North Carolina man fined for using vegetable oil in his car
As many people are aware, gasoline is taxed in an effort to pay for the nations roadways. Here in the U.S., we enjoy the freedom of being able to travel from one end of the country to the other with relative ease, and the system of highways and roadways that makes it possible obviously costs money. It seems that there are certain people who want to use the roadways without being required to support them, however, and for these people laws exist as a punishment for evading gas taxes.
Recently, a problem has been cropping up: alternative fuel users are being lumped into the same category as those who are willfully attempting to evade the gas tax. This is an understandable problem, of course. States want to get the money that they require to repair and maintain the roadways, and by using vegetable oil or waste vegetable oil instead of petroleum based diesel fuel, the tax-man is not getting his due. The question being posed in this article, as I see it, is this: should alternative fuel users be penalized or fined for not realizing they are breaking the law?
One one hand, ignorance is not a valid excuse for breaking the law. On the other hand, in a society where states themselves are encouraging alternative fuels and the president himself is advocating their use, should it be a punishable offense to use those fuels?
[Source: The Charlotte Observer]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
B 9:56AM (3/22/2008)
Ignorance, Ignorance, Ignorance....
First off, the IRS does not Make or Set any Federal Laws, they only inforce what Congress has enacted as LAW!!! Therefore, if one is having a problem with alternative fuel laws, then one should contact their Congress person, their Senator, or how about this, YOUR PRESIDENT!!!!
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John 12:27AM (4/13/2008)
Except where there is highly intelligent leadership with a Christian/Judaeo worldview and personal morality, government is at best mediocre, and at worst worthless and/or corrupt.
Government should be kept as minimal as possible, and the control kept as local as possible.
The natural state of a public official or bureaucracy employee is, they love their paycheck more than what is right, or what is best for the public. Moral and political cowardice are the norm. Inefficiency runs rampant. Change is resisted even when a good case for it is made and the payoff certain. And while the lowly staff are watched to make sure they follow all rules no matter how stupid, they higher ups are really ripping off the public.
Consider stories of embezzlement in the news, wherever you are at in the country. They are the tips of the icebergs. It's highly likely that some elected officials today are outright stealing from the public treasury.
So this talk about taxing John Q. Public for figuring out how to get around the fake environmentalists and oil companies, and around the government which makes more profit off oil for doing nothing, than the oil companies make, is government advocacy at its best.
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Brian 10:27PM (6/19/2008)
Has this issue been resolved? Is there a form that we can fill out showing the # gallons of WVO used? I don't mind paying the tax, especially since the US infrastructure is in such a bad state, but I don't want to make the oil companies rich while doing it. I have contacted the IRS and they have directed me toward tax credit forms...Not what I'm looking for....
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Tim 2:53PM (6/14/2007)
It's more about control and less about revenue. Don't ask, don't tell and you'll be OK.
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jeremie 2:54PM (6/14/2007)
No
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jeremie 6:17PM (6/14/2007)
If you make your own alcohol are you taxed?
If you make your own food are you taxed?
Land of the free... Ya right.
The government doesn't control you... it's your own corporations.
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allan 3:48PM (6/14/2007)
What about electric vehicles?
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Peter 4:03PM (6/14/2007)
They want to "make sure the playing field is level" between alternative fuel users and the oil industry by taxing vegetable oil? That's like leveling the playing field between David and Goliath by putting a blindfold on David.
How about we just tax mileage? Cars already have odometers, so it would be easy to track. And then the rule becomes fuel independent. If you drive on the roads a lot, you pay for the roads a lot. Taxes on fuel can be separate and be based on their environmental impact.
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A5-14 4:15PM (6/14/2007)
State Mileage taxes make it difficult to tax non-residents passing through their state.
It also makes it difficult to apportion the amount of out of state driving done by its residents.
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MikeW 4:40PM (6/14/2007)
North Carolina is so full of sh*t
http://www.cafrman.com/Articles/Art-NC-S1.htm
Cars and motorcycles and non transport uses of gasoline are subsidizing trucks, which ruin the [people's] roads.
If you drive off the roads, how you they tell. It is not hard to plug a scanner into the PCM and reset the mileage. Wow you only drove 1,000 miles last year, that will be $10.
Maybe if they limit the maximum tire pressure to 75psi, that will help extend the life of pavement.
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jason burroughs 5:16PM (6/14/2007)
Another problem is that when you try to register with the IRS to pay these federal road taxes (to say nothing of the state side), most people are TURNED DOWN. This happened to me personally, I have the rejection letter from the IRS. It's form 637 "registration to file certain excise taxes"...you're supposed to file on form 720 - IF you've been approved via the 637 application. I told them exactly what my business was doing (and our customers) and they said that there was no tax for that. I've asked other IRS people and they said there is a tax. We even invited the IRS to take a look at what we're doing. They came out and looked at everything, then left saying they'd get back to us about the vegetable oil stuff, but never did.
So clearly, the IRS doesn't know what it's doing. The day that they put clear guidance in writing is the day I'll fully comply with whatever they say to do - and then lobby for change. But until they can't be clear about what the law is today, they cannot expect compliance.
At the state level, Texas (and California) define biodiesel as 'wholly or partially derived from vegetable oil', which includes SVO/WVO. Since Texas exempts "biodiesel" from road taxes (40 cents, I think), we don't have to pay it.
Jason Burroughs
DieselGreen Fuels
512-391-0569
www.dieselgreenfuels.com
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Hun Boon 7:23PM (6/14/2007)
The fines not withstanding, I also read that the motorist is required to post a US$2,500 bond before he can use bio-fuel in his car.
Why are they discouraging people from this eco-friendly alternative? It's similar to the Singapore situation, as mentioned in my blog
There seems to be an ambivalence of governments towards bio-fuels. On one hand they can see its obvious advantages. On the other, they are reluctant to bite the hand of the oil companies that feeds them so much taxes.
Hun Boon
http://starbamboo.wordpress.com/
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Domenick 5:20AM (6/15/2007)
So, what do do if you drive an electric car? Are you supposed to pay a gas tax? What if your car runs on water? This has got to be the dumbest law I've heard of in a while. I can't believe someone actually tried to enforce it in this case. I hope the the state gets sued silly.
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John Metcalf 8:56PM (6/14/2007)
"Gas" tax . . . vegetable oil.
Say it with me.
"Gas" tax.
Vegetable oil.
Vegetable oil is not gas, ergo, if you don't use gas, you shouldn't pay the "gas" tax.
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gsolman6 11:33AM (6/15/2007)
Going after these 1 hundreth of 1 percent is a waste of time but for the future it could become a big concern if gas taxes, i.e. the source of most funds for road building, are not collected in proportion of demand for new roadways and upkeep on existing ones.
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motorman 11:15AM (6/15/2007)
when the greens get their wish for all electric cars and the govt not longer collects road tax on fuels get ready to pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars for you licence plate to make up the difference. this is called the results of unintended consequences like a lot of so called do gooders laws. remember the 10% luxury tax that closed all the boat building yards in this country?
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motorman 1:11PM (6/15/2007)
good thing this guy lives in the good old USA because in europe if they "stick" your fuel tank and you have untaxed fuel they confiscate your car.they can "stick" your fuel tank here in the USA and if you have untaxed fuel,off road or heating oil in the tank you pay a big fine. they can tell by the color.
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Joe P 1:57PM (6/15/2007)
Sometimes I ride my bicycle to work. Am I breaking the law?
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Phil L. 3:23PM (6/15/2007)
Well - if you ride on public roads, and used vegetable oil as part of your breakfast, maybe. You probably should have used fully-taxed diesel on that skillet when whipping up that breakfast omelet... :)
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Phil L. 3:24PM (6/15/2007)
motorman -
I think I've read of waste veggie oil burners in Europe. Are they seeing similar legal issues?
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