Alabama tax officials and the state’s trucking industry are duking it out over what the state calls improper truck registrations in Oklahoma.

The situation is the latest twist resulting from Oklahoma changing its rules to prohibit trucking companies from using third-party registration agents to establish residency in the state. (The law does not apply to owner-operators.) In addition, Oklahoma officials are investigation allegations that money that was supposed to go to the state of Oklahoma for truck tag fees apparently ended up instead in the pockets of registration agents and state employees, with five indictments handed down so far. This could mean Alabama and other states were also bilked through the International Registration Plan.
According to the Associated Press, the Alabama Department of Revenue has been ticketing Alabama-based trucks, accusing them of having improper Oklahoma registrations. Two sets of such tickets have gone to court, with mixed results.
Mobile District Judge Michael E. McMaken convicted eight drivers July 26 and ordered them to pay $331 in fines and court costs. But just three days later, Montgomery County District Judge Lucie McLemore acquitted all the truckers stopped in her county, the AP reports.
The Alabama Department of Revenue wants Alabama-based trucking companies to drop their Oklahoma registrations immediately and buy Alabama registrations. The department says it will forgive past property taxes for those that do. But the Alabama Trucking Assn. says truckers should be allowed to wait until the Oklahoma registrations expire.
“Trucking companies have routinely and shamelessly filed bogus registrations with the Oklahoma Tax Commission officials claiming Oklahoma as a base jurisdiction,” said court papers filed by the Alabama Department of Revenue. Tax officials say they’ve been losing nearly $9 million a year thanks to declining truck registrations.
Benny Whitehead Sr., owner of Benny Whitehead trucking company in Eufaula, Ala., was one of those who won his court fight. “Our tax laws in Alabama make it where you can’t be competitive,” he told the AP. He says he won his fight because he has an office and phone in Oklahoma, and he’s still registering trucks in the state. He estimates that he will save $2,800 in taxes on each of the 45 new tractors he just bought.

Related stories from the Truckinginfo.com archives:
”New ‘Place of Business’ Rules for Oklahoma-Based Truckers,” 2/6/2002
”Arkansas Truckers Must Pay Back Tax,” 7/23/2002