SULLIVAN CO., MO -- Election day is right around the corner, its Tuesday April 5th, and several issues will be on the ballot for you to vote on.
One of those issues includes a new sales tax for people living in Sullivan County, Missouri to vote on.
The county would like to impose a local use tax on out-of-state purchases at the same rate as the total local sales tax rate, currently 2.75%, provided that if the local sales tax rate is reduced or raised by voter approval, the local use tax rate shall also be reduced or raised by the same action.
In other words, the county would like business owners or individuals who buy products out-of-state, to pay a sales tax on those items which they are currently exempt from.
"It kind of levels the competition for in-state businesses with out-of-state businesses that are exempt from the sales tax and collection," said Sullivan County Associate Commissioner, Danny Busick. "Because of that, we've decided to add this on the ballot here in Sullivan County in order to make sure we keep the playing field leveled for our local businesses."
Now if this passes,a use tax return will not be required to be filed by people whose purchases from out-of-state vendors exceed $2,000 in total per year.
The purpose of the proposal is to eliminate the current sales tax advantage that non-Missouri vendors have over Missouri vendors.
"More importantly later on down the road is the state is considering applying a sales tax to internet sales and if they do that it will be through the use tax and so if we don't pass this and have it in place, the county will not be able to receive their portion of that tax that goes over the internet," Busick said.
So how would the county benefit from this new sales tax?
"On average we'd probably receive anywhere from $50,000-$60,000 in revenue off of this," Busick said.
That money would then be used for improvements within the county.