editorial
The Great Sales Tax Rip-Off
There have been throughout history laws enacted
that were made with all good intentions at the time
of their enactment. But as time passed, so did the
reason for making the laws and with them the good
intentions. Such is the case with the laws outlawing
amusement machines today.
Sales tax laws, on the other hand, are fairly rigid,
simple in their intent and for the most part fair and
understandable. But when misinterpreted a sales
tax law can be just as unfair and ridiculous a law as
a law that outlaws flipper games. .
Sales tax is by definition a tax on sales. It is a tax
on the purchaser who, when any sale is made, must
by law pay a designated percentage [anywhere
from two to eight per cent] on the total purchase
price. The tax works well enough for the grocery
store operator or the department store salesman
who, standing eye-to-eye with John Q. Customer,
can transact the sale, get his money and COLLECT
the sales tax from the customer. But what about
the coin machine operator who seldom sees his
customers. How can he possibly be there to collect
two cents every time someone drops a Quarter in
the jukebox? Can the operator who operates a
two-bit viewer atop Pikes Peak be expected to run
up to the top of the mountain and collect a penny
every time someone drops a quarter into his
machine? These may be ludicrous examples but
they do illustrate a point.
It is totally ridiculous to charge sales tax on sales
made by any coin-operated device because coin
machines cannot compute percentages nor can they
dispense random amounts of change to the
customer. It is futher absurd to charge the
operator of coin machines a sales tax on the
revenues the machines generate. Since he is
already paying some sort of income tax on his
revenues such a sales tax would be a double tax
[paying twice for the same thing].
Yet in a great many areas, operators are
coughing up the sales tax that, by law, their
"deadbeat" customers [as PURCHASERS] are
supposed to pay. But how can they pay a sales tax
on their game of eightball if the operator isn't there
to collect it? Perhaps the operator should cut holes
into the top of a number of cigar boxes and mark
them "Sales Tax" and place one on every machine.
Or perhaps the maufacturers should start installing
mini-computers equipped with penny-acceptor me-
chanisms that would compute the sales ta.x on each
play and demand exact change from the customer.
More ridiculous solutions to implement ridiculous
sales tax interpretations in a great many areas.
The plain, simple fact regarding sales taxes is IF
YOU CAN'T COLLECT THE ALES TAX FROM
THE CU TOMER, YOU SHOULD NOT BE
EXPECTED TO PAY IT!
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