Louisiana Wants Its Money...Excise Taxes......Updated 11/12/13

There is an excise tax on alternative fuels.  This was another new discovery for me.  As it was explained to me when I called Baton Rouge, this is Louisiana making sure that you pay the 16 cent per gallon tax that gasoline users are charged.  This tax makes sure that all of our fine state roads remain in the tip top condition that they are always in.

 For vehicles less than 10,000 pounds, the tax is the lesser of $150 or your total miles driven per year divided by 12 mpg times 16 cents.  I drive about 20,000 miles per year, which made my tax by their formula $266, so I paid a prorated $150 rate since I purchased the vehicle late in the year. There is a sticker which is placed on the windshield which lets our law enforcement fellows know that you have paid your taxes.

This calculation made me consider that maybe there is an additional savings opportunity by way of tax savings, lets see if we can demonstrate it.....20,000 miles per year divided by 16 miles per gallon equals 1,250 gallons of gasoline burned annually.  Multiply this by the 16 cent per gallon tax, and we have $200 that I paid the state at the pump annually when I burned gasoline.  Subtract the $150 tax that I do pay, and on paper at least,  I save about $50 per year by operating on CNG.  Of course its not 100 percent accurate because I do still have to burn some gasoline from time to time when the CNG tank runs out, but it is close.

Here is a link to the DNR website Louisiana DNR Alternative Fuels

Here is a link to the form:  Louisiana Alternative Fuel Tax Form

In my efforts to be a good citizen, I filled out this form, enclosed a check, and mailed it within days of purchasing my truck.  The Department of Revenue returned it to me with the explanation that I had not provided the vehicle's license plate number.  Of course, this was impossible for me to provide at the time because I didn't have my plates yet.  I was able to return it one month ago to the Department of Revenue with the license plate number.  I have had the truck for two months, still no sticker.  Its Louisiana man, why am I so uptight about it?

Update.....I did receive my sticker.  I used a blow dryer to heat up the old sticker and it readily peeled off.  The remaining residue was removed with a paper towel.  The instructions are specific that the sticker be placed in the bottom right section of the windshield so I placed it where the old one was.  There is a bit of a challenge in making sure that the small slip of paper which contains the numbers doesn't shift, but otherwise it was a simple process.

The sticker: