The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) has joined the Specialized Carriers & Rigging Association (SC&RA) to file joint comments to the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) opposing a recently proposed regulation that would extend highway vehicle excise taxes to off-road machinery. Besides industry opposition, the excise tax proposal is drawing criticism in Congress.
The IRS excise tax proposal would subject machinery — including mobile drilling units, digger derricks, concrete pumpers, mobile cranes, and aerial lift trucks — to motor vehicle taxes on fuel, tires, truck, and trailer purchases as well as annual heavy-vehicle taxes. This equipment was previously exempt as it uses the highway only for transportation to and from jobsites.
AEM and SC&RA are founding members of the Mobile Machinery Coalition, which includes 25 industry groups that oppose the excise tax proposal.
“This difficult economic period is not the time to add substantial costs for consumers with taxes at the time of purchase and throughout the life of new machines,” said AEM Chairman David Woods, chief executive officer of Charles Machine Works Inc, Perry OK.
More than 50 members of the US House of Representatives and leaders of the Senate Finance Committee have written the IRS to express opposition to these new taxes.
For the complete text of the joint comments filed with the IRS by AEM and SC&RA, visit www.aem.org.