Title 26Internal Revenue CodeRelease 119-73

§4053 Exemptions

Title 26 › Subtitle Subtitle D— - Miscellaneous Excise Taxes › Chapter CHAPTER 31— - RETAIL EXCISE TAXES › Subchapter Subchapter C— - Heavy Trucks and Trailers › § 4053

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

A federal tax on certain trucks does not apply to the following items. Camper units made to be mounted on truck chassis and used mainly as living or camping space; truck bodies built to process, haul, spread, or load seed, feed, or fertilizer for farm use; house trailers; ambulances and hearses (including combination units); truck-mounted equipment used to process or prepare concrete; trash containers meant only for trash and not permanently fixed to a truck; trailer or semitrailer chassis or bodies made to be used both on highways and as railroad cars (piggy-back trailers are not treated as railroad cars); and truck chassis that have permanently mounted, specially designed machinery for construction, farming, mining, drilling, timbering, or similar jobs, where the machinery is not for moving freight and the chassis could not be used for other hauling without major changes. Also excluded are devices attached to tractors that provide heat, air conditioning, or electricity while a vehicle is parked, if the EPA Administrator, working with the Energy and Transportation Secretaries, finds they reduce engine idling at rest stops or other parking locations. Insulation with an R value of not less than R35 per inch is also excluded.

Full Legal Text

Title 26, §4053

Internal Revenue Code — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

No tax shall be imposed by section 4051 on any of the following articles:
(1)Any article designed—
(A)to be mounted or placed on automobile trucks, automobile truck chassis, or automobile chassis, and
(B)to be used primarily as living quarters or camping accommodations.
(2)Any body primarily designed—
(A)to process or prepare seed, feed, or fertilizer for use on farms,
(B)to haul feed, seed, or fertilizer to and on farms,
(C)to spread feed, seed, or fertilizer on farms,
(D)to load or unload feed, seed, or fertilizer on farms, or
(E)for any combination of the foregoing.
(3)Any house trailer.
(4)Any ambulance, hearse, or combination ambulance-hearse.
(5)Any article designed—
(A)to be placed or mounted on an automobile truck chassis or truck trailer or semitrailer chassis, and
(B)to be used to process or prepare concrete.
(6)Any box, container, receptacle, bin or other similar article—
(A)which is designed to be used as a trash container and is not designed for the transportation of freight other than trash, and
(B)which is not designed to be permanently mounted on or permanently affixed to an automobile truck chassis or body.
(7)Any chassis or body of a trailer or semitrailer which is designed for use both as a highway vehicle and a railroad car. For purposes of the preceding sentence, piggy-back trailer or semitrailer shall not be treated as designed for use as a railroad car.
(8)Any vehicle which consists of a chassis—
(A)to which there has been permanently mounted (by welding, bolting, riveting, or other means) machinery or equipment to perform a construction, manufacturing, processing, farming, mining, drilling, timbering, or similar operation if the operation of the machinery or equipment is unrelated to transportation on or off the public highways,
(B)which has been specially designed to serve only as a mobile carriage and mount (and a power source, where applicable) for the particular machinery or equipment involved, whether or not such machinery or equipment is in operation, and
(C)which, by reason of such special design, could not, without substantial structural modification, be used as a component of a vehicle designed to perform a function of transporting any load other than that particular machinery or equipment or similar machinery or equipment requiring such a specially designed chassis.
(9)Any device or system of devices which—
(A)is designed to provide to a vehicle those services (such as heat, air conditioning, or electricity) that would otherwise require the operation of the main drive engine while the vehicle is temporarily parked or remains stationary using one or more devices affixed to a tractor, and
(B)is determined by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, in consultation with the Secretary of Energy and the Secretary of Transportation, to reduce idling of such vehicle at a motor vehicle rest stop or other location where such vehicles are temporarily parked or remain stationary.
(10)Any insulation that has an R value of not less than R35 per inch.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Prior Provisions

A prior section 4053, acts Aug. 16, 1954, ch. 736, 68A Stat. 479; Sept. 2, 1958, Pub. L. 85–859, title I, § 104, 72 Stat. 1276, made provision for the imposition of the retailers tax on installment sales, prior to repeal by Pub. L. 94–455, title XIX, § 1904(a)(1)(D), Oct. 4, 1976, 90 Stat. 1811. For provisions of prior sections 4054 to 4058 of this title, see

Prior Provisions

note set out preceding section 4041 of this title.

Amendments

2008—Pars. (9), (10). Pub. L. 110–343 added pars. (9) and (10). 2004—Par. (8). Pub. L. 108–357 added par. (8). 1984—Pub. L. 98–369 amended section generally, substituting provisions listing articles on which no tax under section 4051 shall be imposed for former provisions which stated that no tax be imposed under section 4051 on any article specified in subsection (a) of section 4063 and that the exemptions provided by section 4221(a) extended to the tax imposed by section 4051.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 2008 Amendment Pub. L. 110–343, div. B, title II, § 206(b), Oct. 3, 2008, 122 Stat. 3839, provided that: “The amendment made by this section [amending this section] shall apply to sales or installations after the date of the enactment of this Act [Oct. 3, 2008].”

Effective Date

of 2004 Amendment Pub. L. 108–357, title VIII, § 851(a)(2), Oct. 22, 2004, 118 Stat. 1607, provided that: “The amendment made by this subsection [amending this section] shall take effect on the day after the date of the enactment of this Act [Oct. 22, 2004].”

Effective Date

of 1984 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 98–369 effective, except as otherwise provided, as if included in the provisions of the Highway Revenue Act of 1982, title V of Pub. L. 97–424, to which such amendment relates, see section 736 of Pub. L. 98–369, set out as a note under section 4051 of this title.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

26 U.S.C. § 4053

Title 26Internal Revenue Code

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73