Title 26 › Subtitle Subtitle D— Miscellaneous Excise Taxes › Chapter 31— RETAIL EXCISE TAXES › Subchapter C— Heavy Trucks and Trailers › § 4053
A federal excise tax does not apply to a list of trucks, trailers, and special equipment. Exempt items include truck-mounted units made mainly for living or camping; bodies made mainly to process, haul, spread, or load seed, feed, or fertilizer for farm use; house trailers; ambulances and hearses; truck- or trailer-mounted equipment used to prepare concrete; trash containers made only for trash and not permanently fixed to a truck; trailer or semitrailer frames built for both road and rail use (piggy-back trailers are not counted as rail-use); and chassis with permanently mounted machinery used only for jobs like construction, farming, mining, drilling, timbering, or similar work when the chassis is specially made to carry that equipment and cannot be used for ordinary freight without big changes. Also exempt are devices or systems attached to tractors that provide heat, air conditioning, or electricity to a parked vehicle when the EPA Administrator, after consulting the Secretary of Energy and the Secretary of Transportation, finds they cut engine idling, and insulation that has an R value of not less than R35 per inch.
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Internal Revenue Code — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
Legislative History
Reference
Citation
26 U.S.C. § 4053
Title 26 — Internal Revenue Code
Last Updated
Apr 5, 2026
Release point: 119-73not60