Sales Tax News - August 10, 2017

Does your business have exposure to sales tax in multiple states?  Here are some of the latest news stories to keep you informed.

Pennsylvania Is Looking to Replace School Tax with Increased Income and Sales Taxes

Pennsylvania voters will decide this fall to eliminate school property taxes.  The Pennsylvania Senate Bill, known as The Property Tax Independence Act, will replace the revenue from school property taxes by raising personal income taxes and state sales taxes.  The bill would call for raising the personal income tax from 3.07 percent to 4.34 percent and the state sales tax from .06 percent to .07 percent. 

There are also many goods and services that are currently untaxed that the new state sales tax would be imposed upon if passed.  Some of those services and goods include food, clothing, non-prescription medications, funeral expenses, child care services, public transportation, newspapers, magazines, and certain telecommunications services.  Money collected from the new increased tax rates will be collected by the state and then distributed to the school districts. 

Georgia Income and Sales Tax Collections Rise in July

The Georgia Governor's office reported a 7.1 percent increase in tax collections for July 2017 as compared to July 2016, which is a rise of $113 million.  Sales tax collections improved 5.1 percent and income taxes improved 10.4 percent.

This news comes a month after the state ended their fiscal year 2017 with a $930 million increase in tax collections over the previous year.  The Governor's budget director believes most of the new revenue will go towards the rising costs of teacher pensions, schools, public health care costs, and transportation projects. 

Check back regularly with us for more sales tax news.