What This Bill Does
This bill removes a federal tax on heavy trucks and trailers. The tax currently charges 12 percent on the retail price of new heavy-duty trucks, tractors, and trailers. The bill argues this tax makes new trucks more expensive and prevents owners from replacing older trucks with newer, cleaner models.
Who It Affects
Truck manufacturers and sellers, truck buyers and owners, trucking companies, trailer manufacturers, people who work in truck manufacturing and sales, and users of goods transported by trucks.
Key Provisions
• The bill eliminates the excise tax (a type of sales tax) on heavy trucks and trailers by removing subchapter C from Chapter 31 of the Internal Revenue Code (Sec. 3(a))
• The bill updates related tax code sections to remove references to the eliminated truck tax (Sec. 3(b))
• The changes apply to all sales and installations beginning on the date Congress introduced this bill (Sec. 3(c))
What Changes
If this bill becomes law, buyers of new heavy trucks and trailers no longer pay the 12-percent federal tax on these purchases. The bill removes language from several sections of the tax code that currently reference this truck tax. The Highway Trust Fund (a federal fund for road and highway projects) will no longer receive revenue from this tax.
Important Definitions
• Mobile machinery: vehicles with permanently attached equipment for construction, manufacturing, farming, mining, or similar operations where the machinery's operation is unrelated to transportation on public highways
Effective Date
Sales and installations on or after the date of the introduction of this Act.
I
118TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION H. R. 1440
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal the excise tax
on heavy trucks and trailers, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH 8, 2023
Mr. LAMALFA (for himself, Mr. PAPPAS, Mr. LAHOOD, and Mr. BLU-
MENAUER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Ways and Means
A BILL
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal
the excise tax on heavy trucks and trailers, and for
other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Modern, Clean, and
4
Safe Trucks Act of 2023’’.
5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
6
Congress finds that—
7
(1) the 12-percent Federal retail excise tax on
8
certain new heavy trucks, tractors, and trailers, cou-
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•HR 1440 IH
pled with new regulatory mandates, significantly in-
1
creases the cost of new heavy-duty trucks, tractors,
2
and trailers and discourages the replacement of
3
older, less environmentally clean and less fuel eco-
4
nomical vehicles;
5
(2) this 12-percent Federal retail excise tax is
6
the highest percentage rate of any Federal ad valo-
7
rem excise tax;
8
(3) the Federal excise tax was first levied by
9
Congress in 1917 to help finance America’s involve-
10
ment in World War I;
11
(4) the 12-percent Federal retail excise tax rou-
12
tinely adds between $12,000 and $22,000 to the cost
13
of a new heavy truck, tractor, or trailer;
14
(5) nearly half of the Class 8 trucks on the
15
road are over 10 years old and lack a decade of envi-
16
ronmental and safety technological advancements;
17
(6) from 2007 to 2020, new trucks have re-
18
duced carbon dioxide emissions by 202,000,000 tons,
19
nitrogen oxide emissions by 27,000,000 tons, and
20
saved
20,000,000,000
gallons
of
diesel
and
21
472,000,000 barrels of crude oil;
22
(7) an owner of a single Class 8 truck powered
23
by the latest clean diesel engine can expect to save
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•HR 1440 IH
about 2,200 gallons of fuel each year compared to
1
previous generations of technology;
2
(8) since the late 1990s, cleaner fuel and ad-
3
vanced engines have combined to reduce nitrogen
4
oxide (NOx) emissions and particulate matter (PM)
5
emissions by 98 percent;
6
(9) the Federal excise tax disproportionately
7
impacts electric and alternative-fueled trucks, which
8
currently have a higher up front cost, at a time
9
when adoption of these technologies is needed to ac-
10
celerate the transition to zero emission vehicles and
11
the reduction of carbon pollution from transpor-
12
tation;
13
(10)
in
2020,
there
were
approximately
14
1,300,000 United States manufacturing, supplier,
15
dealership, and heavy-duty trucking and trailer re-
16
lated jobs;
17
(11) since the Federal retail excise tax on cer-
18
tain new heavy trucks, tractors, and trailers is based
19
on annual sales, receipts from the tax deposited in
20
the Highway Trust Fund can vary greatly;
21
(12) Congress should consider a more reliable
22
and consistent revenue mechanism to fund the High-
23
way Trust Fund;
24
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•HR 1440 IH
(13) Congress should advance the deployment
1
of the most modern, clean, and safe trucks through
2
eliminating the Federal excise tax on trucks; and
3
(14) repealing the Federal excise tax would re-
4
sult in the replacement of older internal combustion
5
engine trucks with new heavy duty trucks that em-
6
ploy the latest safety and environmental tech-
7
nologies.
