Re: Let's say that the meals tax revenue was NOT going to FCPS...would you vote yes?
Posted by:
Local Merchant
()
Date: September 26, 2016 08:29AM
Inquisitive One Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> nePvX Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > No, I would not.
> >
> > The tax is a local tax to get more tax revenue
> for
> > Fairfax County. Why? Because, our local reps
> > down in Richmond are unable to get the state to
> > return more of the taxes Fairfax County is
> sending
> > down to the state.
> >
> > Second, I don't see any controls on the %-knob
> --
> > I gather the Board will have the ability to
> simply
> > change the rate once the tax is in place. No
> > further input from the community will be
> > required.
> >
> > Lastly, how much of this revenue is going to be
> > wasted creating an "enforcement division"?
>
> I guess my question is whether the "enforcement
> division" will be supported by the administrative
> fee that is being planned for the meals tax if it
> is indeed passed by the voters. While it is an
> inefficient tax for vendors to administer it is
> probably more complex for the County due to
> audits, legal appeals, creating and maintaining
> vendor accounts and other cumbersome revenue
> collection problems. If it is not, the tax in
> itself will become a drain on County resources.
> The County in some of their revenue projections
> indicated that the administrative fee would be six
> percent.
I believe that the 6% that you're referring to is the fee to merchants intended to offset some of their costs for acting as collection agents for the county. In the same way that the rebate is done for state sales and use taxes. That's off the top of the gross taxes collected by the merchant. It does not include the county's costs for administration, systems, collections, audit, enforcement, etc.
It doesn't really cover the merchant's cost either. Sales and use taxes are one of the biggest pains in the ass that businesses have to deal with. All counted, I probably spend at least a full day's worth of time every month doing stuff related to it. The piddly 3% of 6% (.002/dollar collected) that I get for my trouble doesn't come close to covering my cost. For merchants affected this will be on top of that. And state sales tax is relatively easy since the state has automated systems to file and pay and there's at least some integration with my accounting system which likely will not be the case for the county. At least initially and without it spending a bunch of money to implement, operate and maintain its side of it.