The one thing President Trump’s diesel order does not say is when the deferred tax has to be paid. Executive Order 14435, signed October 5, 2026, directs the Treasury Department to postpone payment of federal diesel excise taxes incurred from October 5 through December 31, 2026. It does not cancel them. The order’s text leaves the due date to Treasury’s implementing guidance.

What the order tells Treasury to do

Section 2(a) gives the Treasury Secretary five days to decide whether relief is authorized under 26 U.S.C. 7508A, the tax-code provision that lets the government postpone deadlines after a qualifying event. If it is, the Secretary must defer payment of taxes under 26 U.S.C. 4041(a)(1)(A) or 4041(b)(1)(B) that are incurred in the October 5 to December 31 window, “to the extent authorized by law.” The deferral is to come without penalties, interest or additional amounts.

The order was filed with the Federal Register on October 8 and published October 9. Its stated reason is “restricted global diesel supply” that has pushed prices up for farmers and truckers.

The question for a trucking owner-operator or a farm that buys diesel is straightforward: when does the postponed bill come due? Section 3 says the guidance Treasury issues must state “the date by which postponed taxes must be paid.” No such date has been set.

The U.S. diesel average, $6.179 a gallon in the Energy Information Administration’s October 12 survey, is updated every week.

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Deferred is not forgiven

December 31 is the end of the window in which taxes are incurred. It is not a repayment date, a point Tank Transport made in its October 9 review of the order. A fuel bill incurred in November is still owed, just later.

Section 4 points toward a bigger change but does not make it. It tells the Treasury Secretary to “explore avenues, including legislation, to eliminate the obligation to pay the amounts deferred.” Exploring is the verb. Eliminating the tax would take action beyond the order, and Congress writes tax law. Until that happens, a household or a business that defers should treat the amount as a debt to the federal government.

The order also says it creates no enforceable rights and that implementation is subject to applicable law and appropriations.

Dyed diesel on the highway

A second part of the order deals with red-dyed diesel, the untaxed off-road fuel used on farms and construction sites. The White House fact sheet says the dye exists so law enforcement can identify off-road fuel used on highways, and the order directs the IRS to announce it will not impose the penalties under 26 U.S.C. 6715 for dyed diesel used on the highway from October 5 through December 31. It also asks for relief from penalties for missing semimonthly tax deposits.

The fact sheet says the changes save truckers “over $100 per refill.” That is the administration’s figure, and the fact sheet does not show the math. It also says the administration has delivered over $40 billion in direct aid to farmers since January 2025.

Fuel sellers carry their own risk. Tank Transport notes that under IRS Publication 510, a seller who knows or has reason to know how fuel will be used can be liable for backup tax of 24.4 cents a gallon. It also reports that the Energy Marketers of America told members on October 6 to wait for federal and state guidance, and that the Texas Comptroller is still working out how to collect its own 20-cent state diesel tax. As of Tank Transport’s October 9 review, no Treasury determination or IRS penalty announcement had surfaced, and the IRS’s October news releases through October 14 do not include one.

Where diesel prices stand

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly survey for October 12 put the national on-highway diesel average at $6.179 a gallon, down 2.0 cents from the week before and $2.514 higher than a year earlier. Regular gasoline averaged $4.331, down 2.3 cents on the week and $1.270 higher than a year ago. A deferral changes when a tax is paid. The price at the pump in that survey is what drivers and fleets have paid so far.

Setting aside deferred diesel tax until the IRS names a date

The earliest sign of a due date will come from Treasury and the IRS, and the IRS newsroom is where its announcements appear. The order itself is public on the White House site and in the Federal Register, so a business can read the section numbers its accountant will be looking at.

For a small trucking operation or a farm, the practical step is to track the gallons bought in the October 5 to December 31 window and the tax on them separately from the rest of the fuel account. Put that amount in its own savings bucket. When the due date arrives, the money is there and the fuel receipts are in one place.

A fleet that buys at a truck stop, from a bulk supplier or from a co-op should ask the seller how it plans to handle the tax during the window. State taxes are separate. Tank Transport reports that South Dakota’s Department of Revenue issued guidance on October 8 and that Nebraska’s Department of Revenue has addressed fuel delivered to farms, so a state’s rules can differ from the federal order.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.