Idaho Mountain Express: Tax dodgers: Pay up

Friday, August 8, 2014

Tax dodgers: Pay up

     Taxpayers could save the city of Ketchum money by doing something simple: paying the local-option sales taxes they may owe.

     While the favorite pastime of some taxpayers is bellyaching about the taxes they pay, they could actually reduce the cost of government—and their own tax burden—by paying them.

     For example, Ketchum has suspected for a long time that not every business and individual required to collect the LOT from customers is paying up. How does it know? With lots of lodging business conducted online these days, reservations calendars are clearly visible to anyone who wants to look. Every year, it’s become clearer to the city that some owners of homes and condos that rent to short-term guests are failing to collect and remit the lodging tax.

     The city just canceled a $600,000 three-year contract with the Idaho State Tax Commission to collect the LOT. With local sales-tax revenues down, the city decided it needs a less expensive way to get the tax revenue it’s owed. So, it’s considering hiring someone to do the job, as well as to enforce other city codes.

     The city must make sure that tax levies are imposed equally or it condones an uneven playing field on which cheaters win. Even so, it’s a shame that the city even has to consider hiring a tax collector because it wouldn’t have to if liable individuals and businesses would register with the city and pay what they owe.

     Renting a home or condo out for a few days or a week is no different than renting a hotel room—even if it’s a hobby. Hotels pay up because they’re large, very visible and concerned about their reputations as good corporate citizens. Further, corporate owners usually understand that the taxes they pay come back to them in the form of good streets, public amenities, good emergency services, events and marketing that are important to their businesses.

     A welcoming and safe city benefits every entrepreneur. Tax-dodgers should save the city the cost of tracking them down, shoulder their civic responsibility and pay up.
comprar cialis
comprare cialis
cialis kaufen

About Comments

Comments with content that seeks to incite or inflame may be removed.

Comments that are in ALL CAPS may be removed.

Comments that are off-topic or that include profanity or personal attacks, libelous or other inappropriate material may be removed from the site. Entries that are unsigned or contain signatures by someone other than the actual author may be removed. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or any other policies governing this site. Use of this system denotes full acceptance of these conditions. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

The comments below are from the readers of mtexpress.com and in no way represent the views of Express Publishing, Inc.

You may flag individual comments. You may also report an inappropriate or offensive comment by clicking here.

Flagging Comments: Flagging a comment tells a site administrator that a comment is inappropriate. You can find the flag option by pointing the mouse over the comment and clicking the 'Flag' link.

Flagging a comment is only counted once per person, and you won't need to do it multiple times.

Proper Flagging Guidelines: Every site has a different commenting policy - be sure to review the policy for this site before flagging comments. In general these types of comments should be flagged: