STATION EDITORIAL

Posted December 30, 2020

This is a station editorial, I'm Randal J. Miller, station president.

Well, as we welcome a new year, it's time for our politicians to again get into our pockets for more of you and I's money, otherwise known as taxes.  

But, hey, it's Illinois, so should we expect anything less!

The General Assembly passed changes in the state's sales tax, to make on-line companies like Amazon, charge Illinois State Sales Tax on purchases made by consumers in Illinois.  Politicians claimed that was to try and level the playing field between the on-line stores and brick and mortar, mom and pop businesses.

But, hid behind those changes in the state's sales tax, is a complex and goobly-goop maze which are actually 4 different tax charges in Illinois:

There's the Retailers’ occupation tax that applies to tangible personal property;
The Service occupation tax that applies to services;
The Service use tax that applies to services; and 
The Use tax that applies to tangible personal property.

A local auctioneer I visited with just before the end of 2020, informed me that the changes in the "Retailer's Occupation Tax" starting January First, means that every item you buy at an auction, is now TAXED, even though whoever bought that item when it was NEW, had ALREADY PAID Illinois State Sales Tax on it.  That means that item is being taxed TWICE.

With legislators and the Governor continuing to spend money like it's water, and with the state's revenues plummetting due to the coronavirus outbreak, it's a safe bet that they'll be rolling out more taxes to make up what will be a billion dollar deficit in the state budget in 2021.

And we wonder why more people continue to LEAVE Illinois, than are moving in.

That's our opinion, we welcome yours.  Our e-mail address is editorial-at-randyradio-dot-com.