The Motor Fuel Tax Evasion Issue in Kentucky

Tax evasion is an elusive and burgeoning problem. Methods of tax evasion are continually changing and adapting to new methods of tax enforcement. However, there are strategies that can reduce the potential loss due to fuel tax evasion. This study of fuel tax evasion in Kentucky and the southeastern states provides additional information regarding the causes and nature of the road fund tax evasion problem, and identifies state and federal/state efforts to mitigate the tax evasion challenge. The concepts, issues, and recommendations in this report can aid in reducing evasion of the Kentucky motor fuels tax., thereby, enhancing the efficiency and equity in the administration of the motor fuels tax and increase the resources collected in the Kentucky Road Fund

Legislation Review and Recommendations to Reduce Evasion of Kentucky Road Fund Revenues

Kentucky, like other states, is facing fiscal challenges in providing expanding public services demanded by citizens. One danger of constrained fiscal resources and shortsighted political horizons is the tendency to neglect the investment and maintenance of long-term infrastructures like highways. The Kentucky road fund protects against these dangers by providing earmarked resources for the state\u27s roadways, insuring that basic infrastructure needs are met. However, evasion of road fund revenues decreases the funds available to meet the needs of Kentucky\u27s transportation infrastructure. For these reasons, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is interested in developing policy recommendations intended to mitigate evasion of road fund revenues. This report compliments the final report The Motor Fuel Tax Evasion Issue in Kentucky, 1996 (KYSPR 93-153) which identifies potential concerns in the nature and causes of road fund tax evasion. This current study constitutes an informal report that is complimentary to research report KTC-96-16. Moreover, it provides additional detail regarding the legislative action that addresses fuel tax evasion in the southern region. This report also develops estimates of the revenues lost through evasion in vehicle registration and licensing in the Commonwealth. The Federal Highway Trust and the Kentucky road fund were established to provide earmarked resources for maintaining and building federal and state roadways. Two major sources of the revenues for the Kentucky road fund are the motor fuels tax and vehicle licensing and registration fees/taxes. Evasion of these revenues diminishes the resources available to maintaining and building state roadways. There are three studies that have estimated the fuel tax revenue lost through evasion. The U.S. Department of Transportation estimated that evasion of the gasoline tax is between three and seven percent of the gallons consumed nationally, while diesel fuel tax evasion is 15 to 25 percent of gallons consumed nationally. Evidence of fuel tax evasion is provided in the Council of State Governments (CSG) study that estimated nearly 1.2 billion dollars of aggregate state fuel tax revenue was evaded in fiscal year 1993. Estimates of the fuel tax evasion occurring in Kentucky are provided in the KTC final report The Motor Fuel Tax Evasion Issue in Kentucky (1996). This study estimates that up to 20 million dollars of Kentucky fuel tax revenue was potentially evaded in fiscal year 1993. Estimates of revenue lost through evasion of vehicle registration and licensing are less common. The CSG report estimated that between 421 to 654 million dollars of aggregate state revenue from licensing and registration were evaded in fiscal year 1993. Similar analysis is applied to obtain the evasion losses of Kentucky vehicle registration and the associated ad valorem taxes as reported in Appendix B. The estimation predicts that over 239 thousand vehicles were unregistered in Kentucky in 1994, resulting in a road fund revenue loss that approach 50 million dollars

For the People: Popular Financial Reporting Practices of Local Governments

Popular financial reports are reports distributed to citizens and other interested parties who lack a background in formal government financial reporting but who desire an overview of the government’s financial status and activities. This paper examines the current state of local government popular financial reporting in the U.S. The results of a survey of large cities and counties indicate that 75 percent of these local governments have issued popular financial reports and that the types of reports and methods of distribution vary. Many of the reasons for providing popular reports relate to providing information and improving transparency and accountability by providing more user friendly financial reports. This paper concludes with a discussion on popular financial reporting in the context of government transparency and accountability, and offers a research agenda for continued study of the topic

RNA-Seq analysis uncovers transcriptomic variations between morphologically similar in vivo- and in vitro-derived bovine blastocysts

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A valuable tool for both research and industry, in vitro fertilization (IVF) has applications range from gamete selection and preservation of traits to cloning. Although IVF has achieved worldwide use, with approximately 339,685 bovine embryos transferred in 2010 alone, there are still continuing difficulties with efficiency. It is rare to have more than 40% of fertilized in vitro cattle oocytes reach blastocyst stage by day 8 of culture, and pregnancy rates are reported as less than 45% for in vitro produced embryos. To investigate potential influences in-vitro fertilization (IVF) has on embryonic development, this study compares in vivo- and in vitro-derived bovine blastocysts at a similar stage and quality grade (expanded, excellent quality) to determine the degree of transcriptomic variation beyond morphology using RNA-Seq.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 26,906,451 and 38,184,547 fragments were sequenced for in vitro and in vivo embryo pools, respectively. We detected expression for a total of 17,634 genes, with 793 genes showing differential expression between the two embryo populations with false discovery rate (FDR) < 0.05. There were also 395 novel transcribed units found, of which 45 were differentially expressed (FDR < 0.05). In addition, 4,800 genes showed evidence of alternative splicing, with 873 genes displaying differential alternative splicing between the two pools (FDR < 0.05). Using GO enrichment analysis, multiple biological pathways were found to be significantly enriched for differentially expressed genes (FDR < 0.01), including cholesterol and sterol synthesis, system development, and cell differentiation.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Thus, our results support that IVF may influence at the transcriptomic level and that morphology is limited in full characterization of bovine preimplantation embryos.</p

Aflatoxins: contamination, analysis and control.

Projeto: 11.11.11.111