8
SEC. 3. REPEAL OF EXCISE TAX ON HEAVY TRUCKS AND
9
TRAILERS.
10
(a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 31 of the Internal Rev-
11
enue Code of 1986 is amended by striking subchapter C
12
(and by striking the item relating to such subchapter from
13
the table of subchapters for such chapter).
14
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—
15
(1) Section 4072(c) of such Code is amended to
16
read as follows:
17
‘‘(c) TIRES OF THE TYPE USED ON HIGHWAY VEHI-
18
CLES.—
19
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of this part,
20
the term ‘tires of the type used on highway vehicles’
21
means tires of the type used on—
22
‘‘(A) motor vehicles which are highway ve-
23
hicles, or
24
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•HR 1440 IH
‘‘(B) vehicles of the type used in connec-
1
tion with motor vehicles which are highway ve-
2
hicles.
3
‘‘(2) EXCEPTION FOR MOBILE MACHINERY.—
4
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Such term shall not
5
include tires of a type used exclusively on mo-
6
bile machinery.
7
‘‘(B) MOBILE MACHINERY.—For purposes
8
of subparagraph (A), the term ‘mobile machin-
9
ery’ means any vehicle which consists of a chas-
10
sis—
11
‘‘(i) to which there has been perma-
12
nently mounted (by welding, bolting, riv-
13
eting, or other means) machinery or equip-
14
ment to perform a construction, manufac-
15
turing, processing, farming, mining, drill-
16
ing, timbering, or similar operation if the
17
operation of the machinery or equipment is
18
unrelated to transportation on or off the
19
public highways,
20
‘‘(ii) which has been specially designed
21
to serve only as a mobile carriage and
22
mount (and a power source, where applica-
23
ble) for the particular machinery or equip-
24
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•HR 1440 IH
ment involved, whether or not such ma-
1
chinery or equipment is in operation, and
2
‘‘(iii) which, by reason of such special
3
design, could not, without substantial
4
structural modification, be used as a com-
5
ponent of a vehicle designed to perform a
6
function of transporting any load other
7
than that particular machinery or equip-
8
ment or similar machinery or equipment
9
requiring such a specially designed chas-
10
sis.’’.
11
(2) Section 4221 of such Code is amended—
12
(A) in subsection (a)—
13
(i) by striking ‘‘(or under subchapter
14
C of chapter 31 on the first retail sale)’’,
15
and
16
(ii) by striking ‘‘4051 or’’,
17
(B) in subsection (c), by striking ‘‘and in
18
the case of any article sold free of tax under
19
section 4053(6),’’, and
20
(C) in subsection (d)(1), by striking ‘‘,
21
and, in the case of the taxes imposed by sub-
22
chapter C of chapter 31, includes the retailer
23
with respect to the first retail sale’’.
24
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•HR 1440 IH
(3) Section 4222(d) of such Code is amended
1
by striking ‘‘4053(6),’’.
2
(4) Section 4293 of such Code is amended by
3
striking ‘‘section 4051,’’.
4
(5) Section 4483(g) of such Code is amended
5
by striking ‘‘section 4053(8)’’ and inserting ‘‘section
6
4072(c)(2)’’.
7
(6) Section 6416(b)(2) of such Code is amend-
8
ed by striking ‘‘or under section 4051’’.
9
(7) Section 6416(b) of such Code is amended
10
by striking paragraph (6).
11
(8) Section 9503(b)(1) of such Code is amend-
12
ed by striking subparagraph (B) and by redesig-
13
nating subparagraphs (C), (D), and (E) as subpara-
14
graphs (B), (C), and (D), respectively.
15
(c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by
16
this section shall apply to sales and installations on or
17
after the date of the introduction of this Act.
18
Æ
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