Dyed Fuel and IRS Inspections

[MikeD74T]

Actually, it's worse than that. It is a transportation tax. Applies to railroads too.

I don't know either way, but how can a road tax apply on private property which most railroads are? MikeD74T

 

[atgreene]

I don't know either way, but how can a road tax apply on private property which most railroads are? MikeD74T

I know around here they check everything from logging trucks to diesel Jetta's. Get caught with dyed fuel and they pull the plates then you need to verify when you last bought road legal fuel vs. what your mileage is from when you last registered.

As for tractors/farm equipment/skidders, they can be driven on road if going from farm to farm. If it's for commercial use they have to have a farm plate. I had a state trooper pull me over while I was on the tractor one day. Rotten attitude, told me I could not drive on the pavement w/o a plate. I informed him that state law allows farm tractors to operate farm to farm or farm to field w/o a plate. He got in his car a took off. Was hopeing for a summons so I could prove him wrong, but he didn't write me.

For years they dipped tanks and sent the sample out to be tested, supposedly they now have a set of binocular type glasses that can look at the tailpipe vapors and see if they are emitting something? Anyone heard of this?

 

[Heavyduty]

The IRS (and VA follows their guidelines) charges $10/gal of tank size with a minimum fine of $1,000 (you pay $1k for tank up to 100 gal in size).. BUT somehow VA will/can also go back and assess you for the tank size on your farm (assuming that is where you fueled up)..

IF the IRS makes a stop they let VA know and we piggyback on their assessment. And if VA makes a stop they IRS piggybacks on the VA assessment.. So you will end up owing at least $2,000 in penalty.

You will also owe the tax on the fuel - .40ish fed and .175 VA per gallon

Brian

I know a couple of old timers caught runnin the red and the 1st time fines were $2000 (1k to state, 1k to fed) plus lawyers fees. They were pulled over for a DOT inspec and they checked the tanks.

With the amount of red they ran over the years, they may have come out even. If they get caught again, I'm pretty sure they will loose their arses.:thumbsup:

 

[Soundguy]

FL DOT shows up at our work once a year and sticks any diesel vehicle tank that has a tag on it. if no tag.. then they don't care.

soundguy

I also live in the "puget sound" and have never been checked for dyed fuel though I own a tank of it and use it for the tractor. So where exactly is this crazy IRS guy and is he bothering regular people or just picking on you due to your farm and your exempt plates?

 

[Soundguy]

side subject here.

remember back in 04/05 when florida got hit DARN hard with hurricanes?

we had a terrible fuel shortage then and they did some emergency bill or something that you could run red diesel in your road vehicle as long as you 'sent in' the road tax.. road fuels were hard to find in some cities.. especially with no power... many of us had farm tanks for the tractors though...

wonder how long it took that red dye to get out of tanks of people who did that?

soundguy

 

[Retro]

I also live in the "puget sound" and have never been checked for dyed fuel though I own a tank of it and use it for the tractor. So where exactly is this crazy IRS guy and is he bothering regular people or just picking on you due to your farm and your exempt plates?

Fortunately it wasn't me.

I work for an agricultural organization and information about the citation was brought to my attention from one of my colleagues. From what I understand (and I got this from my colleagues), the citation was issued to a farmer on Whidbey Island and the "vehicle" in question was a bale loader (refer to photo).

This naturally has the agricultural community in our area concerned and on edge as the bale loader is clearly not something a reasonable person would mistake for a registered and licensed vehicle for highway use.

The agricultural community is in the process of bringing this issue to our elected officials and hopefully this will be a one time occurrence, but you never know. My intention for the original post and attaching the IRS information was just to pass along info so folks can asses their own risk. For me; my tractor virtually never leaves our property so I "think" I'm safe. But my tractor has headlights and flashers . . . . .

 

[zmoz]

For years they dipped tanks and sent the sample out to be tested, supposedly they now have a set of binocular type glasses that can look at the tailpipe vapors and see if they are emitting something? Anyone heard of this?

I haven't heard of that, but I have heard of some sort of "test strip" that can be placed in the exhaust. Not sure how it works...

I have heard reports from people on other websites who say they have successfully filtered out the red dye entirely from the fuel...

 

[kwswan]

I have heard reports from people on other websites who say they have successfully filtered out the red dye entirely from the fuel...[/QUOTE]

i don't see how filtering the dye would help when they check your tanks,not your filter or lines.

 

[zmoz]

i don't see how filtering the dye would help when they check your tanks,not your filter or lines.

They filter it BEFORE it goes into the tank.

 

[higgy]

the exhaust trick is looking for sulfur in the exhaust. It was fast and accurate as farm diesel had sulfur and over the road had much less or none. Now all diesel is going low or no sulfur and that method is becoming much harder.

They leave us alone here, there are tractors, combines and all sorts of farm equipment on the road all day everyday.

We use farm fuel in all of our field equipment. As for gasoline we buy it at distributors price and then we apply for the tax refund on the amount of fuel used on the farm for the year. This fuel is not dyed.