27 August 2018 — 1415 mdt

A sales tax by any other name is still a sales tax

If certain people in Montana had their way, the phrase “sales tax” could be used only for a statewide sales tax. That’s because they know Montanans are dead set against a statewide sales tax, and they don’t want a “sales tax” “confused” or “conflated” with a local option sales tax, which they prefer calling a “local option tax” or, as in one bill in the last legislature, an “infrastructure tax.”

As former Kalispell mayor Tammi Fisher would say, it’s time for a reality check. A sales tax is a tax on sales, whether it’s on sales statewide or sales in a locality, such as a city; whether it taxes every sale or just certain sales. The common thread is the taxing of a transaction, a sale.

It’s best, of course, to use precise language. “Local sales tax” describes a local sales tax more precisely than “sales tax.” But there’s no reason to cry foul when someone employs “sales tax” as a shortcut when discussing a local option sales tax.

There’s also no reason to call a sales tax an “infrastructure tax.” Taxes should be named for what is being taxed, not for how the revenue raised by that tax will be appropriated. Trying to sneak a tax past the public by giving the tax a misleading name fools no one and reduces trust in government and public officials.