The Best Scam Since Bernie Madoff
If only the Beatles were around to add a couple more lines to the song “Taxman” to describe this situation. One of the unfortunate byproducts of TABOR is the increased use of “fees” by government. One of these new taxes fees is the tire disposal fee of $1.50 on each old tire Colorado consumers want to dispose of (usually charged to consumers buying new tires). Now here’s the genius: the fee is assessed BEFORE the subtotal making it subject to sales tax! What better way to raise some extra money than to tax a tax?!
Our investigative reporter Todd Shepherd uncovered this incredible scam with his new report, “Government doesn’t just levy fees, it taxes them too.” The story is already making the rounds as evidenced by this National Review Online coverage here. Like I told Todd, $300K might not be a scandal to some people, but if we don’t stop this from happening now, it won’t be long before we start paying taxes on all our newly minted fees.
