Pre-filed bills are rolling into Frankfort and another shot at the bogus "Back to School Sales Tax Holiday" should be coming along soon.
It sounds good at first, but the tax holiday -- which exempts clothing and computer items from state sales tax, usually for a three day period in late summer -- is nothing more than a political stunt.
In fact, retail groups betray the fallacy of sales tax holidays by promoting the additional expenditures consumers will make while out shopping their 6% sale. So they know -- but hope you don't -- that you will probably spend more elsewhere than you will save on sales taxes. Further, I don't know about you, but I would never be motivated by a 6% sale. Better to wait until inventory change time and buy at 50% or more, don't you think?
Of course the largest thing we are supposed to overlook in weighing the Sales Tax Holiday is that all the back-to-school items are already burdened with embedded income taxes that far outweigh state sales taxes. That's a far more egregious wrong to address, and a permanent fix as well.
If you haven't already, go to www.fairtax.org and see what real tax reform looks like.
