NEWS: Sorry Sir, You're Using the Wrong Kind of Oil

POLITICS: Sorry Sir, You're Using the Wrong Kind of Oil

Well, it seems like Vice President Cheney is having his way after all. A man in North Carolina was pulled over and fined for filling his gas tank with the wrong kind of oil.

Hmm, and all this time I was led to believe that ending our dependence on foreign oil was a good thing. I guess I wasn't the only one; apparently a North Carolina state senator thought the same:

North Carolina, while being one of the foremost "green" states, still likes to collect it's taxes so...

Well that's good to know, since the playing field is so plainly groomed for American drivers, and not Arab oil interests.

OK, I am not a litigious person, but come on SUE THE GOV'T!!!! This sucks so many bullocks. I think, and I am not a lawyer, that the fuel tax only applies to petrol fuels manufactured by the oil industry. Also, you can't fine the man for not paying his taxes since he payed a sales tax applicable only to the goods he purchased. In other words, you can't tax him twice.

I never fail to be amazed at what the goverenment will do for money. This is pretty cool. Itd be awesome if my Jeep ran on veggie oil. That'd be great....

Only a terrorist would want to stop helping out our allies in the middle east by not using as much petroleum as they possibly can.

What the fuck?! Three cheers for hipocrisy!

Just some quick numbers

the average price of gas in Charlotte is $2.96 plus that wonderful 9/10ths gas tax

Our little musician is paying roughly $2.58 for his veggie mobile per gallon (12 for a costco 5 gal jug of veg oil plus 7.5% sales tax)

But the funny thing is the state is techincally making more money off of him in sales tax. for every gallon he buys at the pump the state gets $0.009

But at costco the state gets $0.18 for every gallon of veggie oil Bob buys - a product he would not buy in such quantities without a super cool veggie car.

so Bob saves money AND the state makes more tax? GWHHAAAA?

This is amazing! the stat makes 20 times more tax off the guy AND they have the balls to slap him with e $1000 fine.

Well that blows my whole plan to relocate to Ashville.

Unless I missed something here.

Nope I was wrong NC collects 29.9 cents of taxes for every gallon. that means they are pulling in just under half of the tax revenue and that's if that shady Kum-bye-ya singing motherfucker even buys his oil

instead of moonshining it from the grease traps of your local veggie diner.

So yeah - fuck him and his tax evading ways. screw him for being outside the status quo.

I'm not sure how not wanting to hurt the little guy translates into fining the little guy because he found an alternative fuel.

I'd tell the govt to blow me. I am not paying taxes on something I don't purchase/consume.

The first sentence in this story says it all people.

it's things like this that almost make me ashamed to say i live in north carolina.

It'd be awesome if Jeep would put out a fucking diesel so we could do so...

You know, it's shit along these lines that led to the revolutionary war....Maybe if we dump all the gasoline into boston harbor the government will get the message?

Well I know in Minnesota if you use alternitive fuel in your car that you make yourself you still have to pay road taxes because you still use the road. There is a tax forum you have to fill out quarterly of your mileage and pay the taxes on that, but you also get a tax break at the end of the year for using a alternitive fuel.

Wrong-o. Motor fuel tax applies to any fuel used to power an on-highway motor vehicle. Commercially sold untaxed fuels (like home heating oil and off-road diesel for farm tractors and generators) are restricted to off-road use and are usually dyed red to identify them.

Edit: NC does not charge sales tax on motor fuels, only the 29.9 cent tax in addition to the federal motor fuels tax. Some states charge sales tax in addition to state and federal motor fuel taxes.

WVO/SVO on road users can square up by sending a check to their state department of revenue for the amount of road fuel tax owed. Few do. High profile users would be wise to consider it, though because cases like this one will become more common as alt fuel use spreads.

Theoretically, road fuel tax even applies to electric and CNG cars, with the main stumbling block being the method of assessing and collecting tax on the portion of natural gas or electricity used solely for vehicle power.

Jeep did ( the Liberty CRD) and does (the Grand Cherokee CRD).

Can you collect a fuel tax on a fuel source that wasn't sold as a fuel? Hell, can you collect a fuel tax on a fuel that wasn't sold to you by a gas station, period? Not produced by an oil company?

Somehow the idea of being taxed for vegetable oil, just because it's used to power an on-road vehicle, seems...sketchy. Or is this one of those blanket "as long as it fits this broad criteria, it's taxable" laws?

Since vegetable oil is taxed already at the register, can they legally tax it again as fuel? I'm not a lawyer, but I thought I remembered something about double-taxation?

That's true. I saw it on CSI.

This reminds me of a bumper sticker.... Don't steal. The government hates competition.

I think the logic is this, although I'm just guessing. Suppose everyone got cars that ran on vegetable oil, who'd pay for the highways and streets? I guess the government is just asserting it's authority now, so that in the future there's no question.

Yes, yes and yes. If you use it in a road vehicle, it is subject to road fuel tax (both state and federal, in addition to any applicable state sales tax if your state levies sales tax on motor fuel). If you bought your veg oil from Costco, you paid sales tax but not state or federal fuel tax.

Stuff is double and triple taxed all the time and it's perfectly legal. Try looking at any airport rental car contract and parse out the huge list of fees and taxes, for example.

ding ding ding!

Fuel tax is a use tax that pays for maintaining the roads and bridges. If you use those state/federal/local roads, you must pay for them with state/federal/local fuel taxes - and tolls too, in some places (another form of double taxation, if you're keeping score at home).

PS -

Gas Tax Rates By State

It's funny how such things are usually pointed out any time libertarian talking points are raised, but in this thread, people are bitching about how he has to pay taxes on a hip fuel.

Maybe we should abandon gas taxes and run on a sort of EZ Pass type system that measures road usage? Of course, privacy concerns galore, but it might be an equitable way to fund roads if self-service car refueling gains traction

The Fed subsidizes both oil and soy. All they're trying to do is recoup some of their losses so they can buy more bombs.

True. Even your ticket has an airport tax, sales tax, and most likely some other stupid ass tax.

And FreshPrince, I'm not sure why or if you were directing that at me. I think taxing for use is a good thing. Like I said, who would pay to maintain them otherwise?

You're EZ pass idea isn't that bad in theory. You could have your odometer checked once a year at a certified whatever and be taxed based on that, but I think I'd be too easy to get around that which would result in an overall loss of revenue--me thinks. I think taxing the actual fuel source is this best thing, 'cause in the end there's no way to "get around" putting fuel in your vehicle.

Also... in this case though. I think they should give the guy a break. If I had modified my vehicle, it wouldn't even have occurred to me to send a tax payment in. And where the hell would you send it to anyway? That'd be a fun experiment. Call your local government and try ask where you're supposed to send your vegetable oil tax. "Your what?" "My vegetable oil tax" "Why are you paying a vegetable oil tax?" "My car runs on it" "Your car runs on vegetable oil?" "Yeah" "I dunno, call the DMV" DMV "I dunno, call the..." etc... etc...etc... I mean nobody else sends in their tax for car fuel independently. I suppose Costco should start selling blue dyed Vegetable Oil specifically for cars...

No, just more or less reinforcing what you said

I know they already require semi-drivers to reimburse taxes for mileage by state, so they might jut be more prepared than you would expect.

I stand corrected. I still don't think they should come down so hard on this guy. Just say, look in the future we need you to send in your tax or tax him based on what he's bought already. I don't see the need to penalize him.