Very warm welcome, truckers. We appreciate your gratitude towards our blog and thank you for dropping in every time we add a new blog post. Today, we will be discussing about gas tax, mileage tax and the differences between them. You might be well aware about the topic, but our tax experts decided to talk about it in detail, for your better understanding and simply to brush your knowledge.
Gas Tax and Mileage Tax- Introduction:
Gas tax applies to the amount of gas the vehicle uses, which implies that the driver pays the rate, implemented by the states. Let’s assume, if per gallons is charged 10 cents, it would be added to the rate of gallons you buy, whereas, mileage tax applies to the number of miles that a vehicle drives on the road i.e. 1 cent per mile. In mileage tax, privacy is the major issue, as the tax authorities need to maintain a track of each vehicle to determine how many miles are covered on the road in that jurisdiction.
Efficiency:
If a driver has fuel-efficient vehicle, he would prefer filing gas tax rather than mileage tax but he is likely to pay the double of what hybrid vehicles would be paying. Like say, if fuel-efficient vehicle provides 25 miles per gallon, the driver is required to file twice as much as gas taxes as a driver who has a hybrid vehicle that gives 50 miles per gallons.
However, when we talk about mileage tax, the fuel efficiency does not matter, unless the government specifically charges a lower tax per mile for fuel efficient vehicles.
Assessment of taxes:
With regards to gas tax, it seems to be easier than mileage tax as the tax per gallons is added directly at the fuel station. Like say, if gasolinecost you $3 without taxes, the gas station can simply 10 cent per gallons charge for this price, and eventually the driver needs to pay $3.10 per gallon.
In the case of mileage tax, the tax authorities need to track the number of miles each vehicles have been drove and then the calculations are taken forward. Moreover, the government can install a mileage tracking system in each vehicle to check the odometer in each vehicle in a periodical manner to simply determine the miles covered in the jurisdiction, by each vehicle.
Differentiation
The main characteristic with gas tax, the government can only access different tax rates by the type of fuel a vehicle uses. For example, the government can charge 10 cent for regular gasoline and 15 for diesel.
Whereas with mileage tax, the government needs to track each vehicle separately and can allocate separate tax rates for semis, light trucks, SUVs and large trucks.
Revenue Trends:
Gas tax revenue eventually falls when more and more drivers purchase fuel-efficient vehicles. It is also discovered that the state income is declining as more and more drivers are preferring hybrid vehicles and these vehicles do not consume much of gas, reducing the amount of money the state has to repair the highways.
Well, in the case of mileage tax, the revenue does not fall even if the crowd prefers compact, hybrid or any other version of trucks which consume less fuel.
Road Damage:
These mileage taxes are established in a manner as a direct link between wear and tear on the road due to the load the vehicle carry and the weight. And the vehicle owes taxes to the jurisdiction it cross while moving.
However, in the case of gas tax, if the driver refills his tank in one state and then moves into the border of another state, he may or may not travel several hundred miles in another state, they would not receive the revenue from the gas tax.
Thats all about gas and mileage tax, however, we have always encouraged our customers to file in their IFTA taxes on time and prepare it online. The best thing about preparing it online withtaxIFTA.comis, you can simply eliminate the errors and submit form which will surely get accepted. For more assistance, call us @ 1-866-245-3918 or shoot an Email to support@taxexcise.com We’d love to hear from you soon.