911 Sales Tax in Lincoln Expires

A quarter-cent voter-approved sales tax ended on Monday in Lincoln.  The sales tax raised $38.14 million for the city's new emergency radio system and new fire stations.  The sales tax was approved in April 2015 and lasted for three years.  

Okaloosa County to Review Possible Projects for Potential Sales Tax Collections

Monday morning's 4-2 vote in Rainbow City, Alabama brought the idea of a 1% sales tax increase to a halt. This plan had been discussed before and was posted online by it's originator and city council member Tim Ramsey on social media platforms.  The idea was to increase Rainbow City's sales tax to 10% like many of the neighboring cities.

DeKalb County, Georgia is using $8 million in sales tax funding to purchase safety vehicles and equipment, according to an article from Decaturish.  The sales tax was approved by voters in November, 2017, for infrastructure improvements.  The purchases to be made include:

Sales Taxes Not Going to NC Technical College

The Wayfair ruling earlier this year opened the door to states to require out-of-state sellers to collect and remit the sales tax due.  However, there has been backlash from states that don't have a state level sales tax - the so called NOMAD states of New Hampshire, Oregon, Montana, Alaska, and Delaware.

Voters in Pasadena, California will have two sales tax measures to consider on the upcoming November 6 ballot.  The first ballot measure will seek the permission of voters to increase the city's sales tax by 0.75 percent.  The second issue is whether one-third of this additional tax revenue should be directed toward Pasadena Unified Schools. 

A bipartisan bill was introduced in response to the US Supreme Court's Wayfair decision this past June. In that decision, the Supreme Court ruled that certain remote sellers should remit taxes for multiple states, not just their home state.  However, with the massive complexity of tax law surrounding each individual state, the Supreme Court advised Congress to simplify things.

Dan Noble, Director of the Wyoming Department of Revenue, says that a sales tax mistake made by a vendor in Sweetwater County was an innocent one that provided the vendor with no advantage.  The business mistakenly reported taxes to neighboring Natrona County.  Noble says that the correct amount of sales tax was collected from the vendor but was paid to the wrong county. 

A bill introduced by Congress will seek to put the brakes on the ability of states to require remote sellers to collect sales tax on transactions completed through the internet.  The bill is in response to the June Supreme Court ruling that requires remote sellers that do business with residents of the state but do not maintain a physical presence in the state to collect the sales tax due.

A proposal to increase the sales tax in Grand Island, Nebraska has restarted tensions between a police union and the mayor of the city.  A message posted on the Facebook page of the Nebraska Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #24 expressed the union's displeasure with what the union deems as a misrepresentation of their stance by Mayor Jeremy Jensen. 

According to a recent op-ed written by Alcohol and Tobacco Enforcement Branch chief, Joe Fox, and published in the Washington Post, states across the nation are losing billions of dollars in tax due to cigarette smuggling.  Here are the details.

According to a report from WLOX, Biloxi's ABC news affiliate, hunters in Mississippi received a bit of a break on Labor Day weekend, with a sales tax holiday on firearms, ammunition, and hunting supplies.  Passed by the Mississippi legislature in 2014, the 2nd Amendment sales tax holiday passes on a 7 percent savings to sportsmen on various supplies.  The tax break applied not only to items purchased in-store, but also to those purchased by mail, telephone, and internet, provided they were bought and paid for during the holiday, which lasted from Friday morning through Sunday at midnight.

Residents of St. Louis County, Missouri will decide in November whether or not to approve a tax increase for the benefit of the St. Louis Zoo.  The proposed sales tax would fund both cosmetic and functional upgrades to the zoo.  There are also plans to construct a new breeding facility and talks of an adventure park in the northern portion of the county. 

New Hampshire Wrangles with Online Sales Taxes

A five-member board in Kansas City that is tasked with overseeing a sales tax initiative for the city's East Side area is drawing criticism from the public.  The source of public displeasure is a decision by the board to not allow either citizens or members of the media to attend a recent meeting on the matter.