Consensus seems to be that the state can’t afford it. Someone needs to tell Jordan’s Furniture, which is already running ads on the premise that there would be one.
Please share widely!
No Sales Tax Holiday This Year
Reality-based commentary on politics.
I wonder if it says anything about the power (or lack thereof) of local merchants.
I think it says more about the reality of lack of sufficient revenue than the power of retailers. The Associated Industries of Massachusetts remains immensely powerful, and is very cosy with house leadership. For example they just pushed to get the equal pay bill closer to their liking.
divided merchants. It tended to benefit those who sold big ticket items at the expense of those who didn’t. Weekends are prime shopping time. If you sold a low- or no-tax (clothes) item, your business was down. Whether or not that those purchases were merely delayed remains to be seen.
Tax holidays are a stupid idea.
…Time to take a holiday from the tax holiday!
The net revenue for merchants was negligible, it was a net loss for the stats, and it gives lie to the idea that this is Taxachusetts when we are in the second lowest bracket for income tax and the third lowest for sales tax. I invite anyone complaining about MA sales taxes to go to Chicago for a week.
On top of the nearly 35% net taxes you will pay for your hotel the meals tax, sales tax, and alcohol tax are in the 10-12% range. My wife is visiting next week and she will be doing all her shopping for the fall semester at MA stores since our state believes in a food and clothing exemption.
Meanwhile Donald Trump has endorsed the Fair Tax which would put a 25% sales tax on the national level, coupled with astronomical inflation due to the high tariffs. Why no Democrat running in 2016 is bothering to make that basic bread and butter case against the Donald is beyond me….
How the sales tax holiday straggled across the finish line last year. Doubts about its policy wisdom were growing then but were not quite enough to offset an electoral threat by a right-wing tag team: Mass Fiscal Alliance and the Jobs First Independent Expenditure PAC.
This year, a budget sinkhole has almost certainly nixed the holiday (for only the second time in 13 years). But expect the right wing to engineer a roll-call vote for the benefit of members who are willing to put the Commonwealth even deeper into debt for the sake of propping up this anti-tax tradition.
I heard those ads but didn’t listen to them. Wonder if any retailers, including Jordan, would be on the hook for payments they didn’t anticipate.
They will be giving a rebate equal to twice the MA sales tax for awhile anyway.
A “tax holiday” sends the message that taxes are bad, to be avoided, and anyone who benefits from taxes is a moocher. This is standard Republican crap and one reason it was a poor decision on the part of Democrats in this state to go along with it.
No one bothers to ask where the taxes go. When there is a “tax holiday”, schools take a holiday from receiving funding, roads take a holiday from getting repaired, people in need of social programs get a holiday from those needed programs…..
So, my humble suggestion for next year is this: A Tax Celebration to commemorate the coming of the new school year. As a state that is very proud of our public schools, we will dedicate all sales taxes received during this one specific weekend to our schools. Support your schools, go out and buy that sofa, lawnmower, or whatever knowing that all the tax proceeds will go to our schools….and if you buy that stuff in NH, you’re just hurting own community.