The State of Florida has offered a sales tax holiday on the purchase of certain items for a one week period in the month of July successfully for several years now. This is both pro-business and helps the neediest among us. For our area, it also helps increase local retailers exposure to their customers and overcomes the tax advantage of “no sales tax” Oregon merchants. Thank you Rep. Moeller.
Bill would keep Wash. shoppers from Oregon — for a weekend
Published: January 15, 2007
The Associated Press
PORTLAND — For many students in Vancouver, Wash., back-to-school means back to Oregon to buy clothes, computers and school supplies.
Families who live and work in southwest Washington avoid Oregon’s income tax, and often head to nearby Portland to avoid their state’s sales tax.
A legislator from Vancouver has introduced a bill in the Washington Legislature that would keep back-to-school shoppers at home — at least for a little while.
The bill would give create a one-weekend holiday from sales taxes on computers and computer supplies, clothing, school art supplies, instructional materials and other school supplies. The bill sets a limit on eligible items. A computer, for example, would have to cost less than $2,000.
Rep. Jim Moeller, a Democrat, said the legislation would have big effect on shoppers and businesses in his district, and Mark Johnson, a spokesman for the Washington Retail Association, predicted that such a tax holiday would indeed lead to a spike in sales.
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