The Homa Files

Ken’s Take: This stuff keeps getting nuttier and nuttier. 

Half-baked ideas with shoddy implementation doesn’t strike me as a (cart) path to success.

* * * * *

Excerpted from WSJ:Cash for Clubbers – Congress’s fabulous golf cart stimulus, Oct. 17, 2009

Thanks to the federal tax credit to buy high-mileage cars that was part of President Obama’s stimulus plan, Uncle Sam is now paying Americans to buy that great necessity of modern life, the golf cart.

The federal credit provides from $4,200 to $5,500 for the purchase of an electric vehicle, and when it is combined with similar incentive plans in many states the tax credits can pay for nearly the entire cost of a golf cart. 

The golf-cart boom has followed an IRS ruling that golf carts qualify for the electric-car credit as long as they are also road worthy. These qualifying golf carts are essentially the same as normal golf carts save for adding some safety features, such as side and rearview mirrors and three-point seat belts. They typically can go 15 to 25 miles per hour.

The IRS has also ruled that there’s no limit to how many electric cars an individual can buy, so some enterprising profiteers are stocking up on multiple carts while the federal credit lasts, in order to resell them at a profit later. 

Roger Gaddis of Ada Electric Cars in Oklahoma said earlier this year. “Is that about the coolest thing you’ve ever heard?”

If this keeps up, it’ll soon make more sense to retire and play golf than work for living.

Full article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704107204574473724099542430.html

* * * * *

This entry was posted on October 20, 2009 at 7:39 am and is filed under Autos - Travel, Taxes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.