Heavy Equipment Owners Excise Tax

Issued under authority of Public Act 35 of 2022

• Beginning January 1, 2023, this tax is levied on each transaction of a qualified renter for renting eligible personal property.
• Qualified renter is imposed a 2% tax of the rental price directly on the customer that rents qualified heavy equipment.
• Qualified renter collects the tax as part of the rental payment made by the customer and remits return and payment to the Michigan Department of Treasury.
• Returns are due quarterly as follows: April 30th, July 31st, October 31st, and January 31st.
• Amounts reported must be reported separately for each qualified renter business location.
• Form 5815 can be remitted via email to: Treas-HeavyEquip-Customer-Support@michigan.gov
• If sending a payment separately, Payment Voucher Form 5851, must be filled out completely and returned to:

Michigan Department of Treasury
P.O. Box 30830
Lansing, MI 48909

To claim the exemption, eligible taxpayers would need to first file Form 5819 with the assessor of the local unit in which the qualified renter business location is set up.

• This is the location where the rental equipment is stored when it is not rented out.
• The form must have been postmarked before February 21, 2023, to be considered timely.
• If a taxpayer missed that date, they could file directly with the March Board of Review of the township/city. They should contact the assessor to determine the best way of doing that.
• Part of Form 5819 is “page 3,” which is the spreadsheet. This should be filed electronically as a spreadsheet.

Form 5819 and Instructions are available at Business Taxpayer Forms

If a qualified renter does not submit a completed statement and full payment of the tax levied under section 5 by the applicable deadline in subsection (3), the department shall issue a notice to the qualified renter within 30 days after that deadline. The notice must include a statement explaining the consequences of nonpayment as described in subsection (5) and instructing the qualified renter of its potential responsibility under subsection (5)(b). A qualified renter shall submit payment in full within 90 days after the issuance of the notice with a penalty of 3% per month calculated from the applicable deadline in subsection (3) on the unpaid balance for each month payment is not made in full. The calculation of penalty is not prorated based on the date payment is received (e.g. for the April 30 quarterly deadline – any payment received any day in May would have 3% penalty, June has 6% penalty, etc.).

For the qualified renter’s first assessment year, the penalty must be waived if the qualified renter submits a completed statement along with full payment of the tax levied under section 5 within 30 days after the issuance of the department’s notice.