Rev. Rul. 66-315

Advice has been requested concerning the applicability of the manufacturers excise tax on motor vehicle articles imposed by section 4061(a)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, to a manufacturer's sales of certain bulk feed bodies.

A company manufactures and sells a complete line of self-unloading bodies and trailers used primarily for hauling animal and poultry feed to farms and unloading such products into bins or troughs. These bodies are of the compartmented aluminum tank type, ranging in capacity from 9 to 24 1/2 tons. Knife-action gates permit the metering or cutoff of the feed flow in each compartment. Each compartment can be utilized for a different type of feed, enabling several deliveries to be made on a single trip from the mill.

The specific question presented is whether the exemption from manufacturers excise tax provided by section 4063(a)(2)(B) of the Code applies to the described automotive bodies .

Section 4061(a)(1) of the Code imposes a tax upon the sale by the manufacturer, producer, or importer of certain enumerated motor vehicle articles, including chassis and bodies for automobile trucks, truck trailers and semitrailers. The section further provides that a sale of an automobile truck, trailer, or semitrailer shall be considered to be a sale of a chassis and of a body.

Section 4063(a)(2)(B) of the Code, as added by the Excise Tax Reduction Act of 1965, Public Law 89-44, C.B. 1965-2, 568, at 588, provides that the tax imposed under section 4061 of the Code shall not apply in the case of any body, part or accessory, primarily designed to haul feed, seed, or fertilizer to and on farms. As indicated in Senate Report 324, 89th Congress, C.B. 1965-2, 676, at 711, the exemption provided by section 4063(a)(2)(B) of the Code applies only to equipment designed primarily for use on farms or to provide a farming activity which, nevertheless, incidentally may use the highway.

In order for an automotive body to be exempt as primarily designed to haul feed, seed, or fertilizer to and on farms, the body must possess physical design features which indicate special adaptation for hauling feed, seed, or fertilizer on as well as to farms.

The bodies in the instant case contain no special design adaptation for hauling on farms. Although they incorporate equipment for unloading on farms, the bodies are primarily designed for transporting animal and poultry feed products on the highways. They are therefore truck, trailer or semitrailer bodies within the meaning of section 4061(a)(1) of the Code, rather than bodies of the type contemplated by section 4063(a)(2)(B).

Accordingly, it is held that the described bodies are subject to the manufacturers excise tax imposed by section 4061(a)(1) of the Code, when sold by the manufacturer.