Neighbourhood Electric Vehicle Tax Credit

You might be able to get a tax credit for having a Neighbourhood Electric Vehicle. A golf cart could even qualify.

A Mileage Log Might Let You Save On Taxes

Gas burned is gas gone forever. But you may be able to recover some of the money you spent to buy that gas. Keeping a mileage log can let you deduct that money from your taxes. The video explains.

Public Transport Subsidy

If you are looking to save on gas you might try to make your daily commute in to work and back by public transit. Depending on where you are that might mean by bus, subway or light urban rail. You might also be able to save a little extra money by taking advantage of employer or government subsidy programs. For example, the Department of Agriculture has a program where they will pay transit costs up to $110 a month for their employees who use mass transit. Many corporations have similar programs. If you are going to take mass transit anyway to save on gas, you might as well look into whether your employer will pick up some of the tab!

Dutch Big Brother Saving on Gas

The Dutch government is planning on installing GPS devices on all cars in their country. The idea is to measure exactly how far each car drives and charge a distance based tax. The idea is that you pay as you go instead of paying a car sales tax or ownership tax. That would have the effect of directly rewarding people for driving fewer miles thus helping to save on gas. The motivation given is environmental. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is the goal. It is also expected to help out with congestion.

The tax will go into effect in 2012 if the Dutch legislature passes the bill, which has already been written and tabled by the government. The tax will be 7 cents per mile in US terms to start and will increase over time reaching 16 cents per mile in 2018. Certain vehicles, such as taxis and buses will not have to pay.

While the motive is good (reducing emissions can only be good for the climate) and the idea of a tax that you pay as you go is fair, I hope we never see something like this in the US. Giving the government power to monitor exactly where every car is at all times is just too much into the world of Big Brother. It always starts out benign. "We will only use this data to calculate the mileage tax." But then after a decade or so it will be routinely used by law enforcement agencies "in the public good." And a decade after that, when the government has decided that the public good includes (for example) suppressing certain social movements the data will be used to track down, break up and arrest the people in them. Never forget that the US government is the very same government that invented the term "extraordinary rendition". Do you want a government that arranges for the kidnapping and torture of its own citizens to know exactly where every car is at all times? I know I don't.

Take this as a warning. If we the people can't control our own gas use and we start seeing extremely high gas prices and resulting social unrest, the government could use that to impose a copy of the Dutch GPS monitoring system "to encourage lower fuel consumption". One more reason to save on gas.

Diesel Energy Tax Credit

Under the right circumstances, the IRS can help you save on gas. The Feds have been offering tax incentives to increase fuel economy. One of the incentive programs is the Advanced Lean Burn Technology Vehicles credit. Here you will find a list of qualifying vehicles. So far they are all diesels from model year 2009. So if you have been considering buying a diesel car this could be you chance to do so and get a tax credit at the same time.

The IRS will only give out the money if you are the original buyer of the vehicle, so no buying used. Also the vehicle must be for your personal use and not for resale. The amount of the credit depends on the model you choose. Also the credit amount decreases as the automaker sells more and more of the vehicle. It drops to zero after the sale of 60,000 vehicles. So if you want a larger tax credit, it helps to buy sooner rather than later.

Why the "Lean Burn" in the tax credit title? It means that the engine operates with more air in the cylinder than is necessary to burn all the gas. There is extra air. This allows for higher compression ratios and lower airflow friction losses (or pumping loss) but produces NO_x pollutants. However, modern catalytic converter systems are capable of treating these. Perhaps in the next post we will talk about lean burn technology for saving on gas.

Gas Guzzler Tax

Cars in the US that do not get at least 22.5 miles per gallon have to pay a Gas Guzzler Tax. This tax is the Fed's way of incentivizing the automakers to improve fuel economy. The tax was established in the Energy Tax Act in 1978. It only effects cars. SUVs, pickup trucks and minivans are exempt. You do not have to pay this tax. The automaker (or importer, in the case of foreign vehicles) normally pays the IRS directly. The fuel economy sticker on the window of new vehicles will show the amount of the tax, in case you are interested. The image included with this post demonstrates the Gas Guzzler Tax in the sticker. It is the number located in the lower left.