Service Tax Revisited
February 25th, 2008 by Mike VasilindaIt has been 21 years since Florida�s experiment at taxing services failed and was� repealed, But as Mike Vasilinda tells us, rising property taxes has an independent commission taking another took at what items aren�t now taxable.
Hear it here: Service Tax Revisited
Skyboxes and Ostrich Feed get a lot of attention for being untaxed. But the tax code lists 246 specific exemptions.
Boats that come for 20 days aren�t taxed but longer slip rental is.
Newspapers are also taxed, but the ad inserts inside aren�t.
Rising property taxes have a little known group named the Taxation and Budget Reform commission looking at ways to eliminate some exemptions. Jim Scott says eliminating the school tax is a top priority.
�It would be a tremendous 35 percent in Broward County and I happen to know, reduction across the board for all property taxes,� Scott said.
Dry Cleaning is not taxed. But changing that would not matter to Amanda Hammerli.
�I don�t dry clean enough for it to even bother me,� Hammerli said.� �So I wouldn�t care either way really.�
But the people behind the dry cleaning counter worry.
�I think everybody would start cleaning clothes at home, to be honest with you,� dry cleaning manager Yvonne Smith said.
Taxing bottled water would raise enough money to hire a thousand teachers and pay them all 34,000 dollars a year.
Randy Miller was in charge of the state�s revenue department the last time a services tax was tried.
�We did it 20 years ago. It�s a failed experiment,� Miller said. �We need to be looking 20 years forward, not 20 years backward.�
Voters may have the final say, but trading taxes on somebody else for lower property taxes could be appealing to many.
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