IRS plans to change formula for tire tax

WASHINGTON (Oct. 17)—The Internal Revenue Service will rule by the end of November on changes in how trucking companies treat tractor-trailer tires on their tax returns, an IRS technical adviser has told the American Trucking Associations. Robert M. Everitt has recommended that trucking companies treat new tires as part of the truck or trailer, rather than as separate equipment. That would mandate depreciating tractor tires over three years and trailer tires over five years, rather than writing them off in one year as is current practice. If truckers insist on treating tires as separate equipment, they will have to amortize them over eight years, Everitt said.