Comments on: Slight of Hand: EPA Fails To Adjust Gas Guzzler Tax Benchmarks To Match New MPG Numbers

By: Chris La Rosa

Chris La Rosa — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:41:48 +0000

Hello. I have a question with gas guzzler tax both from the past and for future reference. A few years ago I ordered an Audi that I knew had a $1700 gas guzzler tax. However, Audi forgot to put it on the Monroni label – window sticker for the first “batch” of cars to enter the states – mine being one of them and many people did not have to pay the tax.
When my car was delivered, the salesman “misplaced” the sticker so I had no way on knowing if my car had the tax listed or not. Then I read on various Audi forums that many people ended up not paying the tax since it was omitted or left out from the sticker. Well, a month later, after many repeated attempts, the salesman finally sent me the original sticker for the car and wouldn’t you know – it had NO gas guzzler tax on it. Should I have paid for this tax anyway? Do you still pay for it in full on a leased car? Shouldn’t it be clearly listed on the invoices? Is gas guzzler tax a “taxable’ item – I was taxed on top of that.
If you can answer any of these questions it would be very helpful. Thank you. Chris La Rosa

By: Keith

Keith — Thu, 17 May 2007 16:34:03 +0000

One more reason to keep driving my gas guzzling RX-7!

By: Ormand

Ormand — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 15:03:34 +0000

I have replicated this on ONET. Thanks for looking out for the car people. Zerin + DubSpeed.

By: Kasey Kagawa

Kasey Kagawa — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 00:02:22 +0000

Hm. After some more research, it appears that you are right. I’ll put a correction up on the post.

By: uberR32

uberR32 — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 19:32:15 +0000

Here is a better source:

“\39\ See 40 CFR 86.113-94.
—————————————————————————

3. Relationship of Today’s Proposal With Other Statutes and Regulations
a. Automobile Disclosure Act. A provision in EPCA (at 49 U.S.C.
32908(b)(2)) allows the fuel economy information to be included on the
window sticker label of vehicle manufacturing and price information
required by the Automobile Disclosure Act at 15 U.S.C. 1232 (the so-
called “Monroni” label.). To that end, the Federal Trade Commission
issued a “Fuel Guide” concerning the fuel economy advertising for new
automobiles, published in the Federal Register at 16 CFR Part 259. This
guide refers back to EPA’s fuel economy regulations and specifically to
how manufacturers are permitted to advertise the city and highway fuel
economy of their vehicles.
b. Internal Revenue Code. This code contains the provisions
governing the administration of the Gas Guzzler Tax.\40\ It contains
the table of applicable taxes and defines which vehicles are subject to
the taxes. The IRS code specifies that the fuel economy to be used to
assess the amount of tax will be the combined city and highway fuel
economy as determined by using the procedures in place in 1975, or
procedures that give comparable results (similar to EPCA’s requirements
for determining CAFE). Today’s proposal does not impact these procedures.”

By: uberR32

uberR32 — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 19:27:14 +0000

Kasey,

I posted this on CF, and received one reply which seemed to ring a bell far off in the depths of my mind. Are you sure that the EPA uses the sticker values to calculate the tax?

“Nope, this is completely wrong. The gas guzzler tax is based on the vehicle’s official fuel economy value used for the Federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulatory program. The fuel economy values provided on the vehicle label are not the values used for CAFE purposes. The label values are different (and lower) to better estimate “real world” fuel economy. The changed fuel economy labeling procedures EPA is implementing for the 2008 model year do not affect the fuel economy values used for CAFE or gas guzzler tax purposes.”

By: speedlimit 180

speedlimit 180 — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 03:21:02 +0000

Zerin/ the guys of dunspeed, thank you for bringing this to my attention. Although we probably wont have a ounce of voice in it unless its still in the voting process. If its already passed we’ll just have to pay it which sucks