http://www.wtrf.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=75883
West Virginia would suspend sales taxes on gun purchases during the first weekend of October under legislation that unanimously passed the state House of Delegates Friday.
The Second Amendment Appreciation Act would mandate that the first weekend of every October become a sales tax holiday for gun purchases. The lead sponsor, Delegate Scott Varner, D-Marshall, said the holiday could actually bring in increased tax revenues, given that bargain-hunting shoppers likely will buy other things that are not taxed.
“The idea is to get them in to purchase the firearm and, along with that, you get all the ancillary benefits,” he said. Other states have approved sales tax holidays for gun sales. South Carolina and Louisiana both exempt firearms sales from state sales taxes for at least two days out of the year. Lawmakers in Mississippi and Oklahoma are considering adopting their own.
West Virginia is no stranger to sales tax holidays, with lawmakers adopting a three-month holiday for Energy Star qualified products at the urging of Gov. Joe Manchin two years ago.
Varner said the much-shorter holiday he is proposing is timed to coincide with the opening of hunting season. The bill hasn’t met any resistance so far in its legislative journey. However, at a national level, Mark Robyn, an economist with the nonprofit Tax Foundation, recently criticized the adoption of tax holidays for guns and other items as political gimmicks that do little for tax reform.
“The revenue loss from the tax cut would likely be relatively small, which is one reason politicians love it so much: they can enact a flashy headline-grabbing sales tax holiday and claim to be tax cutters while not really giving up much in revenue,” he wrote in a blog post.
The Second Amendment Appreciation Act will next go to the state Senate, which must approve it before it’s sent on to the governor’s desk for possible adoption into law.
