Tax The Rich

It seems counter-intuitive to most taxpayers, but on a fairly regular basis, in order to stimulate a bit of business activity, the Australian Tax Office will offer what’s called an instant asset write off.

Anonymous internet hoons Tax The Rich mow the lawn with a Rolls-Royce Wraith.The last time we heard from Tax the Rich, they were setting a Jag XJ220 on fire.  Now they've graced the internet once again with a video of a $645,000 Rolls Royce Wraith being taken...well...out of its comfort zone.If you’ve ever wondered how Rolls’ latest mega coupe would handle a hay bale slalom over the manicured lawns of an English country estate, wonder no more thanks to Tax The Rich.In spite of how well the Roller appears to handle this most unusual of assignments, it is quite unlikely we'll be seeing it line up in Coffs Harbour for Rally Australia next year. Which is unfortunate as that would be quite the spectacle.For the uninitiated, Tax the Rich are rather fond of taking supercars out of their smooth-bitumen native environs and thrashing them around their farm.Along with trying to set it on fire Tax the Rich have taken the XJ220 on a traipse through the countryside, played tug-of-war with a pair of Ferrari F50s, spent a wet afternoon going sideways in an Enzo as well as giving us a taste of what the Ferrari 288 GTO would have been like had Group B rallying not been killed off.

Anonymous internet hoons Tax The Rich try to set their Jaguar XJ220 alight.

The mysterious Tax The Rich team seems to have plenty of money to get hold of supercars and blast them around their rural lair. So it's no surprise they can afford the kind of high-end video camera that gives you stunning slo-mo of the action.Their fitting subject for this stunt is a Ferrari F50, and with the high-speed camera you see every detail as it drifts and dances.We've previously seen Tax The Rich dish out similar thrashings to a pair of Ferrari F50s, a Ferrari Enzo, a Ferrari 288 GTO, Bugatti EB110 SS, Rolls-Royce Phantom, and a Jaguar XJ220 that was punished through a series of rural British paddocks and down crumbling dirt and gravel backroads.The mystery crew have been very coy about their identity, but it's becoming obvious there's a link to Harry Hunt, the rally driver son of Brit real estate magnate Jon Hunt, whose Heveningham Hall manor estate is clearly identifiable in some of the videos.Watch the video of the Ferrari F50 being punished on our desktop site. This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott

We've seen Tax The Rich punishing a Ferrari Enzo before, but this time they're giving us a closer look at the action in all the grace of slow-motion.It's the latest in a series from the mystery team, who take supercars to places they're never supposed to be. Over the past couple of years we've seen the Enzo, a Ferrari 288 GTO, Bugatti EB110 SS, Rolls Royce Phantom, twin Ferrari F50s and a Jaguar XJ220 thrashed through farm paddocks and down crumbling rural bitumen, dirt and gravel roads.While the identity of the Tax The Rich driver is officially unknown -- and despite his denials -- it's becoming increasingly obvious there's a connection to Harry Hunt, the rally driver son of Brit real estate magnate Jon Hunt, who's the owner of the palatial Heveningham Hall manor estate identifiable in some of the videos.Watch the Ferarri drifting, sliding and doing burnouts.This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott 

Ken Block makes do with a specially-built Ford Fiesta Gymkhana thrash machine for his video ventures, but the anonymous souls at Tax The Rich like to create their sideways sequences using museum-grade thoroughbred supercars or ultra-luxury machines.Over the past 18 months we’ve seen a Ferrari 288 GTO, Bugatti EB110 SS, Rolls Royce Phantom, twin Ferrari F50s, a Ferrari Enzo, and a Jaguar XJ220 thrashed mercilessly around their agricultural playground, to the chagrin of supercar fanciers and the guilty pleasure of everyone else.For their latest and tenth instalment, the mega-dollar 288 GTO returns to the Tax The Rich farm, where they put it through the usual opposite-lock action across mud, gravel and tarmac, all to the tune of Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries.The 288 GTO was developed for Group B rallying, but never raced due to the disbanding of the category, and the 272 road cars are now worth serious money. Perfect for the Tax The Rich treatment then!The highlight this time are the slo-mo figure-eights the GTO executes within the tight confines of a hay shed, with its composite body slewing sideways just inches from brick walls.And as with recent entries, it looks like there’s a clue to the subject of the next Tax The Rich instalment, with what looks to be a prototype Ferrari F40 (chassis 74047 as seen below) appearing through smoke at the end of the film. If so, it will be the most precious to be pummelled yet.While the identities of the Tax The Rich progenitors officially remain a mystery, the elaborate gates shown in the Phantom film just happen to signify the entrance to Heveningham Hall, a palatial 25 bedroom manor that makes Downton Abbey look like an outhouse, set in 460 acres of lush Suffolk farmland. Significantly, Heveningham Hall is owned by real-estate magnate Jon Hunt, and his rally driver son Harry…This reporter is on Twitter: @Mal_Flynn Watch the desktop version of the Tax The Rich Ferrari 288 GTO video here.  

