School Sales Tax Holiday Back In Fla. House

March 31, 2011

Back-to-school shoppers could experience the thrill of a three-day sales tax holiday beginning August 12 under a measure approved Wednesday by the House Finance and Tax Committee.

By unanimous vote, the panel approved a measure (HB 733) that would allow back-to-school shoppers to pick up supplies of less than $15, qualified clothing under $75 and textbooks up to $75, a provision that has not been previously included in sales tax holiday events.

The Florida Retail Federation commissioned a study that showed a net gain of $7 million from last year’s three-day holiday, which increases taxable sales by $115 million when compared to the previous year when no holiday was in place.

A Senate version (SB 508) has yet to be heard.

Comments

2 Responses to “School Sales Tax Holiday Back In Fla. House”

  1. eab on April 1st, 2011 1:31 am

    Thank you for such a factual and reasoned account, Mr Swift. Your information is correct. The low tax rates on corporations in Florida require nothing from the companies who keep their offices here.

    The Tax Foundation already ranks Florida 5th in the nation for state business tax climate. Corporations pay 5.5% and Rick Scott proposes 3% for next year and NO taxes by 2018. That’s without a single guarantee from a single business of a single job. (This from the Miami Herald).

    Scott plans to grow jobs in Florida by cutting 10,000 jobs and cutting stste revenue by more than 500 million dollars.Scott intends to privatize veterans homes,mental health facilities and developmental disability centers, thereby cutting 109 million dollars, 38 million of which will come from the veterans homes. His own party is looking at him with wonder and confusion.

    Scott is also planning to save businesses 3.2 BILLION dollars on electricity with consumers (that means the folks who read this) picking up the bill for it. Watch those bills rise folks, while big business gets theirs for free.

    So to take the public’s mind off all of this largess to business which has to be getting a bit embarrassing even to Scott, they through a “sales tax holiday” to the minions to make us think we are in on the gravy.All these billions to Scotties bunch and 20 dollars apiece for the working people of Florida.

    Class warfare is what it is. We at the bottom just ain’t started fighting back yet.

  2. Jonathan Swift on March 31st, 2011 2:53 pm

    Yes, a sales tax holiday is being discussed, but in reality it’s a mere pittance for the peasants. However, even this incredibly miserly tax cut has strings attached to it. Yet the proposed cut to Florida’s already extremely low corporate tax rate does not require anything—like creating at least a single job, for example—to qualify for. The wealthy can just pocket the money. More class-warfare from Florida’s GOP leadership.