The tax should reflect miles driven. And as shown earlier our trucks don’t affect pavement deterioration very much.
The tax on gasoline is woefully insufficient to pay for road construction and maintenance. Most road construction and maintenance comes from general revenues, which everyone pays into. To act like ICE vehicle owners have some virtuous claim, due to the minimal gas tax, ignores the reality.
I traded in a diesel F-250 standard bed for my R1T and my vehicle weight went down about 1000 pounds. That weight tax was a big surprise, especially since my vehicle weight went down. It is what it is and the price we pay for driving the fastest non-ridiculous looking truck on the road, but it's not really rooted in making everyone pay their fair share. That would have taken some thought and analysis by the law makers.
No it doesn't. It's $200 per year, but they make you pay for the first two years up front. If you total it before the start of year two, you get a refund. They did this with regular inspection stickers on new cars for years, then did away with the inspections altogether (but not the $7.50 fee). The only inspections in Texas now are in some counties with smog inspection, but we don't get that, and the state eliminates that fee in the counties that do.
California is one of the few states that have a high enough gas tax such that it pays for a really significant portion of highway work. Also note that it says "repairs," not construction. Everyone, regardless of car type or use, is paying for construction (and for that other 20% of repairs). Everyone is also paying for the health detriments from burning fossil fuels - effects on heart, lungs, and hospitalizations and excess (early) deaths.
Well, I have to self report it anyway as a small business owner.
If you take mileage I suppose you do.
And I suppose this would keep people like me honest. Can't under report or you miss out on the write off. Can't over report because then you get killed on the road tax.
They already have audits for that. You have to keep your log so if you overreport, you're going to be facing some stiff penalties. The IRS doesn't care for tax cheats, and falsifying records can count as willful.
Yeah, I actually know quite a bit about that and the IRS isn't out there trying to find people over reporting mileage. Not that you should try to get away with it, but that's just not a great ROI for them. They do have "red flag" thresholds for different business types that if you fall outside, it will trigger at least an eyes-on review that could potentially trigger an audit.
That depends on your overall tax bracket I'd be willing to wager. My business got audited this past year, and I was glad we follow all the rules as best we can. We had to pay some minor something, they always find something, and it was fairly painless.
