Congress Approves Measure on Tire, Heavy-Vehicle Taxes

ongress approved a $136 billion corporate tax bill last week that would change the payment structure of the excise tax on tires and eliminate quarterly payments of the heavy-vehicle use tax.

If signed into law by President Bush, it would provide hundreds of new tax breaks. But while most of its provisions appeared to help businesses, Robert Pitcher, vice president of state laws for American Trucking Associations, said requiring companies to pay the heavy-vehicle use tax in full every year could hurt trucking companies.

“That will present a cash-flow problem for some companies,” Pitcher said. “If you’re an owner-operator, you may be scraping for every penny anyhow.”