Missouri REALTORS®,
Our statewide initiative to stop new sales taxes on services has a new name for the fall campaign:
The Taxpayer Protection Amendment.
Our recent “road-testing” of this new name before diverse audiences shows its simplicity helps Missouri voters understand the issue:
Taxpayers need protection from new taxes on services. And The Taxpayer Protection Amendment will do just that.
Together, we are going to Protect Missouri From New Taxes. We are going to urge our business associates, our friends and our neighbors to Vote YES on The Taxpayer Protection Amendment.
I wanted to take a few moments to share some of the key points you will be hearing in our campaign heading into the November 8 general election.
PROTECTION FROM A REAL THREAT
New sales taxes on services have been proposed in the last seven annual Missouri legislative sessions. Missouri REALTORS® have been on the record against this bad idea. But the legislation keeps getting introduced. One year, the Missouri House passed legislation creating a new tax on services with 90 votes, and it received a Senate hearing.
The threat is becoming reality in other states, where new sales taxes on services have already been imposed this year. In North Carolina, it’s a new sales tax on installation and repair. Not only do folks getting their air conditioner fixed in North Carolina pay for the parts – now they pay a sales tax on the installer’s services. Washington State imposed a new sales tax on a wide array of services this year. One such service now being taxed in Washington is self-defense training. It caused such an uproar that martial-arts students in their full outfits converged on the Capitol in Olympia in protest.
The growing discussion by policymakers of new taxes on services came to Missouri’s borders this year. State leaders and legislators in neighboring Oklahoma and Illinois have discussed creating new sales taxes on services. And we know politicians borrow bad ideas. Let’s stop this bad idea from taking hold in Missouri.
PROTECTION FROM NEW TAXES ON TOP OF CURRENT TAXES
Missourians for Fair Taxation believes we pay plenty of taxes already. Just think about the many taxes paid by Missourians: Income, property, personal property taxes. State, county and municipal sales taxes. Some Missouri sales tax rates already top 10 percent. Now, imagine your local sales tax on tangible goods applied to services we use every day.
PROTECTION FROM PAYING MORE EVERY DAY
Just think about the sorts of every day services that would be subject to a new sales tax on services: Professional services: Doctor, Banker, Mechanic, CPA, REALTOR®. Home services: Repairs, Plumbing, Lawn Care, Installations. Personal services: Haircuts, Manicures, Tattoos. Family services: Day Care; Lessons in Dance, Music, and Self-Defense. If you really think about it, a new sales tax on services would be a cradle-to-grave tax – you would pay a sales tax on the service of the OB/GYN or the midwife, and you would pay a sales tax on the service of the headstone carver.
PROTECTION FOR MISSOURI CONSUMERS
With a new sales on services, every family and every household would pay more every day. Sales taxes hit hardest on those least able to pay: Seniors, retirees and the disabled on fixed incomes. Low- and middle-income families – families working their hearts out to realize the American Dream of home ownership. Protection of those families is why Missouri REALTORS® and the National Association of REALTORS® are waging this campaign to protect Missouri from new taxes on services.
What we do NOT have, today, is an official amendment number. That’ll come later this summer, when the Secretary of State certifies our proposal for the November general election ballot. But today, our proposal has a name:
The Taxpayer Protection Amendment.
Our message is simple:Let’s Protect Missouri Taxpayers from New Taxes on Services. Join us in voting YES on The Taxpayer Protection Amendment. You can learn more at our campaign website:
www.MOTaxpayerProtection.com
Miles F. Noennig
2016 President
Missouri REALTORS®