CALIFORNIA BUSINESS MINUTE
Travel Taxes
08-19-10
Hi, I am Tim Johnson and welcome to the California Business Minute.
A recent survey of government-imposed travel taxes in the nation's top 50
travel destinations has found levies for car rentals, hotels and meals can
raise consumers' tax burden -- what they would otherwise pay in general sales
tax -- by more than half.
A recent study by the National Business Travel Association Foundation,
identifies the cities with the highest and lowest taxes for travelers:
Highest Taxed Cities for Travelers
Chicago
New York
Boston
Seattle
Minneapolis
Lowest Taxed Cities for Travelers
Fort Lauderdale
Fort Meyers
Portland
Detroit
Honolulu
However the study asserts that many cities engage in levying what it terms
"discriminatory" taxes on travelers, specifically for car rentals, hotel
stays and meals. The report identified that these travel taxes and fees enacted
on travel-related services are often used to fund unrelated local projects and
on average increase costs on visitors of 56% over general sales tax. For
example, car rental customers get hit with mandatory taxes and fees that do not
support travel infrastructure, but pay for projects such as sports stadiums and
convention centers.
The report identified that as it pertained to these "discriminatory" taxes,
California fared quite well; a list of cities and regions with the lowest of
such taxes is topped by five from the Golden State: Orange County, San Jose,
Burbank, San Diego and Ontario. On the other hand, cities deemed the worst when
it comes to imposing "discriminatory" taxes were: Portland, Ore., leads, followed
by Boston, Minneapolis, Indianapolis and New York City.
I am Tim Johnson and this has been the California Business Minute.
NOTE TO READERS: Portland does not have a sales tax, hence the low
cost and so the higher 'discriminatory taxes' that are identified in the study
are high.
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