Highway Vehicle Use Tax- IRS Form 2290

Who Must File
Carriers must file Form 2290 and Schedule 1 for the month the taxable highway motor vehicle is first used on public highways during the current period. The current periods begins July 1, 2014 and ends June 30, 2015. Form 2290 must be filed by the last day of the month following the moth of first use. Carriers must have an Employer Identification Number to file form 2290. Carriers cannot use, if a sole proprietorship, their Social Security number.

Taxable Vehicles

Highway motor vehicles that have a taxable gross weight of 55,000 pounds or more are taxable.

A highway motor vehicle includes any self-propelled vehicle designed to carry a load over public highways, whether or not also designed to perform other functions. Examples of vehicles that are designed to carry a load over public highways include trucks, truck tractors, and buses. Generally, vans, pickup trucks, panel trucks, and similar trucks are not subject to this tax because they have a taxable gross weight less than 55,000 pounds.

A vehicle consists of a chassis, or a chassis and body, but does not include the load. It does not matter if the vehicle is designed to perform a highway transportation function for only a particular type of load, such as passengers, furnishings, and personal effects (as in a house, office, or utility trailer), or a special kind of cargo, goods, supplies, or materials. It does not matter if machinery or equipment is specially designed (and permanently mounted) to perform some off-highway task unrelated to highway transportation.

Use means the use of a vehicle with power from its own motor on any public highway in the United States.
A public highway is any road in the United States that is not a private roadway. This includes federal, state, county, and city roads.

Taxable Gross Weight

The taxable gross weight of a vehicle (other than a bus) is the total of:

1. The actual unloaded weight of the vehicle fully equipped for service

2. The actual unloaded weight of any trailers or semitrailers fully equipped for service customarily used in combination with the vehicle, and

3. The weight of the maximum load customarily carried on the vehicle and on any trailers or semitrailers customarily used in combination with the vehicle (generally the weight stated by the State registered to)

Amount of Tax
The amount of the highway use tax depends on the taxable weight of the vehicle, but can be as low as $100 and as high as $550 per vehicle. The tax is prorated depending on when the vehicle was first used on the highway.

How to File
Form 2290 along with two (2) schedules 1’s can be paper filed, or must be e-filed if the Carrier has 25 or more taxable vehicles.

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