Michigan legislators obliged its trucking constituents' request to simplify the fuel tax collection system before adjourning this week.

The Owner-Operator Independent Driver Association and its Michigan members asked Michigan lawmakers to pass the trio of bills (HB5734, 5735 and 5736) that will simplify and reduce taxes on diesel fuel. The new system will collect the entire tax on diesel at the pump and reduce the fuel tax from 21 cents to 15 cents.

For years, truckers have paid a fuel tax and a sales tax at the pump, then filed a quarterly tax return to pay additional fuel taxes, then filed yet another quarterly tax return to apply for a sales tax rebate. Michigan's three-step system was known as the most complicated fuel tax collection system in the nation.

"The state, the taxpayer and everyone else is a winner with tax simplification," OOIDA Executive Vice President Todd Spencer said. "Likewise, having all taxes assessed reflected in the pump price of fuel is the simplest, the most honest and most efficient way to assess and collect these fees."

--By Rene Tankersley, feature editor