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Massachusetts General Laws - Taxation of Sales of Gasoline - Chapter 64a, Section 1

Legal Research Home > Massachusetts Lawyer > Taxation of Sales of Gasoline > Massachusetts General Laws - Taxation of Sales of Gasoline - Chapter 64a, Section 1

Definitions.

Section 1. The following words and phrases, as used in this chapter, shall have the following meanings unless the context otherwise requires:—

(a) “Commissioner”, the commissioner of revenue.

(b) “Motor vehicle” shall include any vehicle propelled by any power other than muscular, except boats, tractors used exclusively for agricultural purposes and such vehicles as run only on rails or tracks.

(c) “Distributor” shall include: (1) any person qualified to do business in the commonwealth who produces, refines, manufactures or compounds fuel, as herein defined, or any person who operates a port or pipe line terminal within the commonwealth for the receipt of fuel, as herein defined; and (2) any person who elects to qualify as a distributor by importing into the commonwealth or by receiving within the commonwealth fuel, as herein defined, by pipe line, vessel, tank car, or tank truck lots, for resale in pipe line, vessel, tank car or tank truck lots; provided, that no person under classification (2) shall qualify as a distributor unless his facilities regularly used for the receipt and storage of fuel, as herein defined, are such that not less than twenty-five thousand gallons may be stored in the aggregate, at one location within the commonwealth; and further provided, that at least seventy-five per cent of the fuel imported or received by him is sold to others for resale exclusive of sales to government instrumentalities.

(d) “Fuel” shall mean all products commonly or commercially known or sold as gasoline (including casing-head and absorption or natural gasoline) regardless of their classification or uses; and any liquid prepared, advertised, offered for sale, or sold for use as or commonly and commercially used as a fuel in internal combustion engines, which when subjected to distillation in accordance with the standard method of test for distillation of gasoline, naphtha, kerosene and similar petroleum products (American Society for Testing Materials Designation D—86) show not less than ten per cent distilled (recovered) below 347° Fahrenheit (175° Centigrade) and not less than ninety-five per cent distilled (recovered) below 464° Fahrenheit (240° Centigrade); provided, that the term “fuel” shall not include industrial solvents or naphthas which distill, by American Society for Testing Materials Method D—86, not more than nine per cent at 176° Fahrenheit, and which have a distillation range of 150° Fahrenheit, or less, or liquefied gases which would not exist as liquids at a temperature of 60° Fahrenheit and a pressure of 14.7 pounds per square inch absolute. For the purposes of this chapter, “fuel” shall include products sold or used as fuel for aircraft, except aircraft fuel as defined in section one of chapter sixty-four J.

(e) “Purchaser” shall include, in addition to its usual meaning, a distributor and unclassified importer in the case of a transfer of fuel by a distributor or an unclassified importer into a motor vehicle, or into a receptacle from which fuel is supplied by him to his own or other motor vehicles.

(f) “Sale” shall include, in addition to its usual meaning, the transfer of fuel by a distributor or an unclassified importer into a motor vehicle or into a receptacle from which fuel is supplied by him to his own or other motor vehicles.

(g) “Appellate tax board”, the board established by section one of chapter fifty-eight A.

(h) The verb “to sell” in all of its moods and tenses shall refer to a sale as herein defined.

(i) “Unclassified importer”, any person who imports or causes to be imported fuel, as herein defined, for use, distribution or sale in the commonwealth, but who does not qualify as a distributor under paragraph (c).

(j) “Unclassified exporter”, any person licensed as a distributor in another state who exports or causes to be exported fuel, as herein defined, for use, distribution or sale outside the commonwealth, but who does not qualify as a distributor under paragraph (c).

(k) “Average price”, the weighted average selling price per gallon of fuel exclusive of federal and state motor fuel taxes imposed thereon sold by licensees, as determined by the commissioner on a consistent basis from information furnished by distributors, unclassified exporters and unclassified importers with their monthly returns and from other statistical data reflecting the average level of such prices at the time such determination is made.

(l) “Tax per gallon”, shall be 21 cents per gallon. For aviation fuel, “tax per gallon” shall mean seven and one-half percent of the average price, as determined by the commissioner for each calendar quarter, computed to the nearest tenth of a cent per gallon; provided, however, that such tax shall not be less than ten cents per gallon.

Last modified: March 26, 2006