Categories: Big Government, California, Government Failures, Precrime, property taxes, Socialism, Statism, Taxes

Tags: ca dmv registration pickups, DMV, pickup trucks commerical, pickups in california are commercial vehicles, Precrime, Taxifornia, uber lyft commerical vehicle