Applying Agreed-Upon Procedures: Fiscal Year 2008 Highway Trust Fund Excise Taxes

We have performed the procedures described in the enclosure to this letter, which we agreed to perform and with which the Department of Transportation concurred, solely to assist the office in ascertaining whether the net excise tax revenue distributed to the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2008, is supported by the underlying records. As agreed with the office, we evaluated fiscal year 2008 activity affecting distributions to the HTF. We conducted the engagement in accordance with U.S. generally accepted government auditing standards, which incorporate financial audit and attestation standards established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. The procedures we agreed to perform were related to (1) transactions that represent the underlying basis of amounts distributed to the HTF during fiscal year 2008, (2) the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) quarterly HTF receipt certifications during fiscal year 2008, (3) the Department of the Treasury's Financial Management Service adjustments to the HTF during fiscal year 2008, (4) the Department of the Treasury's Office of Tax Analysis's (OTA) process for estimating excise tax amounts to be distributed to the HTF for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2008, (5) adjustments to the HTF for tax on kerosene used in aviation during fiscal year 2008, and (6) the amount of net excise taxes distributed to the HTF during fiscal year 2008. The enclosure provides more detail on the agreed-upon procedures and our results. We were not engaged to perform, and did not perform, an examination, the objective of which would have been to express an opinion on the amount of net excise taxes distributed to the HTF during fiscal year 2008. Accordingly, we do not express such an opinion. Had we performed additional procedures, other matters might have come to our attention that we would have reported to the Department of Transportation. We completed the agreed-upon procedures on October 27, 2008.