From: Mil-Veh List (mil-veh@ziptar.com)
Date: Sat May 29 2004 - 04:28:26 PDT
There are no hard and fast rules, It's a grey area but even more so with
Straight Vegetable oil. Bio-Diesel has gotten noticed and is treated more
like diesel fuel more often. A pump near by me sells B20 and it is taxed as
road fuel. However if I got the Oil Distributor that sells B100 I get an
Invoice for X Gallons of "soy methyl ester" I get charged regular sales tax
on that and not road/fuel tax.
It gets even more confusing when you try to figure it out on the state
level. Federal is pretty easy, IRS says if you put it in your tank and burn
it as fuel, it's taxable, could be peanut butter for all they care. States
are more muddled. I have read in Florida there is a tax sticker that one can
get in lieu of road taxes. You buy the decal register with the state, an
then pay taxes on the amount of fuel you use and report to the state. I have
seen 1 small mention of this on the states website. However I have spoken to
many state employees at the Dept. of Revenue. If/once I get them past the
point of "HUH?" when I explain that I am converting my car over run on used
cooking oil I usually get a "HUH?" in response to the tax decal as well. If
it exists, the state employees don't know about it.
In your case you are already paying tax on the diesel so I don't think it's
that big of a concern it's as you say, an additive. Look at it as water,
Let's say you could add up to 20% water to your tank in order to get better
mileage and keep it clean, you get a free bucket of water from a stream, how
are you supposed to tax a free item??? So if you think of the water as SVO
and the stream is the grease tank behind the restaurant is the stream.
Link to a discussion about takes on the SVO Board.
http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=447609751&f=159605551&m=318602
757&r=664106391#664106391
-----Original Message-----
From: Bjorn Brandstedt [mailto:super_deuce@hotmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, May 29, 2004 6:37 AM
To: Military Vehicles Mailing List
Subject: [MV] Fuel additive vs road tax question
Good morning,
Something for the legal experts on the list.
What percentage of additives can you run in your fuel tank without getting
in trouble taxwise?
I'm currently experimenting with adding straight vegetable oil to the diesel
in my M35 multifuel. I have been told that a mixture of up to 20% will work
just fine (in the summertime, anyway), but at which point does the law kick
in. As you know fuel for off-highway use is dyed to catch cheeters.
Does anybody know of a case(s) where users of homemade biodiesel have been
fined for not paying a road tax? What about straight vegetable oil? When is
it no longer a non taxable additive?
My current mixture is 10% veggie oil and 90% diesel....
Bjorn,
MVPA19212
Meadows of Dan, Virginia
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