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AIM marks legislative victories of 2016 session

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The Associated Industries of Missouri (AIM) has thanked members of the Missouri Senate and House of Representatives for getting several bills they endorsed “across the finish line” before the end of the legislative session last week.

AIM president Ray McCarty highlighted a handful of bills that reached the governor’s desk before the final adjournment call Friday.

“Associated Industries of Missouri thanks the legislature for passing meaningful tort reform bills, necessary tax bills, and many more business-friendly bills, and we thank them for not passing bills that would have increased the cost of doing business in Missouri,” McCarty said in a statement.

He mentioned one bill in particular, Sen. Will Kraus’s SB 823, as reason for concern. The bill will not allow the Department of Revenue to to issue assessments after a Supreme Court decision in April 2016 overturned a sales tax exemption for manufacturing equipment.

“Without this legislation, the Missouri Department of Revenue could increase taxes on Missouri businesses that have relied on this updated definition of manufacturing that was made by the Court and the Legislature over the last 25 years,” MacCarty said. “Taxpayers need to be protected while we have a thorough debate in the next session of the legislature regarding the proper way to apply sales and use tax manufacturing and processing exemptions in the 21st century.”

Other bills passed that helped reduce taxes and were favored by AIM included one that would exempt exercise and yoga classes from sales tax, another that deals with sales tax refund, and another that involves withholding tax filing requirements for small businesses.