The next time you question your livery car driver on the amount you’re being charged, be prepared for a new ready-made excuse: the 8.375-percent tax that goes into effect today.

The added cost comes courtesy of an expansion of a service tax that was part of the Legislature’s state budget in April.

The tax man expects to squeeze roughly $25 million annually from the pockets of New Yorkers who use the city’s 2,700 livery cars, 8,600 black cars and 5,223 limousines.

And don’t forget that starting in January there will be a 50-cent tax on yellow cab rides to help support the forever ailing Metropolitan Transit Authority.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg was one of the first to question how the MTA was going to collect such a tax on cabs.

 “The [Legislature] is collecting 50 cents a ride from the taxis. I don’t know how you’re going to do that because you’re going to depend on these people to pay,”  the mayor said during his weekly radio address, according to the New York Post. “That’s not likely. Bloomberg had previously slammed the concept of the taxi tax as a way to generate revenue for the cash-strapped MTA. They could charge $1 every time you take a shower. Who knows?” he said in April. “I don’t know how they collect it.”

The same might be asked about this new livery car tax.

(Source: NBC New York)