US: Farm Bureau urges support for bills leveling sales tax
"The businesses that line the streets of our nation’s small and rural towns provide essential goods and services to the farmers and ranchers who work the fields that surround them. But hometown businesses are at a disadvantage when they compete with online-only retailers who don’t have to collect sales taxes. When this disadvantage causes a ‘Main Street’ business to close or scale back, the impact is especially hurtful to already struggling small and rural towns", AFBF President Zippy Duvall wrote in a letter to House and Senate lawmakers encouraging them to support the bills.
When the sales tax disparity causes a Main Street business to close or scale back, Duvall noted, it’s not only small business owners and the families they serve who are harmed.
“Since local governments and schools rely heavily on property taxes for funding, when sales tax revenues decline they often turn to property taxes to make up the difference. For land-based businesses like farming and ranching, this is particularly onerous,” Duvall wrote.
For more information:
American Farm Bureau Federation
600 Maryland Ave SW
Suite 1000W
Washington DC 20024
Phone: (202)406-3600
www.fb.org