I just got off the phone with my Montana State Transportation Dept. Why was I calling them? Well, in my state, citizens that use gas for "off road" use are entitled to a refund from the state tax we paid on that gas. My state is primarily an agricultural state so there is a large majority of farms and ranches that use gas for their farm equipment, which never see pavement, among other things that use gas. But the refund is for anyone that uses gas not intended for vehicles that drive on the roads and highways of Montana. (boats, ATV's, snowmobiles and jet skiis are exempt, I know how stupid is that, they never see pavement either)
I apply for the refund every year because I use gas to run our generator for our electrical use. And since I am not a business or a farm/ranch I never had to submit my gas receipts unless something did not jive and they asked me for them. Until now.
I was told today by the helpful man who handles these refunds that I must submit every gas receipt for the year that I was requesting a refund. Each receipt must have my name and address on it. When I asked him why I had to do that this year and not all the other years I had been requesting a refund, he told me that the federal government ie; the IRS had come to the State of Montana and told the State they were changing the rules surrounding the State gas refund.
The first thing I said to this helpful man was that we need to take our State back from the federal government. He said "I agree one hundred percent". This from a state employee!! He told me that the IRS was also requiring businesses, farms and ranches fill out IRS forms so that the federal government can tax the gas refund. Yeppers folks, the federal government wants to tax a State refund. It's a wonderful life huh?
Anyway, I was also told by this helpful man that his boss was so afraid they would loose their job that they told the IRS agent that they would do anything to accommodate the federal government. So what was the response from the IRS agent to this submission? We'll be back in four months. (Don't want to loose those federal highway funds, nope nope nope)
How many other sneaky policies are being instituted across this great Republic against the States? How many State bureaucrats are folding like cheap lawn chairs to the will of the federal government?
I keep all of my receipts so this is just going to be an inconvenience for me. But it should be an inconvenience brandished upon me because of my States' decision, not some pencil pushing federal dope located somewhere in Washington DC. We better wake up people, things are getting dicey.
By Susan Frances Bonner
