HVUT Final Comment 1-4-06

Comments to the US Treasury Department - IRS call for Comments on the Federal Heavy Vehicle Usage Tax (HVUT) Form 2290 November 18, 2005 Overview The Heavy Vehicle Use Tax (HVUT) has long been an issue within the motor vehicle and motor carrier services communities. Every motor carrier operating a commercial motor vehicle over 54,999 pounds, both inter-jurisdictionally and intra-jurisdictionally, is required to file the HVUT/Form 2290 annually with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and obtain verification of filing/payment from the IRS. Each jurisdiction is mandated to obtain proof of payment of the HVUT for all commercial vehicles meeting the filing requirements at the time of registration. Failure by a state to obtain the required proof can result in a loss of federal highway funding up to 25 percent. Proceeds from the HVUT provide millions of dollars in federal highway transit funds to the jurisdictions. Therefore, it is an extremely important issue, which deserves high priority to ensure compliance both at the jurisdiction level as well as at the motor carrier level. It is important that changes are made to ensure that efficient and effective procedures are developed and adopted, and that those procedures work for both the jurisdictions and the motor carriers. Moving to electronic processing of vehicle registrations for the benefit of the carriers and the states is very difficult, if not impossible, while HVUT ...