Infrastructure Bill Includes Pilot Program to Track Your Vehicle

I wonder if other countries are like this one. The government will spend thousands of dollars just to collect a buck.

I just use Turbo Tax for my income tax. Usually simple and I don't get into all the fine print. My undestanding is that for some things like interst in bank accounts that if under so much money the bank does not sent it to the Feds, but you are suppose to add it to your tax information.

This state requires you pay sales tax on the state income tax if you you buy something mail order from out of state. Not many add that to their tax,but it should be added. Sort of like tips people get . Bet most only report half of what they actually get.

Most major online retailers are required to collect the sales tax these days.

I think there was some bill congress pased a few years ago about that. I have noticed that Ebay seems to be charging tax on things ordered from places including China. I often wonder if they turn in all that money.

Hiding tips is getting more difficult. Most chain or larger restaurants use tracking software for the waitstaff. If you put a tip on your credit card they add it in same as wages for tax purposes. They can also report cash tips daily too and I'm sure they all report it all.

I've been picking up my granddaughter after work as a server. Most nights she has a story. Table of 12 women, $250 bill and a $12 tip for over 2 hours of her time, table of 7 with a $200 bill and no tip, Then ther was the table of 4 men. All they wanted was a glass of water, no food or drink Said it was a meeting. Left in under a half hour but tipped $20.

The work is not easy and she does 40 to 45 hours a week but makes good money.

If it is less than $10 the bank does not generate a 1099-INT and you do not have to include it on your return. I had a bank account with $30 grand in it and I still never broke through the $10 barrier on interest. I have since moved the money but the interest is still squat.

That would depend on the skill of the meter's designers vs. the skill of the EVs owner. I'd bet on the EEs designing the meter to make it tough enough to not be worthwhile to bypass it. Cat and mouse for awhile maybe. Plus, bypassing the meter would be cheating the government out of tax money. It doesn't have any sense of humor about that. Not to mention, Americans are super honest and would never dream of such a thing.

ON road diesel fuel isn't dyed. It is taxed. Truckers pay tax when they fuel up. The Nebraska State Patrol will do surprise vehicle inspections every now and then. There are weigh/inspection stations in a few places. OFF road diesel is dyed. It's for construction equipment and farm equipment. Farmers have a lot of it on their farms. They might be tempted to use that in their trucks hauling grain to market. Page 23 if you're interested.

I can't imagine EVs going over too big. People will probably do what they can to keep the petroleum burners going.

Our journalists aren't skeptical enough. Common sense must not be a job requirement.

The US might look like what I have seen pictures of Cuba. Lots of very old cars on the road. There was some movie about the future where people had some kind of boiler in the back of the car that converted smoldering wood to produce something the engine could burn. We may be going to that.

With everything going through the ECU, hacking has become a software thing and they can lock down the software by putting it in ROM buried in the chipset. Software geeks don't like that because they want to change the software from time to time but security guys love good old PROM. Burn it once and it stays that way forever. Any attempt to change it will corrupt it. The problem is how often they have to reflash ECUs because of a software glitch. You would be buying a new ECU. If it was standardized that could be cheap tho. Assuming they start building chip fabs soon and get the ones they have, going. This chip thing smells like market manipulation to me. When the right guys are getting paid the chips will flow again.

That was a movie. You still run into that physics problem of how much energy you need and you are not getting that out of a stick of wood. Wood is 19.2 kilojoule per kg, Gasoline is 44 MEGA joules per kg. 2300 times as much energy.

We are low here in DE surrounded by higher tax states. We also have no sales tax. Shopping centers are full of out of state cars and where do you think they buy their gas? If DE raised their gas tax they would probably not increase tax income as these folks would not buy gas here.

When I lived in Philadelphia, it was common to cross the bridge to NJ for gas, booze, and open stores on Sunday. Even after moving away, if I was passing through NJ I'd fill up and save at least 20 cents a gallon.

I moved to CT, one of the higher gas taxes, but was near MA and was there frequently, worked there too. In 38 years I bet I bough gas and booze in CT maybe 3 times.

Some people live in a 'sweet spot' where the state they live in is low or not tax on many things and can cross over to the next state where tax on other items is less. Each state is different in how or what they tax to get the money they want. You may pay high property tax for low or no income tax.

I was often out of time until Saturday afternoon when I lived in East Longmeadow MA. On Sundays I would drive down to Somers CT to do grocery shopping since the stores in MA were closed except for Abe's Kosher Market.

Booze in MA was no bargain. After a couple of years I moved to NH. No sales tax and no income tax. The state ran the liquor stores and build a very convenient one on I95 just across the state line. Easy off, easy on going south, open seven days, and all major credit cards were accepted.

I was raised in upstate NY. It wasn't worth it for day to day purchases but if you were having a party or stocking up for the holidays, it was

It all worked out. Bars in NY closed at 3AM so the Vermonters came over to tie one on and kill themselves going home on the twisty country roads.

MT doesn't have a sales tax. It's about 120 miles to any big town in Idaho or Washington but if you're buying a big ticket item it's time for a road trip. Before we got the big box stores most businesses in Spokane wouldn't charge the WA tax if you had a MT license so it wasn't symmetrical.

NH didn't have a sales or income tax. It wasn't said out loud but if you wanted good schools and amenities you lived in a town with high property taxes. When the Massholes started invading they expected the Massachusetts level of state services without paying for them. It didn't work that way.

When I first lived in NH if you needed to register your car you went to Concord. It was a big deal when the state finally built satellite DMV offices. Of course the vehicle registrations paid for them, not money that fell from the sky.

Along those same lines, here's a story from about 10 years ago when I lived in Kansas City. Instead of people crossing the state line, the store crossed the state line.

The QuikTrip store on Southwest Boulevard is half in Missouri, half in Kansas.

Most customers might not have noticed or cared ? until now.

The company on Monday started bulldozing the store at 27 Southwest Blvd. and will open a new store about 100 feet away. When it opens in late October, that store technically will be a Missouri business and customers won?t have to pay the higher Kansas taxes on cigarettes and gas. They also will be able to buy liquor with stronger alcohol content than 3.2 beer.

?It?s pure economics. We want that store to survive,? said Michael Thornbrugh, spokesman for QuikTrip. ?Quite frankly it was a mediocre store. This gives our customers more options. Gasoline is six cents higher in Kansas, and tobacco is about 50 cents more per pack or $5 a carton.?

On Fri, 6 Aug 2021 17:23:05 -0700 (PDT), Dean Hoffman posted for all of us to digest...

I don't believe journalists exist anymore. If they don't comply with a vocal segment then they are called names and ostracized. No tolerance for opposing views - just like here.

On Sat, 7 Aug 2021 08:56:53 -0400, Ed Pawlowski posted for all of us to digest...

Does New Hampshire (IIRC) still have the border booze stores in the median of the highways? I was highly amused when I saw them. Remember PA has the "Liquor Control Board" and man do they...

On Sat, 7 Aug 2021 10:35:11 -0600, rbowman posted for all of us to digest...

I hadn't read this far when I made my previous post. ;-)

On Fri, 6 Aug 2021 20:46:06 -0400, Ralph Mowery posted for all of us to digest...

Then they would get you on emission rules. We can't even burn leaves. I live in a county that surrounds Philly so my car has to have an emissions inspection... Most counties don't have this requirement. Funny though, we still have the smoke from the wildfires here...