Dear Editor:
At the same time that Governor Greitens cuts the current budget by over $250 million dollars citing insufficient revenue, he signs Senate Bill 16 into law excluding from sales tax and use tax "usual and customary delivery charges that are stated separately." An article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (July 6, 2017) stated that the governor's budget office estimated a loss $3.2 million of general revenue, but acknowledged that the revenue loss will be significantly higher. The budget office only considered pizza delivery charges. There are numerous other sales that separately state delivery charges, including delivery charges for concrete, drop shipments for specially ordered goods, and all internet sales. Governor, the Missouri Supreme Court held that delivery charges are subject to sales and use tax and the law should not be changed because a construction company had to pay use tax on an equipment rental. This is special interest legislation.
Senator Kraus stated that "There is a loss of revenue, but it is not significant because a lot of these businesses were not collecting it." So if a business is not following the tax laws, just get Senator Kraus to change it. Apparently, to Senator Kraus this is sound tax policy. Missouri is fortunate that you only have one remaining legislation session because of term limits. However, public education, and senior and social services are unfortunate because you have one more session.
Missouri has an extremely favorable business income tax climate, thanks to Senator Kraus (see his web page) and nearly 300 sales and use tax exclusions and exemptions, substantially all of which represent special interest legislation. It's time for a change.
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