Foreigners May Pay Toll to Storm the Autobahn
If you happen to live outside of Germany, you may soon find yourself paying a toll to do your best Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise impressions on the Autobahn.
The reason? While residents living in the nine countries surrounding Germany make extensive use of the Autobahn in their travels, the Germans are left footing the bill for maintenance on the famous infrastructure. Since foreigners don’t pay taxes to Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition government has opted to enact a toll aimed at non-German citizens in order to share responsibilities.
The plan has detractors, of course, ranging from Austria’s transport minister Dores Bures threatening to take Germany to the European Court of Justice over the toll, to German auto club ADAC stating that even the potential revenue wouldn’t be enough to cover all the Autobahn’s maintenance costs.
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"Austria’s transport minister Dores Bures threatening to take Germany to the European Court of Justice over the toll" Ironically, the Austrians already do the same thing, except the locals have to pay for the sticker, too. The Swiss likewise have a toll sticker requirement, while the French have traditional toll roads. The idea isn't all that radical.
" the Germans are left footing the bill for maintenance on the famous infrastructure." This is incorrect. Foreigners pay to German taxes through petrol and diesel. The numbers according to ADAC: - 5% of the German traffic is by foreign vehicles. - €53B are paid by foreigners in fuel taxes. - €19B are used to maintain the Autobahns. This is a pure money machine and it is against the European directive that you may not put additional taxes onto people of other nationalities.
I saw a segment on RT the other week claiming the EU is trying to enforce a speed limit on the entire Autobahn network, meaning no more unlimited speedo. And now they even want to charge foreigners to just drive on it lol!
How much would the toll be?