Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
[quote user="cx500"]   <blockquote> <div><img src="/TRCCS/Themes/trc/images/icon-quote.gif" /> Sam1:</div> <div>   ......... Commercial carriers pay a proportional share of the recovery cost embedded in the facilities that they use.  Their payments are usually in the form of fuel taxes, fees, property taxes, excise taxes, sales taxes, etc.  Whether they pay their fair share is an arguable point.  Motorists pay their proportional share in the form of fuel taxes, excise taxes, fees, and property taxes.  ......... <div style="clear:both;"></div>   </div> </blockquote>   I would like to point out that commercial carriers do not generally pay much in the way of property taxes, since for some reason roads and highways generally do not pay property tax.  If road users, and especially commercial users, were required to cover the property tax on the land value of ALL the highways and ALL the streets they use, as the railroads do, the trucking business would shrink dramatically.  In the short to medium term the cost of goods would go through the roof since the North American economy is based on this and other hidden subsidies to the commercial road users. [/quote] Trucking companies pay ad Valorem taxes on their off-road facilities, e.g. terminals, warehouses, inventories, etc.  All other commercial and private carriers, including railroads, pay similar taxes, except Amtrak, which pays no taxes whatsoever.  Determining the total ad Valorem taxes paid by the country's commercial carriers would be a daunting task.  Investor owned railroads pay ad Valorem taxes on their right-of-way as well as their other assets.  Airways, highways, and waterways users don't pay ad Valorem taxes on the common facilities (airways, highways, waterways) that they use because these facilities are owned by governments.  Taxing themselves would make no sense.    All commercial entities can deduct their local and state tax expenses, including fuel taxes, on their federal and state income tax returns.  Moreover, they can depreciate their property and equipment, which results in a lower tax bill than would be the case if they did not have any depreciable assets.  In addition to the aforementioned depreciable assets, e.g. equipment, buildings, etc. associated with all commercial transport modes, railroads can depreciate the capital costs of their right-of-ways.  The own them.  The depreciation is significant, and results in a large reduction in federal and state income taxes.  I would be surprise if the depreciation impact on railroad net income does not offset the ad Valorem taxes paid by the railroads on their right-of-ways.      From time to time transport experts have suggested that the government or a quasi government body should buy the rails and open them up to any qualifying common carrier.  The railroads have pushed back hard, which tells me that they have a pretty good deal with the current arrangement.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag