Commission approves business license tax

Thursday, Feb. 19, 2004 | 10:18 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The Legislative Commission approved a regulation setting forth the rules for imposing the $100-a-year business license tax Wednesday, despite complaints it would hurt the public shows at convention centers.

The vote was 8-3.

Luke Puschnig, counsel to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, urged the commission not to approve the regulation and to rewrite the rules so that those who exhibit at such shows would be exempt.

The tax could prevent out-of-state merchants from coming to Nevada, Puschnig maintained.

But Sen. Mike McGinness, R-Fallon, said: "It's not our job to protect the people from out of state."

A person who works out of his or her home in Nevada and earns less than $22,000 a year does not have to pay the $100 fee. The regulations allow them to sell their wares at these shows.

Harry Slate, operator of Plus Events, which produces such shows, said the $100 fee will place an "unfortunate burden on vendors" who travel from city to city selling their goods.

Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, chairman of the commission, said that's an issue for the 2005 Legislature to debate.

Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, questioned how much other states charge these merchants. She said she could not imagine these home shows being abandoned because of the $100 fee.

Slate said California charges $7 and Arizona charges $6 to people who come in and sell their goods at the home and trade shows.

Tax Commission Chairwoman Barbara Smith Campbell told the commission that to change the definitions in the regulation would broadly expand the exemption for the $100 fee.

McGinness, who was chairman of the Senate Taxation Committee, said his committee is "not keen on exemptions." He said he wants to protect people who build birdhouses at home in Nevada, for instance. He said he did not think the tax would keep the out-of-staters from coming to Nevada.