With temperatures and gas prices both soaring, it’s been a long, hot summer for independent operator-owners and other owners of heavy highway vehicles. However, the IRS’s decision to move the due date for the Heavy Highway Vehicle Use Tax Return to November 30, 2011 provides truckers a chance to chill out and keep a bit of their hard-earned money a few months longer this year.
Owners of a highway vehicle that weighs 55,000 pounds or more must pay an annual vehicle use tax of up to $550 per vehicle in use during the reporting period. Normally the heavy highway vehicle use tax return (HVUT) is based on vehicles in use during the month of July and is due August 31. However, the HVUT is scheduled to expire on September 30, 2011 and efforts to extend it are bogged down in Congress.
In order to avoid the situation where each owner must file two returns during a single twelve-month period (and where the IRS must process two returns) the IRS opted to move the due date from August 31 to November 30. The IRS cautions that HVUT returns should not be filed and payment of the tax should not be made before November 1.
State DMVs Must Accept Prior Year Schedule 1
When the HVUT is paid, the IRS returns a copy of the Schedule 1. Having this proof of payment is required in order to obtain state vehicle registration for any truck, truck trailer or buses that weighs at least 50,000 pounds. The IRS has told the states that they must accept the prior year’s Schedule 1 as proof of payment for any registration applied for before December 1, 2011.
Vehicle owners who need a copy of their Schedule 1 for the taxable period July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011, should call the Form 2290 toll free number at 866-699-4096 if they are calling from the United States. Those in Canada or Mexico should call 859-669-5733, which is not a toll free call.
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