JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Keeping in line with legislation passed last year, the Missouri Department of Revenue (DOR) has launched an online map of sales tax information and special taxing districts across the state.
The map is a result of HB 1858, signed into law in 2018. Championed by state Rep. Phil Christofanelli, the bill instructed the DOR to create and maintain an online map showing tax information of political subdivisions as well as special taxing districts by July 2019.
“With this new feature, any consumer in Missouri will be able to quickly find out how many different taxing authorities are in a given area, as well as the sales tax rates for each authority,” Ken Zellers, acting director of the DOR, said in a statement Monday. “The Department was happy to work with the General Assembly to create a transparent way for citizens to see where Missouri’s sales tax districts exist and overlap. With greater transparency, consumers in Missouri will be able to make the most informed decisions regarding their purchases.”
The map includes geographic boundaries of political subdivisions — including cities, couties, and community improvement, ambulance, fire protection, and transportation districts — and allows users to superimpose those boundaries on the state House and Senate districts. Additional features are expected to be rolled out in the future, according to the DOR.
In pushing for the bill last year, Christofanelli argued sales tax rates were “spiraling out of control.”
“Missouri taxpayers have a right to know about the many special taxes that have been layered over where they work, live, and shop,” Christofanelli said then. “This bill is an important step towards reform.”
While the map includes sales tax rates, it does not include use tax rates.
Consumers can access the online map here.
Kaitlyn Schallhorn was the editor in chief of The Missouri Times from 2020-2022. She joined the newspaper in early 2019 after working as a reporter for Fox News in New York City.
Throughout her career, Kaitlyn has covered political campaigns across the U.S., including the 2016 presidential election, and humanitarian aid efforts in Africa and the Middle East.
She is a native of Missouri who studied journalism at Winthrop University in South Carolina. She is also an alumna of the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C.
Contact Kaitlyn at kaitlyn@themissouritimes.com.
