HVUT for 2026-27: $100 to $550

The tax starts at 55,000 pounds taxable gross weight

Form 2290, revision July 2026, does not tax a highway vehicle that is under 55,000 pounds taxable gross weight. Category A is exactly 55,000 pounds. For a vehicle in use during July, the non-logging tax on that line is $100. The logging tax on that line is $75. If your taxable gross weight is under 55,000, you are not looking for a smaller HVUT. You are looking at a vehicle the form does not tax. Do not file a guess at $100 to "be safe" on a straight truck that does not meet the weight. Do not skip a tractor that does meet it because someone said the tax is only for company fleets.

Taxable gross weight is defined on the form's instructions, not by the last CAT scale. It is the unloaded weight of the vehicle fully equipped for service, plus the unloaded weight of any trailers or semitrailers fully equipped for service that are customarily used in combination with it, plus the weight of the maximum load customarily carried on the vehicle and those trailers. A light backhaul does not put you in a lighter category if you customarily haul heavier. A single heavy trip does not, by itself, rewrite a customary weight that is truly lower. When the category is a close call, use the definition and keep the equipment list. A scale ticket is a data point. It is not the definition.

The $22 steps

Between category A and the cap, the July non-logging column increases by $22 for each additional 1,000 pounds of taxable gross weight. Category B, 55,001 through 56,000 pounds, is $122 in the July column. Category C, 56,001 through 57,000, is $144. You can see the pattern without turning this page into the whole table: each band is $22 more than the band below it, until the form stops the pattern at the cap. The form itself is the list of letters. If you are at 63,000 pounds, read the row for that band off the form rather than adding $22 in your head eight times and hoping. Arithmetic errors are how a return is wrong by one category. The form is one page. Use it.

The logging column is not $22 less. It is the reduced logging amount on that same row. Do not subtract $22 from the non-logging tax and call yourself a logging vehicle.

The cap: over 75,000 pounds is $550

Category V is taxable gross weight over 75,000 pounds. For a vehicle in use in July, the non-logging tax is $550. That is the top of this revision's July column. It is not "about $550 for every truck." A category U vehicle, 74,001 through 75,000 pounds, is $540 in that same July column, which is the last $22 step before the cap stops the climb. Over 75,000 does not keep climbing to $572 or $600. The form caps it.

Most combination tractors that customarily run at the federal gross limit fall in category V. That is a reason to read category V, not a reason to skip the definition. A tractor that customarily runs lighter belongs on its own row. Putting everything in V because the cap is familiar overpays. Putting a category V truck on a lighter row underpays. The IRS computes from the row you claim. The definition is what makes the row true.

Logging vehicles are the lower column

The form has two July amounts on each weight row. Column (a) is vehicles other than logging. Column (b) is logging vehicles. At category A the logging amount is $75. At category V it is $412.50. Those figures are 75 percent of $100 and of $550, which is why the pennies appear at the cap. You may use the logging column only if the vehicle meets the instructions' definition of a logging vehicle. Occasional lumber, a log trailer that is not the customary use, or a desire to pay less does not create the column. If you are unsure, you are not unsure in a way this page can resolve. Read the definition in the July 2026 instructions before you check the logging box.

A mixed fleet can have one logging vehicle and one dry van. They do not share a column. Each VIN goes on the row and the column that fit that vehicle.

Partial-year tax if first use is after July

The July amounts on the form are for vehicles used during July. The form tells you that a vehicle first used after July uses the partial-period tax, and it points to the tables at the end of the instructions. Those tables are the dollars. This page will not reconstruct every month and every weight, because that is the booklet the form already attached. What this page will say is the mistake: do not pay the full $550, or the full $100, for a vehicle that was not in use in July, and do not assume the partial amount is "half" without the table. A vehicle first used in October has more months left than a vehicle first used in May. The table already counts the months. The first-use calendar tells you which month you are in and when the return is due. The tax and the deadline are a pair. A correct $550 filed on the wrong month's deadline is still the wrong return.

Privately purchased used vehicles can have a different split between buyer and seller. The instructions have that section. Do not apply the ordinary partial table to that purchase until you have read it.

The 5,000-mile suspension

Category W is the suspended line. The July 2026 instructions allow the suspension when you expect the vehicle to be used for 5,000 miles or less during the period, or 7,500 miles or less if it is an agricultural vehicle. The tax on that line is not the category A or V amount, but the filing is not optional. You file Form 2290, you list the VIN, and you receive Schedule 1 showing the suspension. If actual use exceeds the limit, the instructions require the tax for the period, filed by the last day of the month following the month the limit was exceeded. That is a second deadline. It is not a retroactive excuse for skipping the first filing.

Agricultural use has its own definition in those instructions, including how the vehicle is used and registered. Do not claim 7,500 miles because the truck is sometimes near a farm. Five thousand is the general test. Seventy-five hundred is the agricultural test. The weight-category tax and the suspension are different boxes. A category V truck that will run all year does not become a suspension because the miles are hard to estimate. Estimate honestly. If you expect to exceed the test, pay the category.

The calendar page tells you the day. The form tells you the dollar. This page tells you which of those dollars people copy onto the wrong truck.

Frequently Asked Questions