Heavy Vehicle Use Tax is a federal excise tax on trucks and other vehicles with a taxable gross weight of 55,000 pounds or more that operate on public highways. If you own or operate heavy trucks, you’re required to file Form 2290 with the IRS and pay this tax annually.

The tax year runs from July 1 through June 30, not the calendar year. For vehicles already in service, the filing deadline is August 31. If you put a new vehicle on the road mid-year, you owe the tax by the last day of the month following the month you first used it on public highways. Miss the deadline and penalties start at 4.5% of the unpaid tax plus 0.5% per month, plus interest.

Tax amounts depend on the vehicle’s taxable gross weight. Vehicles between 55,000 and 75,000 pounds pay anywhere from about $100 to $550 depending on weight category. Vehicles over 75,000 pounds pay the maximum of $550. When you file, the IRS returns a stamped Schedule 1 that proves you paid. You need this document to register your vehicle or renew registration in most states, so keep it somewhere you can find it.

For accounting purposes, you have two options. The simpler approach is to expense the full amount when you pay it. Categorize it under taxes and licenses or vehicle expenses. This works fine for most small trucking operations and keeps the bookkeeping straightforward.

The more accurate method treats HVUT as a prepaid expense. Since the tax covers a 12-month period, you record the payment as a prepaid asset and expense one-twelfth each month. This matches the cost to the period it covers, which gives you more accurate monthly profit and loss statements. For a truck paying $550, that’s about $46 per month hitting your expenses instead of a $550 hit in August.

Which method you choose depends on how many trucks you have and how precise you need your monthly financials to be. One or two trucks? Just expense it when paid. A fleet of twenty? The prepaid method keeps your monthly numbers more consistent and useful for decision-making.

Track HVUT payments by vehicle. Keep the stamped Schedule 1 with your vehicle records because you’ll need it for registration renewals and potentially for audits. Some bookkeepers create a separate sub-account for HVUT to make tracking easier, especially for fleets with multiple vehicles coming and going throughout the year.

Working with a bookkeeper for small business who understands trucking-specific requirements makes this easier. HVUT is just one of many compliance items that can slip through the cracks if your books aren’t set up to handle them properly from the start.