The Voice of Trucking in Illinois

 

 ILLINOIS TRUCKING THIS WEEK

October 3, 2014

ITA ANNUAL MEETING

The 2014 ITA Annual Meeting was held last Thursday-Saturday.  Great meetings mixed together with networking opportunities made for the biggest and best Annual Meeting ever.

ITA would like to thank all of our attendees, sponsors, exhibitors, ITA Board of Directors, and the Annual Meeting Committee that helped to make this year's event a success.  The ITA will be featuring highlights from the Annual Meeting each week in the Illinois Trucking This Week newsletter.  

STOCK TRANSPORT NAMED ITA MOTOR CARRIER OF THE YEAR

At the 2014 ITA Annual Meeting, Bob Stock of Stock Transport (Lebanon, IL) was named the 2014 ITA Motor Carrier of the Year. Stock was selected among his peers as the top motor carrier member that has gone above and beyond in their support for the ITA and for the trucking industry. Bob Stock, President & owner of Stock Transport was elected to serve on the ITA Executive Board in 2012 and he has participated contributed to the success of the Call on Washington, Call on Springfield, and the growth of the ITA in Southern Illinois. Stock has also been instrumental in establishing the Southern Illinois Golf Outing which is held each June. ITA congratulates Bob Stock and Stock Transport as the 2014 ITA Motor Carrier of the Year.

CIT GROUP, INC NAMED ITA ALLIED MEMBER OF THE YEAR

During the ITA Annual Meeting last week, CIT Group, Inc. was named the 2014 ITA Allied Member of the Year. The Allied Member of the Year Award is given each year to a company that demonstrates extraordinary support for the trucking industry and the Illinois Trucking Association. CIT Group has served on the ITA Annual Meeting Committee, which has helped to grow the Annual Meeting into the premiere event for trucking industry leaders in Illinois. CIT Group has also supported the ITA's Boxing Nights in Willowbrook and Springfield and golf outings in Orland Park and in Murphysboro.  In addition, CIT's Laura Nussbaum was recently elected to serve on the ITA Board of Directors. ITA congratulates Laura Nussbaum and CIT Group, Inc. as the 2014 ITA Allied Member of the Year.

ITA HOSTS MIKE BOST, TRUCKER AND CANDIDATE FOR CONGRESS

The Illinois Trucking Association's Southern Illinois Leadership Group held their quarterly meeting this Wednesday in O'Fallon. Guest speaker was Mike Bost. Bost's family has been in the trucking industry for 60 years, and after serving in the Illinois House for 20 years, Mike Bost is running for Congress. Bost talked about the need for Congressional oversight on agencies such as the FMCSA.

ITA HOSTING NATMI SAFETY CERTIFICATION

The Illinois Trucking Association will host NATMI certification classes in November.  Supervisor of Safety and Director of Safety will be held November 3-7.  All classes will be held at the ITA's Willowbrook office.  Click here for more info.

To register, please contact ITA Safety Director, Linda Blisset, at linda@iltrucking.org. 

ATA STATE LAWS NEWSLETTER

(courtesy of Bob Pitcher, American Trucking Association) 

IRS Per Diem Allowance Stays at $59 - The federal Internal Revenue Service has announced that the per diem allowance for meals and incidental for truck drivers and other transportation workers away from home on travel for work will remain at $59 for next year, the same level it has been for some time now.  IRS Notice 2014-57, issued September 2014  (IRS has not yet released the mileage reimbursement rates for 2015.  When it does, we'll let you know.)

NC Taxes Extended Warranties - By legislation (Session Law 2014-3) effective October 1, 2014, North Carolina has provided in detail for the taxation of extended warranties on motor vehicles and similar service contracts sold at retail.  Unlike most other states, North Carolina generally taxes motor vehicle sales, although it imposes a lesser rate on such sales and caps the amount of tax due for a single piece of motor carrier rolling stock.  The state began taxing extended motor vehicle warranties at the beginning of this year, but the new law clarifies certain details.  Among other things, it makes it plain that sales tax does not apply to a part used in a repair covered under a taxable warranty if the vehicle owner is not charged for the part.  It also provides clarification on whether the vehicle dealer or the manufacturer may be obligated to pay the tax in certain instances.  For more details, see a pair of North Carolina Department of Revenue releases on-line at  http://www.dornc.com/taxes/sales/impnotice092614_servicecontracts.pdf  and  http://www.dornc.com/practitioner/sales/directives/SD-13-5.pdf.   

ATA Updates State's Winter Rules -- ATA tracks a number of state laws of interest to the trucking industry. For the winter driving season, wehave now updated state chain laws and state snow removal laws as these apply to motor carriers.  For more, please contact ATA's Abigail Potter at apotter@trucking.org.

UCR Registration Begins - We remind our readers that the registration season for the Unified Carrier Registration program began as usual on October 1.  Roadside enforcement will begin, at least in many states, January 1, 2015.  The easiest way for most carriers to register and pay their UCR fees is on-line, at www.ucr.in.gov, the site of the national UCR system run by Indiana.

MI Court SBT Debt Nondischargeable in Bankruptcy - In a case of first impression, the Michigan Court of Appeals has held that a liability for the state's single business tax was not dischargeable in a bankruptcy proceeding because the SBT was an "excise tax."  Federal law prevents the discharge of debts for state and local taxes of certain kinds, and the question in this case was whether the SBT - which, it should be noted, was repealed about five years ago, to general rejoicing - was one of those kinds of taxes.  The SBT was often characterized as a modified value-added tax.  The SBT tax base was the taxpayer's federal taxable income, plus compensation the business had paid and depreciation it had taken, and plus or minus certain other adjustments to the federal number.  The parties agreed that in modern tax parlance, an excise tax was any kind of tax except a property tax.  The taxpayer argued that the SBT, because it sought to tax value added, was an ad valorem, or property tax.  The court, however, found that the SBT was more a tax on the privilege of conducting a business, and that it focused on taxing an economic activity rather than the property involved in that activity.  And excise tax liabilities were not dischargeable.  Henderson v. Michigan Dept. of Treasury, docket no. 312859, decided September 25, 2014.