What is the reason for a state tax on refrigerator repairs?

[CTyankee]

This makes me crazy. No one can live without refrigeration for your food.

I can understand sales taxes if they are graduated taxes. But repairs? That seems to me to be horribly regressive!

I've posted my complaint also in the Connecticut forum, but I wanted a general perspective here as well.

[Laelth]

1. It costs money for the state to license HVAC people.

That money has to come from somewhere.

It could come out of General Revenues, but that fund is probably depleted due to tax cuts for the rich.

Those fees are just another tax designed to shift the tax burden away from the wealthy and toward the masses (who, generally speaking, are poor and getting poorer year after year). I agree that these fees are regressive. How many refrigerators could rich people actually own?

-Laelth

[CTyankee]

3. I wonder if we have similar taxes for licensing other individuals in these trades.

This is crazy. CT is such a progressive state...

[Laelth]

6. I can assure you that attorneys are taxed for their licenses.

It costs hundreds or thousands of dollars/year just to maintain a bar license. People who want to access the courts are taxed too—in Georgia, the state takes $100 just to file an initial complaint, and each local court can then add on its own initial complaint fees. To my knowledge, all the licensed trades work like this. There’s always a tax associated with holding a professional license.

-Laelth

[JustGene]

2. Very likely due to HFC's

Due to regulation costs.
States have to watch these guys pretty carefully.
To me this is a good thing for the planet.
If it were done properly it would not be regressive.

[CTyankee]

4. are you talking about recertification testing?

[JustGene]

10. Not really

I don't know about specifics, just what I've seen in the business.
Refrigerators use more harmful compounds.
Reclamation takes time, and time is money, so
there is a strong incentive to cheat.
Many would succumb to this w/o real oversight.

[Jim__]

5. Does the sales tax apply to the total cost of the repair, or only to new parts?

It seems like there would be a tax on new parts assuming that someone who does their own repair work has to pay a tax on the parts they purchase.

My guess is that it would be hard to address the issue of sales taxes on repairs through elections as it's probably more of an inconvenience than a major issue for most voters.

[CTyankee]

13. that makes sense.

[2naSalit]

14. Also,

could be a tax for the sale of the service as well as parts. The repairer is a service being sold to you as an item. The repairer has to pay taxes on the labor fees too so it makes sense that it could qualify as a taxable item for sale.

[Sherman A1]

7. Revenue

would be my guess.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

8. In my state, there's no tax on repair labor, but if the repair consists of a significant upgrade,

there may be a tax on instillation labor. Parts are of course taxed no matter what.

[CTyankee]

11. what state?

In your state this repair would not fall under those taxed.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

17. MN.

[CTyankee]

19. Oh, so you are a progressive state.

BTW, someone mentioned a state tax on prescription drugs and I kinda knew we didn't have such a thing but called my pharmacy just to make sure. The pharmacist just laughed and then said "does that exist somewhere?"

[frazzled]

9. Taxes on services differ by state

TPP is taxes on services to tangible personal property



https://www.avalara.com/us/en/learn/whitepapers/service-taxability-by-state.html

[2naSalit]

18. What?

Taxachusstetts doesn't have a tax for this?!



I'm shocked, shocked I tell you!

[DBoon]

29. neither does "Taxifornia"

surprising given all the complaints about taxes here

[PJMcK]

12. Each state enact their own taxes

These are in addition to Federal taxes, of course.

When I lived in Connecticut, there was a local property tax on automobiles. In New York, where I now live, there isn't a car tax. That one is curious to me.

As was suggested in your other post on this subject, if you don't like it, change the state tax law. That's how it's supposed to be done.

Good luck!

[CTyankee]

15. I think it must have been on the parts supplied by the repair person...

It wasn't a lot.

Then I thought back to the repair. Part of it, but not all, was on the ice water dispenser which might be considered a luxury (I do). We consider it a nice feature but not in the category of "necessity."

[frazzled]

24. No, it was for the service as well

Connecticut, as noted on the map I posted above, taxes services for personal property.

It taxes a kazillion types of services, as noted in the government set below, and specifically:

Repair services to electrical or electronic devices, including, but not limited to, air-conditioning and refrigeration equipment. Conn. Agencies Regs. § 12-407(2)(i)(Q)-1; IP 2006(35), A Guide to Connecticut Sales and Use Taxes for Building Contractors

Repair or maintenance services to tangible personal property and contracts of maintenance, repair or warranty. Conn. Agency Regs. § 12-407(2)(i)(DD)

https://portal.ct.gov/DRS/Sales-Tax/Services-Subject-to-Sales-and-Use-Taxes

[maxsolomon]

16. Because the rich are not fairly taxed on their income or capital gains.

So the states are forced to create small, targeted taxes like this one in order to fund needed services and regulation.

It is the only legislatively possible path, so they've taken it.

How much was it?

[CTyankee]

21. Not much. I didn't figure out the percentage because I am math impaired (altho I could I was

just lazy).

[Hassin Bin Sober]

25. I remember Chicago complaining about road and bridge subsidies lost after Bush tax cuts.

The city needed more revenue so they hired more code enforcement to go after restaurants and bars. Not because there was some epidemic of food poisoning - they just needed the money. They admitted it was purely a revenue generator.

[maxsolomon]

27. Didn't Chicago also sell their Parking Meters to the UAE or something crazy like that?

Meanwhile the IRS is letting scofflaws like President Asshole get away with lying on their returns, or letting a scam like Scientology get a tax exemption as a religion.

[Klaralven]

20. Actually, you can live without refrigeration for your food

Have done so for several days at a time in recent years....

And I can recall when my parents got their first refrigerator. They are a modern convenience that a reasonably large fraction of the world's population does without.

[CTyankee]

22. In this country it would be pretty rare. Not everybody needs to have a fancy one, though.

[Klaralven]

28. Sales taxes aren't particularly rational

I used to eat in a cafeteria where food on plastic plates on a plastic try was taxed because it was a restaurant meal, while the same food on a paper plate in a paper box to take back to the office was not taxed because it was food.

Gasoline is pretty essential, but they've just raised the tax in NJ again.

Basic wireline phone service is pretty essential, but in parts of the country a phone bill requires computing up to 6 taxes depending on the address.

[CTyankee]

30. There was some discussion about regressive taxes when it came to "take out" food for the

homeless who, by definition, can't eat anything else (unless they are in a shelter). If a homeless man sits on a bench on the New Haven Green and eats takeout, it's the same for him as for the office worker who is just on lunch hour.

[Turbineguy]

23. It might be to cover costs related to

refrigerant disposal.

[CTyankee]

26. could be. I have a call into a good friend who is a retired plumber. He'll tell me.

[Polybius]

31. Even more silly are taxes on used items

The government already got the tax in the sale the first time.

[NutmegYankee]

32. To raise revenue.

It was probably one of the Malloy taxes on services to help close the budget holes.