JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Sen. Will Kraus announced Monday he plans to file legislation that will prevent the Department of Revenue from collecting taxes on delivery fees.
In a letter from the Department of Revenue to the state’s business owners, the DOR says that it may collect sales tax on some deliveries due to a state Supreme Court decision, given a few outside factors. In the case, Alberici Constructors, Inc. v. Director of Revenue, the court found that the charges for delivery of a rented crane could be taxed because the cost to deliver the crane was intended to be part of the crane rental.
So, DOR sent out a list of factors that indicated if a delivery could have a sales tax attached to it.
Kraus called the department’s policy “another example of bureaucratic overreach into taxpayers’ pockets.”
“It has become increasingly common for our courts to hand down a ruling and then see the Department of Revenue reinterpret state tax law, without legislative approval and without any regard for the impact on hard-working Missouri families,” Kraus said in a statement.
The Republican state senator from Lee’s Summit has made a name for himself in the General Assembly with tax cutting measures in the past. He had two such measures in 2016’s legislative session. SB 823 provided tax exemptions on internet sales and helped classify small bed and breakfast operations as residences for tax purposes, while SB 1025 exempted instructional classes from a sales tax. Gov Jay Nixon signed the first into law but vetoed the latter. The latter’s veto will not likely be upheld, as it passed unanimously in the Senate and near-unanimously in the House.
