Perhaps My Most Hated Tax
February 5, 2016, 10:10 am
This may surprise you, because it is one that is seldom discussed, but perhaps my most hated tax is local (usually county level) business personal property tax.
Why? The actual tax bill itself is trivial. The problem is that the paperwork is incredibly irritating. Essentially, by each location, we have to keep track of every computer, printer, vehicle, fax machine, filing cabinet, microwave, store shelf, refrigerator, trailer, lawn mower, leaf blower (etc. etc. etc.) we own and report the value of every asset by class of equipment and year of acquisition. And then we have to report additions and deletions to these assets. When you consider we operate in over 30 counties, this becomes a big pain in the butt.
The net effect is that it is an enormous hassle that results in very few tax collections. Kudos to states like Florida, that have recently initiated exemptions for companies with asset totals under a certain number. In a lot of states I would happily pay a slightly higher fixed amount of money in lieu of all the tracking and reporting.
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pbft • 7 days ago
This ties nicely to another common thread - these regulatory / paperwork costs are an increasingly large barrier to entry for small businesses. If anyone were really serious about growing the economy and increasing employment, stripping away this non-value-added cr*p would go a long way towards making it easier to get a successful business off the ground. Also - how about no corporate taxes for any business below a certain level? It costs us *way* more on paperwork and accountant's fees than we actually pay in taxes. I'll bet most small businesses are in the same boat.
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Dan Wendlick • 7 days ago
In my state, assets used for farming, mining, and manufacturing are exempt from personal property tax. This means that since we are a produce processor, we get to maintain three lists, and a single computer may land on any of the three depending on where it is located and if it has an email client installed on it. (a PC on the shop floor that interfaces to a piece of test equipment would be exempt as manufacturing equipment, until I install Outlook on it, making it a general business purpose computer and subject to tax)
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