USPS Gets Nothing From Senate Tax Bill – Could it be because an organization that already has a legal business monopoly, can raise its prices in the face of declining quality of service, and can already count on taxpayer dollars to bail out its ineptitude, doesn’t really deserve any more breaks?

Q:

Dear Tax Guru: Could you please advise whether you are aware of whether the clean fuel deduction for hybrid vehicles is or will be available in 2005 for the Ford Escape hybrid? I know that the Toyota and Honda hybrids are eligible. Thank you in advance for your time.

A:

As you probably know from the IRS website, they have only officially endorsed the Honda and Toyota models for this special deduction. I’m not aware of which other vehicle models IRS is working on for future eligibility. If anyone would be extremely interested in having the Ford Escape qualify, it would be Ford. I checked their website and can’t find any mention of their working toward this goal. I would think that this would be a big selling point for them; so if they aren’t discussing it as a possibility, they are probably not pursuing it.

After my earlier message to you, I did a search on www.AutoBlog.com and found several articles about the Ford Escape; but none of them mentioned it qualifying for the special tax deduction.

That’s all I can see on this issue.

Good luck.

Kerry Kerstetter

IRS probes NAACP leader’s speech – Don’t expect anything to happen here.  Leftist charities are allowed to get involved in politics without any repercussions all the time. If it had been a conservative organization doing this, it would obviously be a very different story.