When a new vehicle is put into service, the Form 2290 must be filed by the last day of the following month. If a vehicle was used during any part of a month, the tax will be calculated for that month as a whole. For example, if a vehicle was used on February 15th, it will be taxed as though it was used the entire month. If you first placed your vehicle on the road anytime in February, you can file your Form 2290 anytime between now and March 31^st, 2016.

The tax will be prorated based on the number of months the vehicle will be used during the tax period. So vehicles that were placed in service during the month of February 2016 has to have a HVUT filed for it using the Form 2290 by March 31, and the tax will be based on 05 months, instead of the full year. For vehicles first used in March, the tax will be based on 4 months and so on. Continue reading →