As an example, he used the budget hatchback Volkswagen Polo – in this country it costs a whopping 73,600 US dollars. The reason for such pricing? Very high taxes. And here is what they look like.
The country with the most expensive cars
The "factory" price of the Volkswagen Polo in Singapore (which is also the open market price) is 17,796 Singapore dollars, equivalent to 13,236 US dollars. So, as you can see, the amount is quite reasonable. However, the following government-imposed payments are then added.
The first cost item is an excise tax of 20 percent of the value; in the case of the Polo, it amounts to 3,559 Singapore dollars. Next comes a goods and services tax (GST) of 7 percent – 1,494 Singapore dollars.
The "worst" tax is the Additional Registration Fee (ARF). For cars with an open market value of less than 20,000 Singapore dollars, the buyer must pay a 100 percent rate. That is, another 17,796 dollars.
Then another 3,559 Singapore dollars are added for the excise tax and 1,494 dollars for the services tax. Thus, the price rises to 40,646 Singapore dollars, which is 30,226 US dollars.
But that's not all. As soon as the future owner buys a new car, his "financial troubles" do not stop – he also needs to purchase a so-called Certificate of Entitlement (COE), which allows him to drive the newly purchased car for up to 10 years. For the Polo, such a certificate will cost about 48,000 Singapore dollars!
In total, the overall amount spent on purchasing the German hatchback is 99,000 Singapore dollars, which is exactly the aforementioned 73,620 dollars.
