President Trump signed an executive order Oct. 5 that gives the Treasury Secretary five days to decide whether the government can let businesses put off federal diesel excise taxes for the rest of 2026. As of Oct. 8, neither the IRS nor Treasury has announced that decision. The five days in the order run out Oct. 10.

The order, titled Emergency Tax Relief on Diesel Fuel, says restricted global diesel supply has driven prices up and hit key industries hard. It tells the Treasury Secretary to defer certain diesel tax payments and to provide penalty relief “to the extent permitted by law.”

What the order says Treasury must decide

Under Section 2(a), the Secretary first has to decide whether relief is authorized under 26 U.S.C. 7508A, the Internal Revenue Code provision that lets the government postpone tax deadlines and payments, and whether a qualifying event occurred. Only if those determinations are made does the deferral apply. It then covers taxes under 26 U.S.C. 4041 incurred from Oct. 5 through Dec. 31, 2026, to the extent the law allows.

Taxpayers who qualify would defer the amounts “without any penalties, interest, additional amount, or addition to the tax,” again subject to what the law allows. The order sets no repayment date. Section 3 requires Treasury guidance that states “the date by which postponed taxes must be paid,” along with the conditions, legal basis and covered parties.

A deferral is a delay, not a cancellation. Section 4 tells the Secretary to “explore avenues, including legislation, to eliminate the obligation to pay the amounts deferred.” That is an instruction to look, and no law or rule cancels any tax.

Three separate clocks run through the order. The decision on 7508A relief and the dyed diesel penalty announcement each have a five-day limit from Oct. 5, while the guidance in Section 3 carries no deadline at all. Treasury Secretary Bessent leads the department the order puts in charge of all three; the order itself refers to the office only by title.

The five days in the order end Oct. 10, and the order sets no date for repaying any deferred diesel tax.

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Where things stand on Oct. 8

The IRS newsroom’s latest release is IR-2026-120, dated Oct. 7, about a partnership with the United Kingdom’s whistleblower program, and nothing posted there covers diesel. Treasury’s press release list runs through an Oct. 7 enforcement penalty announcement and likewise carries no diesel item. Until Treasury or the IRS publishes guidance, the order is a directive, and no guidance yet sets a payment date or names the taxpayers covered.

The question for fleets, farms and other diesel buyers is the one the order leaves open: whether to hold back payments that would otherwise come due before guidance confirms the deferral, or to keep paying on schedule while Treasury decides.

Dyed diesel and the penalty clause

A separate clause, Section 2(c), also runs on a five-day clock. Within five days of the order, the Secretary is to direct the IRS to announce that it will not impose penalties under 26 U.S.C. 6715(a)(1) or (a)(2) on dyed diesel sold or used on the highway from Oct. 5 through Dec. 31. Dyed diesel is the untaxed off-road fuel used on farms and construction sites, and highway use of it normally brings a penalty. The announcement is also to address relief from penalties for missed semimonthly tax deposits.

The IRS newsroom shows no such announcement yet.

The White House’s savings claim

The White House fact sheet says the action will save truckers “over $100 per refill.” That is the administration’s estimate, and the fact sheet does not show how it was calculated. The sheet describes the deferral as covering the federal excise tax on on-road use of dyed diesel and names farmers, truckers and workers as the people it is meant to help. It also says the president negotiated the release of 100 million barrels of refined diesel from Europe’s strategic reserves within four months.

Waiting for Treasury’s guidance

The two places that will carry the decision first are the IRS newsroom and Treasury’s press releases. Section 3 of the order calls for guidance that sets out who is covered and when deferred tax comes due, so any notice should answer both before a business changes how it pays.

A business that buys diesel in volume can prepare by pulling its fuel tax records for Oct. 5 onward and separating what it owes by type of tax, since the order names specific code sections and the guidance may be written around them. A tax preparer or the accountant who handles its fuel tax filings is the person to ask what a deferral would change in the semimonthly deposit schedule.

Deferred is not forgiven. Whatever the guidance says, the order’s own text treats the amounts as owed later, with forgiveness limited to an instruction to explore options, including legislation.

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