You Need to Know About Vehicle Type For Form 2290 Filing

With the Form 2290 due date coming up fast, ExpressTruckTax is here to help with tips about the filing process, and where you can save money. We don’t want you paying more than you have to. Today we are looking at the different vehicle types for Form 2290 filing. Some vehicle types are subject to lower tax rates, credits, or could exempt you from the heavy use tax altogether. 

Before we get into the different 2290 vehicle types you can file with ExpressTruckTax, let’s review who must file the heavy use tax. If you own and operate a heavy vehicle 55,000 Ibs or more in gross weight, you are required to receive a stamped Schedule 1 after Form 2290 filing. Your gross weight is the total weight of your vehicle unloaded. However, this will include any equipment or accessories you typically use on a haul.

Vehicles that qualify for the heavy highway use tax include any self-propelled vehicles that are designed to carry loads on public highways, regardless of their possible other functions. An example of other functions could consist of carrying special goods/supplies, passengers, or permanently mounted equipment.

Logging Vehicle

You might confuse the term “logging vehicle’ with an ELD, however, for Form 2290 filing purposes these vehicles are used to … well… haul logs. So if your vehicle is used to haul wood or other products from the forest, it could classify, and this is important because you can receive a reduced tax rate.

Ensure you are paying the correct tax amount by checking the IRS criteria for logging vehicles:
Your truck is exclusively used to transport material harvested from a forested site, or your vehicle is used solely to transport harvested materials from one forested location to another forested place. If your truck runs between forested sites, it can use public highways in between those sites and still be considered a logging vehicle.

Your vehicle is registered in your base state (or any other state in which it is required to be registered) as a highway motor vehicle used exclusively for the transport of harvested materials from a forested site. Although the truck must be registered as a “logging vehicle” in your state, no special tag or license plate is required to identify the vehicle as a logging vehicle.

Harvested Material:
According to the IRS guidelines, harvested products can include any raw timber taken from a forest, OR any timber that has been processed on the forested site for commercial processes, meaning the timber has already been sawed into lumber, chipped, or milled in some way.

Agricultural Vehicles

Vehicles typically required to file the road tax 2290 are those with a taxable gross weight of 55,000 Ibs and travel over 5,000 miles on public highways through the current tax period. However, to give farmers and suppliers a break, the IRS requirements are slightly more lenient for vehicles used to transport agricultural products. Those vehicles that qualify regardless of their weight are allowed to drive up to 7,500 miles on public highways each tax period before having to pay the heavy highway use tax.

However, this does not exempt any vehicles from Form 2290 filing. If your vehicle’s gross weight exceeds 55,000 Ibs, you will still need to receive a stamped Schedule 1 Form 2290.

Ensure you are paying the correct tax amount by checking the IRS criteria for agricultural vehicles:
The vehicle is used primarily for farming purposes throughout the tax year. However, what does the IRS consider “primarily for farming purposes”? It’s quite simple. More than half of the vehicle’s total mileage for the year must be used for farming purposes. Also, a farming purpose, according to the IRS, is any activity that contributes to the conduct of a farm. This can include activities such as transporting goods to and from a farm (goods like livestock, produce, animal feed, fertilizer, etc.), direct use in agricultural production, or just performing work around the farm like repairing fences, building irrigation ditches, clearing land, etc.

The vehicle is registered as an agricultural vehicle in your state. Although your vehicle must be registered as such, no special license plates or tags marked “agriculture” are required to maintain your status as an agricultural vehicle. If your vehicle meets both of these requirements above, then you can file as an agricultural vehicle with a higher mileage limit.

If you file your agricultural vehicle as a Suspended (Category W) at the beginning of the tax period but then exceed the 7,500-mile limit, you will need to submit a Form 2290 Amendment for a Milage Increase. The Form 2290 Amendment is due by the end of the month following the month you exceeded the mileage limit. After filing the Amendment, the IRS will prorate your heavy highway use tax for the remaining months of the tax year. This means that even though you will owe some tax, it will not be for the full amount you would have owed.

Suspended Vehicles

A suspended or credit vehicle is a highway motor vehicle that is expected to travel 5,000 miles or less (7,500 miles or less for agricultural vehicles) during the tax period. This mileage limit applies to the total amount of miles it’s driven on the road, regardless of the number of owners.

Other suspended or credited vehicles include those that were sold, destroyed, or stolen and they must all be reported on your 2290. If they exceed the mileage limit during the tax period, then you’ll owe HVUT for them.

When you e-file your IRS Form 2290 with ExpressTruckTax we will auto-generate Form 8849 so you can claim a refund or credit on the amount you paid to the IRS for these vehicles.

Exempt Vehicles

Vehicles that are exempt from the HVUT don’t need to be filed for, regardless of how many miles they travel. They’re 100% exempt from the Heavy Vehicle Use Tax! A few HVUT exempt vehicles include qualified blood collector vehicles, mobile machinery used for non-transportation purposes, heavy vehicles used by the federal government, and more.