State spending is running wild, and the Governor is resorting to 3-card monte games to describe his "spending cuts." But that's hardly enough to feed the monster.
So the Democrat-led Legislature will extract more money from State residents. But it will be called 'taxing businesses,' not 'taxing citizens.'
Jauch (D-Poplar) has the most radical idea: Draft a bill that continues food and health-related exemptions, but apply the 5% tax to everything else.
"Put everything but food and medicine on the table, because everybody has to share the pain" of solving the deficit, Jauch said.
...Sen. John Lehman (D-Racine), who sits on the Joint Finance Committee, said he would be willing to explore eliminating some sales tax exemptions. Charging sales taxes on some services that are now exempt would make the system more fair, he said.
Current targets: legal fees, accounting fees, and barber/beauty fees. Likely additions: health clubs, bull-semen sales, and janitorial services.
Likely outcome: barber/beauty fees will remain exempt. Business services will become taxable (legal, accounting, IT consulting.)
This isn't hard to figure out, folks. It's an article of faith that all businesses are "evil." Imposing burdens on 'evil' is good!
Got that?
We thought so.
Well, I guess I won't be buying bull semen any time soon.
ReplyDeleteThis economy just about has my wifes' service business out of business. A 5% sales tax would do the trick.
ReplyDelete"Put everything but food and medicine on the table, because everybody has to share the pain" of solving the deficit, Jauch said.
ReplyDeleteCan we impeach that dumbarse? Seriously, why the *&&^ do I have to help "solve the deficit"? I ELECT people to do that business.
What an imbecile.
Are those idiot liberal, left-wing illuminatis going to dip into their own pockets and "share the pain"? They're giving our money to countries who spit on us, for pork barrel projects and expect us to solve the deficit that they made? Do they think we're complete fools?
ReplyDeleteAre those idiot liberal, left-wing illuminatis going to dip into their own pockets and "share the pain"? They're giving our money to countries who spit on us, for pork barrel projects and expect us to solve the deficit that they made? Do they think we're complete fools?
ReplyDeleteHere's what I once wrote about the sales tax situation in the computer consulting business. It's all still true, so I'll reprint:
ReplyDeleteSales tax is inexplicable idiocy in the computer consulting business. It's obvious the tax rules were finagled by big custom software houses a long time ago. For example, here's what the DOR tells me is taxable: Installation and setup of computer hardware, Installation of hardware devices, Installation of canned software, Configuration of canned software, Online or on-site troubleshooting hardware problems, Online or on-site troubleshooting canned software problems, Setting up hardware and canned software on network, Making adjustments to canned software via modem, Installation of canned software upgrade, Inspections of hardware and canned software.
Here's what's not taxable: Writing custom programs, Contract programming, Installing custom programs, Updating custom programs, Training people on how to use software or hardware, Writing queries of databases, Designing screens, forms, reports or menus, Answering people's questions, Reformatting data, Data migration, Data conversion, Data recovery, Designing Web pages, except when tangible personal property is transferred, or the design is the taking and reproducing of photographs, Making backups of data files.
Some days I'm clearly in one category or the other. Many days, I easily jump between the two categories hundreds of times. I talk to clients (non-taxable), install canned software, (taxable), customize the software by writing new code (non-taxable), rinse lather repeat. Talking with clients is non-taxable until I start talking about something that could lead to them buying something from me - but if they don't buy it from me, my time wasn't taxable. DOR's only answer is for me to break down my time into taxable and non-taxable. It's like saying that when you eat dinner, your spoon is taxed but your fork isn't, and when your fork touches your knife, it's another category that requires the Supremes to solve. Most of the time, I punt and charge sales tax all the time rather than boil my brain trying to decipher what they're going to consider custom or not. The problem is, the DOR hasn't ever audited me - it's my clients that they audit. DOR doesn't ask me to explain it - they expect the customer to differentiate subtle distinctions in a task they hired someone to perform for them precisely because they don't have expertise in that field. Guess what they do? They don't want to waste their time so they ask me to charge them the tax all the time.
Yah, John.
ReplyDeleteGenerally, the auditors they send are still trying to figure out how to shave.