Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback signed legislation that as of 2014 repeals the state’s 56-year-old property tax on trucks, tractors and trailers.
Signed April 6, the measure provides for a replacement tax — a new commercial vehicle fee to be paid by intrastate and interstate carriers. The new fee is also being delayed until 2014 to give the state and carriers time to adjust to the change.
The new fee will be based on truck weight. An 80,000- pound, five axel truck — one of the most common in the trucking industry — would pay $450.
The fee system will be closely aligned with the International Registration Plan so that a carrier will pay the fee each year when it renews its registrations. The fee will then be automatically apportioned to states based on how many miles the carrier runs there.
Replacing the property tax with the fee program is a modernization that benefits the state and trucking, said Thomas Whitaker, executive director of the Kansas Motor Carriers Association.
“When I did a survey of our members to show how much they would save, most carriers showed an annual savings by going to this program,” he said.
