Rev. Rul. 58-424

Advice has been requested whether the manufacturers excise tax applies to the sale by the manufacturer of a diesel type dump truck chassis for use exclusively in an underground mine or whether a subsequent refund of the tax may be allowed because the chassis is never used on the highway.

A manufacturer sells a diesel type dump truck chassis to a purchaser who places a body thereon and uses the vehicle exclusively in an underground mine. The chassis is 96 inches in overall width and it is equiped with the necessary lights, brakes, bumper, horn, etc., for operation over the highway.

Section 4061(a)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 imposes a tax upon the sale by the manufacturer, producer, or importer of automobile truck chassis and bodies, automobile bus chassis and bodies, truck and bus trailer and semitrailer chassis and bodies, and tractors of the kind chiefly used for highway transportation in combination with a trailer or semitrailer.

In considering the applicability of the manufacturers excise tax to the sale of a truck chassis, the determining factor is whether such chassis is or is not primarily designed and adapted for highway use, and not the actual use to which the chassis is put. In the instant case, it is held that the above-described truck chassis is primarily designed and adapted for the transportation of property over the highway. See Rev. Rul. 57-440, C.B. 1957-2, 721. Accordingly, the sale of the chassis by the manufacturer thereof is subject to the manufacturers excise tax imposed by section 4061(a)(1) of the Code even though the truck will never be operated over the highway but will be used exclusively in an underground mine. There is no provision in the statute under which a subsequent refund of the tax may be allowed for the reason that the chassis is never used on the highway.