Pennsylvania's hilarious tax exemptions
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Pennsylvania's hilarious tax exemptions
Helicopters, trout and burial caskets — those are three of the items Gov. Rendell proposed taxing in his budget address today.
As part of his plan to help cover rising pension costs and the loss of federal stimulus money, the governor wants to repeal 74 sales tax exemptions.
Though he wouldn’t institute taxes on essential items like food and clothing, Rendell argued for a new sense of rationality in the state tax code. Right now, he observed, moviegoers buy candy tax free but pay sales tax on popcorn.
To offset the increases, Rendell also proposed lowering the state sales tax rate from 6 percent to 4 percent.
After the jump, the full list of good and services that would be newly taxed if Rendell's proposal passed.
There are indeed some hilarious exemptions. Our personal favorite might be fish feed.
Accounting, auditing and bookkeeping services
Administrative services
Advertising, public relations & related services
Air transportation
Airline Catering
All other professional and technical services
Amusement & recreation industries
Architectural, engineering, & related services
Bad Debts
Basic television
Call Center Credit
Candy and Gum
Caskets and Burial Vaults
Catalogs and Direct Mail Advertising
Charges for Returnable Containers
Coal
Coin Operated Food and Beverage Vending Machines
Commercial Vessels (Construction & Repair)
Commercial Vessels (Equipment, Maintenance)
Common Carriers
Construction of Memorials
Consulting (scientific, environmental, & technical)
Custom programming, design & data processing
Dry-cleaning & laundry services
Electric – Residential
Electrical, plumbing, heating & AC service fees
Financial Institutions Fees
Firewood
Fish Feed
Flags
Fuel Oil/Gas – Residential
Funeral parlors, crematories & death care services
Gratuities
Helicopters
Horses Sold to Out of State Purchasers
Hotel-Permanent Resident
Information services
Investment Metal Bullion & Investment Coins
Legal
Liquor or Malt Beverage Purchased From Retail Dispenser
Magazines
Mfg. Exemption (Public Utility)
Motor Vehicles (Out-of-State Purchases)
Museums, historical sites, zoos, & parks For-Profit
Newspapers
Non-Prescription Drugs
Other transportation
Other: personal services
Parking lots & garages
Personal care services
Personal Hygiene Products
Rail Transportation Equipment
Recreational parks, camps & campgrounds
Rental of Films for Commercial Exhibition
School Buses
Scientific research & development services
Services to Buildings and Dwellings
Specialized design
Spectator sports admissions (excludes schools)
Stair Lift Devices
Telephone – Residential
Temporary Usage
Textbooks
Theater, dance, music & performing arts admissions For-Profit
Tourist Promotion Agencies
Transit & ground transportation
Trout
Truck transportation
Uniform Commercial Code Filing Fees
Veterinary fees
Warehouse Storage
Waste management and remediation services
Water and Sewage Services
Wrapping and Packing Supplies
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Good idea. Fair. I have no problem with taxing these items, but I'm sure the Tea Partiers will "on principle."— FMT- Yeah! Nickel-and-dime the people into supporting a state budget so full of pork that it's guaranteed to take at least three months overtime to pass. Bravo!— DonQ
- I think some can go, but not all. Stop with all the tax everything approach. We re already taxed too much. Cut some of the society handouts, and run gov't better. Gov;t is under not restriction to rein in budgets, they can always tax more.— thebaron
- I like the idea overall, but a few of these don't make sense. How do you tax bad debt? And we're going to tax stair lift devices that help the disabled?— debiker
- And aren't there already enough taxes and surcharges and fees and such on residential phone and electric? Do we REALLY need to add state sales tax to the list????— uncle meat
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Did anybody read that he was proposing lowering existing taxes from 6% to 4%?- Gratuities? I never worked a job that depended on it, but come on, don't tax tips!— th
- This is a great idea. We have to stop being so parochial about our sacred cows. Lowering the rate to 4% makes PA a lower cost state when compared to most others (except DE) and lightens the load on the average citizen of the state. I personally wish all tax rates could go to zero but that won't happen until we can do without government services. And if you think you can then imagine how things would be without police, fire, zoning, code inspections, educational institutions at all levels, social security, military defense, etc. We as a population want all this and much more but we don't want to pay for it. Well, we have to pay for it, unless we can all agree to go unpaid for our services.— sirnelson
- DonQ - do you understand exactly what "pork" is? We go to the election booth and choose someone to represent our interests. I happen to think that one of our interests is jobs and services (you know - trash pickup, water, sewer, etc). So, the person who wins the election listens to his constituents and brings a road project, or a municipal building project, or a park, or a playground, to his district and some of those constituents get jobs as a result of his efforts. The constituents are happy and talk to their friends about what a good person their representative is. The representative gets reelected and, because of the knowledge that "pork" help with the reelection, more "pork" comes to the district. Would you rather the "pork" go elsewhere and take the jobs with it? If no one wanted anything from their representatives, there would be no need for "pork". Unfortunately, that's not how the world works.— philasportsfan
- College students pay enough for textbooks.— RandomX856
- while I am all for tax reduction - something just does not seem right...many of these tax exemptions seem obscure - meaning will they generate enough tax revenue from these exemptions to drive create a 33% reduction in the sales tax (6% to 4%) and still bring in more money. I would LOVE to see a revenue projection PER LINE ITEM EXEMPTION to see how that is going to happen....— gogglespaisano
- What was the name of that old movie, where at the end someone says "they finally did it". Ed's a science fiction writer now.— FJG JR
- Here are three novel ideas that can help balance budgets and (gasp) create surpluses. 1) Make government more efficient. 2) Cut entitlements. 2a) Take those who depend on entitlements (obviously excluding the physically disabled and many elderly) off the nipple and make them get a non-public sector job and work for a living. 3) If unions don't want to do their fair share, then bust them out (SEPTA) and hire those who are willing to work hard for fair wages. Gee, that was tough.— Dean1
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- I wonder how many non sales taxes we are paying and not being fowarded to the state and being pocketed by the vendors. I will be going to new jersy more and I am retire military I will be doing more shopping at McGuire were their are no sales taxes— George Hanna
- FJG, the movie was the planet of the Apes... You did it, you finally did it, damn you all to hell!
Two words - FLAT TAX. Both State and Federal governmrnts should adopt a flat tax system with no deductions or tax shelter schemes for taxpayers to hide behind. There is no reason for either the Penna. or U.S. tax code to be more than ten (10) pages long.— snad264- How nice tax people even after they die - most people can't afford funeral costs now and Fast Eddie now wants to tax the casket you are buried in at this point why don't we just turn our paychecks over to the state every week because at the rate things are going it is going to go to the state in taxes anyway - we can let htem give us an allowance each week maybe that would make the Governor happy.— flyers88
