Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
StumbleState: Sales tax must be paid on wheelchair purchases
Monday, Aug. 9, 2010 | 2:27 p.m.
CARSON CITY – The Nevada Tax Commission has decided that the sales and use tax must be paid on the sale of walkers and wheelchairs.
The commission decided Monday that Nevada Medical and Surgical Supply Corp., of Las Vegas, must pay $13,000 in back taxes.
Deputy Attorney General David Pope told the commission that a first hearing officer ruled the company must pay the tax, but then a second hearing officer said the tax wasn't due.
The staff of the state Tax Department appealed the ruling of the second hearing officer and the commission agreed the tax must be paid.
Pope said the second hearing officer cited the wrong law in holding the company wasn't liable for the sales and use tax.
The commission also denied the compromise offer by James Eckes of Furniture Source of Nevada, which is closed in Las Vegas. Eckes owes the state $135,115 in sale and use tax and interest.
Pope said the sales tax was collected by Pope while the store was in operation and never sent to the state. But Eckes told the commission the money was collected by the bank, and he has been unemployed for 10 months.
He said he didn’t have the money to repay the state $1,000 a month, but the commission declined to negotiate further.
Pope said Eckes has earned $110,000 in another business and he is delinquent in paying the sales tax in that operation.
Discussion: comments so far…
Comments are moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors. Our goal is not to limit the discussion, but rather to elevate it. Comments should be relevant and contain no abusive language. Comments that are off-topic, vulgar, profane or include personal attacks will be removed. Full comments policy. Additionally, we now display comments from trusted commenters by default. Those wishing to become a trusted commenter need to verify their identity or sign in with Facebook Connect to tie their Facebook account to their Las Vegas Sun account. For more on this change, read our story about how it works and why we did it.
Only trusted comments are displayed on this page. Untrusted comments have expired from this story.
No trusted comments have been posted.
Post a comment
Most Popular
- Viewed
- Discussed
- E-mailed
- Superstar Whitney Houston dies at 48
- UNLV can move forward without the burden of losing streak to San Diego State
- A wife’s wisdom shows birth control issue needn’t be divisive
- UNLV makes key plays down stretch to hold off San Diego State 65-63
- Surprise links, negotiated deals addressed by commissioners
- Hope and change and … what’s missing?
- Mitt Romney wins Maine caucuses, CPAC straw poll
- New York mayor has the right idea
- Motorcycle accident claims life of man in northeast valley
- We don’t need a CEO in charge
Blogs
The Kats Report
Color from scene at Thomas & Mack: We have a wire job! Rebels win, and Louie Armstrong sings!
South Point owner Michael Gaughan's take on 'Vegas Stripped': 'I'll give it an 8' (4 Comments)
Author relishes writing the life story of ‘larger-than-life’ Oscar Goodman (3 Comments)
Elsewhere
Landowner: All roads could lead to Uxbridge casino
Revel reveals smoke-free casino opening
Cirque du Soleil show in Sands China casino to close this month
Meet the woman behind Sheldon Adelson
The Sun
Locally owned and independent for more than 50 years.
No excuse for not paying sales taxes. The money is collected from the customer at the time of sale and needs to be reported and remitted to the state by the end of the following month. That's 60 days use of the funds by the business. Problem is many businesses start using those funds to cover other bills and start counting on future sales to cover the debt. It becomes a slippery slope when the business begins to fail and really bad when they close, cause there's no future sales to cover the past due debt.
gbigs: I think you missed the point. This scumbag STOLE the money from the people buying the wheelchairs by charging them sales tax and then just NOT passing the collected tax to the government.
taxes are comming,thas true.but it dont make any differnce who get in.there has to be a raise in taxes for the schools,like it or not we have to pay.and iam all for it for the kids
Anyone who is in business knows that sales tax is a pain in the butt. You have to go by all these rules, and if you make a mistake they hit you with the tax (whether or not you charged the customer) plus penalties and interest.
And the business has to do the collecting and remitting of it..
God forbid we have a VAT. Thats going to be an accounting nightmare that business will have to deal with.
How's collecting and remitting sales tax a pain in the butt? I did it for over 20 years... you get the use of other people's money for 60 days. Plus to listen to today's "small businessman chamber of commerce" speel, they're the true American's that make the country go. They act like they pay the tax... the customer (all of us) pays the tax
If there is a sales tax and the customer paid it (i.e, purchased goods and services) it should be passed on to the government.
However the government also needs to make it easier to file sales tax. January 2011, there is a massive amount of new paperwork anyone has to fill out if they buy $600 or more of goods in any given year from a single vendor. For example, if a school buys paper for the xerox machine at school - they now have to fill out massive amounts of forms. They also have to know the supplier's tax identification numbers and so forth.
This is part of the Obama Health care bill.
Just mentioning here - as this issue is bound to get more confusing in just a few months due to Reid and Obama care.
Can someone ask Harry Reid why filling out massive amounts of paperwork is good for the health of anyone? Why did Harry Reid allow for this to be part of the Health Care bill. He could have red-lined it.
so much waste and fraud already in the health care bill....and forcing this is on the American public who cannot afford this (18 per cent unemployment rate) is the real shame.
IF Harry can make it harder and harder to do business, he will do it. He's been in power 40 years...and its time for him to retire.
I guess Nevadans are thinking of keeping him employed.....but not sure why? Massive paperwork; costly health care; High Unemployment Rates....
If Harry can find a way to make it harder on you, he will find a way
Lovestohike,
Sales taxes are levied by the state government, not the federal government. Maybe you could identify the part of the health care bill that requires excessive sales tax paperwork?
Since when are needed medical devices taxable in the first place?
Hmmm jzetz, how about the federal sales tax on tanning sessions?
That's a tax on a service, yes, which has largely been out of the purview of the federal government in the past. It is, however, related to healthcare. People who use tanning beds are far more likely to get skin cancer, which drives up health care costs. I don't like the government using taxes to discourage consumption, but I completely understand how they can be necessary.
This is an article about overdue and disputed Nevada sales tax. It is not about the President, the Health Care bill, the federal government, disabled folks, gun control or any of the other sujects dragged into the comment section by those people with a "Nobama" agenda. Isn't everyone else who reads these articles as sick of this as I am? Stay on point, people!
"The Nevada Tax Commission has decided that the sales and use tax must be paid on the sale of walkers and wheelchairs."
Most of you miss the point -- that something like this is taxed at all is outrageous. It shows the reality of what we have allowed government to become -- organized greed.
gbigs -- for once I have to agree with you, at least in principle.
cinderelladream -- good one!
That the state has a budget shortfall just shows the reality of our times. What do the rest of us do when we have "a budget shortfall"? Tighten our belts, cut back on the amenities, get back to the basics. Why should government, merely the instrument of our collective will, be any different?
"...we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debt, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our calling and our creeds...[we will] have no time to think, no means of calling our miss-managers to account but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers... And this is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for [another]... till the bulk of society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery... And the fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression." -- Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Samuel Kercheval, July 12, 1816
The article left out a pretty major point: Prostheic devices are expressly exempted from sales tax in Nevada:
http://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-372.h...
If the tax was collected, it should go back to the individual purchaser, not the state. Tax Commission must have forgot about this pesky little statutory provision.