By: Derek Hawkins//October 25, 2021//
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Case Name: Schneider National Leasing, Inc., v. United States of America
Case No.: 20-3354
Officials: SYKES, Chief Judge, and SCUDDER and KIRSCH, Circuit Judges.
Focus: Statutory Interpretation – Safe Harbor
This appeal presents two questions of first impression concerning a federal excise tax on heavy trucks and the scope of a statutory safe harbor. The answer affects whether Schneider National Leasing, a large trucking company, can take advantage of the safe harbor for repairs and modifications, codified in 26 U.S.C. § 4052(f)(1), to avoid paying a 12% excise tax on 976 tractors it overhauled from 2011 to 2013. The district court held a bench trial, determined that the degree of refurbishing in question constituted the manufacture of new trucks rather than repairs or modifications, and therefore concluded the safe harbor did not apply. We see the application of the statutory language differently and reverse.
Reversed and remanded