Hi Tom Thanks for clearing that up. One hears very little about road tax in the US, one hears a very great deal about it in the UK. From what you say about BD, the less one hears about it in the US the better, eh? LOL! Shhhh!
Big-time barters, well yes, different. Why do I suddenly find myself thinking of Big Oil campaign contributions?? Small-time stuff should go under the radar screen mostly, I think. Also it's almost impossible to estimate the scale of the "problem", and without a damage estimate it's unlikely anyone will take concerted action. I get the idea there are plenty of ways round this EPA hassle for small-timers with a bit of imagination, and with the small-timer's one huge advantage - local contact. Best Keith >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/
