Posted:
August 22, 2008
Congress and maritime labor strongly support S. 3199, legislation introduced by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), which would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to exempt "certain shipping” between domestic U.S. ports from the Harbor Maintenance Tax (HMT).
Lautenberg’s legislation, if passed, would guarantee that no tax should be imposed on commercial cargo (other than bulk cargo) that is loaded or unloaded at a port in the United States mainland or at a port in Canada, located in the Great Lakes Saint Lawrence Seaway System.
Multiple taxation on cargoes as they are delivered to U.S. ports and transshipped over water to other U.S. ports remains an obstacle to the development of the marine highway system in U.S. coastal trades and expansion of American short sea shipping operations.
The existing law states that all cargoes transported to a U.S. seaport are subject to the HMT, a duty equal to 0.125 percent of a cargo’s declared value. If the same cargo were to be transferred to another vessel for coastwise shipment to another American port, it would be taxed again.
“This application of the HMT, which results in the dual or multiple taxation of waterborne cargo, does not apply to cargo moving domestically by truck or rail” and “discourages the transportation of domestic cargo by water and impedes the development of a U.S. short sea shipping and marine highway system and should be eliminated,” said U.S. seagoing unions, including American Maritime Officers, in a recent letter to the chairman and to the ranking Republican of the Senate Finance Committee.
Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) introduced similar legislation in the House of Representatives. His bill, H.R. 1499, “would exempt from the HMT the movement of intermodal cargo by vessel between ports on the coasts of the United States, and would also exempt such movements between ports on the Great Lakes,” the unions noted.
“The Energy Independence and Security Act passed by Congress in 2007 was the first time short sea shipping had been acknowledged in law,” Maritime Administrator Sean Connaughton told Traffic World magazine.
Connaughton called for more collaboration between the government and the private sector to find ways to expand the surface transportation system, the Journal of Commerce reported.
“As we seek solutions to congestion, we should now view the marine highway as an extension of the surface transportation system,” Connaughton said.
Congress and maritime labor support tax reform to promote short sea shipping
Congress and maritime labor strongly support S. 3199, legislation introduced by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), which would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to exempt "certain shipping” between domestic U.S. ports from the Harbor Maintenance Tax (HMT).
Lautenberg’s legislation, if passed, would guarantee that no tax should be imposed on commercial cargo (other than bulk cargo) that is loaded or unloaded at a port in the United States mainland or at a port in Canada, located in the Great Lakes Saint Lawrence Seaway System.
Multiple taxation on cargoes as they are delivered to U.S. ports and transshipped over water to other U.S. ports remains an obstacle to the development of the marine highway system in U.S. coastal trades and expansion of American short sea shipping operations.
The existing law states that all cargoes transported to a U.S. seaport are subject to the HMT, a duty equal to 0.125 percent of a cargo’s declared value. If the same cargo were to be transferred to another vessel for coastwise shipment to another American port, it would be taxed again.
“This application of the HMT, which results in the dual or multiple taxation of waterborne cargo, does not apply to cargo moving domestically by truck or rail” and “discourages the transportation of domestic cargo by water and impedes the development of a U.S. short sea shipping and marine highway system and should be eliminated,” said U.S. seagoing unions, including American Maritime Officers, in a recent letter to the chairman and to the ranking Republican of the Senate Finance Committee.
Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) introduced similar legislation in the House of Representatives. His bill, H.R. 1499, “would exempt from the HMT the movement of intermodal cargo by vessel between ports on the coasts of the United States, and would also exempt such movements between ports on the Great Lakes,” the unions noted.
“The Energy Independence and Security Act passed by Congress in 2007 was the first time short sea shipping had been acknowledged in law,” Maritime Administrator Sean Connaughton told Traffic World magazine.
Connaughton called for more collaboration between the government and the private sector to find ways to expand the surface transportation system, the Journal of Commerce reported.
“As we seek solutions to congestion, we should now view the marine highway as an extension of the surface transportation system,” Connaughton said.