TAX FILE

The Senate Finance Committee has begun to review the structure of the federal highway excise taxes. The taxes will be extended and perhaps modified in conjunction with reauthorization of the highway and transit spending programs late next year. At a hearing in May, the committee heard recommendations from the Joint Committee on Taxation staff for replacing the truck, highway use and tire taxes with higher diesel taxes or a weight-distance tax. In addition, the staff recommended that the quarterly installment option for paying the highway use tax be repealed if the tax is retained, and that the definition of highway vehicle be made more uniform. No action is likely this year, but at least some of the ideas are sure to resurface in 2003.