Hi Keith, I try to keep myself far from legal matters as possible, but here is my belief. Commerce is defined under federal codes as selling or bartering. I don't have a reference to that, but it should not be hard to confirm. As you imply, it is hard to document barter arrangements, but if something was to go big scale, it could be a vulnerability for federal prosecution.
Road tax is supposed to be paid on all fuel used for road transportation. This is the basis of the multi-thousand dollar fines some truckers have paid when it was discovered that they were using un-taxed fuel in trucks. As you know, the standard test for that is to put a few drops of fuel from a suspect tank on a piece of blotter paper and look for the tell-tale red dye of untaxed fuel. But, surprise, no red dye in biodiesel, so the chances of getting caught are less. So far no one has reported this situation to my knowledge. And yes, tax is due on personal use fuel- quarterly on the Excise Tax forms for federal road tax, and ususally monthly on state tax forms. The postage alone will cost more than the tax payments for the personal user. I paid over $700 last year in federal and state tax payments, but the EPA says they will use that as evidence I'm violating 40CFR79 if I make more tax payments for other than personal use, so I've stopped for a while until this gets sorted out. Tom Leue In a message dated 7/26/02 11:25:27 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: << Hello again Tom >In a message dated 7/22/02 10:11:41 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > ><< Hello Tom <snip> >The EPA says they will > >fine small producers up to $25,000 a day if they find your are putting > >biodiesel fuel into "commerce", meaning selling it or bartering it. > >Bartering it? They actually specify that? > >---Yeah, its the legal definition of "commerce"--- Sorry, whose definition? The EPA's specifically, in this context? Or generally? Barter might be commerce, but it's virtually impossible to regulate it. Or even to prove it, if you're smart, seems to me. Two parties give each other gifts on a semi-regular basis. So? By the way, if you are selling it, who pays the road tax? Is there any road tax on fuel you make yourself for your own use in the US? Keith >> ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Will You Find True Love? Will You Meet the One? Free Love Reading by phone! http://us.click.yahoo.com/7dY7FD/R_ZEAA/Ey.GAA/9bTolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuels at Journey to Forever http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuel at WebConX http://www.webconx.dns2go.com/2000/biofuel/biofuel.htm List messages are archived at the Info-Archive at NNYTech: http://archive.nnytech.net/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