The guys from Tax The Rich are back, this time with a video of a Jaguar XJ220 taken for a joyride on a farm. Rather than drive along a scenic road or head to a track for some high-speed action, the mysterious driver of this Jaguar XJ220 heads to a farm and at one point drives at speed through a field of trees.DON'T MISS: Watch A Pair Of Ferrari F50s Throw Dirt, Then Play Tug Of War: VideoAt this point you must be wondering why. It’s because Tax The Rich is a Youtube group whose mission is to bring you footage of supercars being used in the most unlikely manner. Previously, they’ve brought us video of a pair of Ferrari F50s in a game of tug of war, a Ferrari Enzo driven through the mud like a rally car, and a Rolls-Royce Phantom being flung through muddy grass fields.Last year saw the Jaguar XJ220 turn 20, which is quite amazing considering the car still looks modern and its performance not far off the pace of the latest breed of supercars. Power came from a twin-turbocharged 3.5-litre V-6 rated at 400kW and 644Nm of torque, and all of this was channelled to the rear wheels via a five-speed gearbox. The end result was a 0-100km/h time of less than four seconds, and an unofficial top speed of 350 km/h, or 220mph -- hence the name “XJ220”.Watch the video here.www.motorauthority.com 

From the same group that brought us videos of a Rolls-Royce Phantom going off-road and a Ferrari Enzo being driven in rally conditions, comes a new one, this time featuring two Ferrari F50s throwing dirt and then playing a game of tug of war.Why? Because Tax The Rich. The group’s mission is to bring you footage of supercars being used in the most unlikely manner, so you can bet there will be more outlandish videos to come. As for their latest video, they’ve chosen two pristine-looking examples of one of Ferrari’s former flagship models, the F50.The F50 may not be the wall poster favorite that the earlier F40 and newer Enzo and LaFerrari models may be, but, with only 349 examples ever built, plus an F1-derived V12 in its engine bay, the F50 remains one of the most sought-after Ferrari models ever produced and is still worth the small fortune.Luckily, neither of the examples here ended up landing in a ditch or crashing into a wall. Watch the desktop version of the Ferrari F50 tug-of-war video here.www.motorauthority.com 

Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries boss Ian Chalmers says he is confident that the government will consider amending the tax which he described as "inappropriate". "Principally because it's not a tax that's properly targeted," he says."It cuts in at about $60,000 so it's a wholly inappropriate tax that's really hitting families because it applies to a number of Falcon and Commodore variants and a whole range of SUVs; so a number of safe, quality family cars."Chalmers says the main concern of the industry is that the threshold has not been correctly indexed in past decade. "In the past 10 years it's gone from about $55,000 to $60,000. "If it had been indexed to the ordinary weekly earnings it would now be about $85,000. "At the moment, it's just skewed towards government revenue collection."The luxury car tax applies at a rate of 33 per cent on the sale price above $57,466 ($75,375 for fuel-efficient cars that consume no more than seven litres of fuel per 100km). Chalmers says he was buoyed by the comments of Federal Treasury secretary Ken Henry who followed his presentation to the forum. "After my presentation he said he considers the luxury car tax to be a ludicrously inappropriate tax," Chalmers says."I think we can at least have some hope that coming from someone of his stature we can now get some reconsideration of the luxury car tax threshold."Opposition leader Tony Abbott fired up motor industry talk during the forum by reiterating comments he made in May during a visit to the Ford factory in Geelong. He quoted the Motor Industry Association's estimate that a carbon tax, at $30 a tonne, could add $84 million to the costs of the industry, which could add $412 to the cost of a car.However, Chalmers says the FCAI believes the carbon tax will not result in a noticeable impact on the retail price of Australian-built cars. He says the carbon tax would be about $200 per vehicle and would be likely to be absorbed by local manufacturers. "This reflects the fact that 80 per cent of cars sold in Australia are imported without a carbon price," he says. Local manufacturers were not keen on commenting on Abbott's statements, referring to the FCAI's position.Holden spokeswoman Emily Perry says the FCAI modelling shows pricing carbon would negatively impact local manufacturers to the tune of around $30 million a year. "We haven't broken this down further in terms of what the impact would be on Holden or on the price on locally made cars," she says. "But the most important issue to highlight is that the carbon price will only affect cars made in Australia, not imported cars which account for around 85 per cent of new car sales - so this is a big challenge for the local industry."As part of the carbon pricing announcement, Holden welcomed the co-investment clean technology programs but we still need to understand how much competition there will be for funding from other manufacturing sectors. "We've also continued to highlight the need for Australia to be an attractive place to invest over the long-term.And for Australia to provide adequate co-investment support to ensure we retain our high-tech auto manufacturing industry so we can compete on a level playing field with our countries that also have this capability.

Imported cars are hardest hit by the new LCT threshold but some of our homegrown brands also suffer.