Veterinary services in California will be taxed at 9 percent if current proposal is passed.
As part of the continued effort to decrease the California budget deficit, Governor Schwarzenegger is looking to create a 9 percent tax on veterinary services as well as furniture repair, vehicle repair, golf, amusement-park fees and sporting events. This proposed tax would be the first time medical services would be taxed in the state.
So why are veterinary services being singled out for this added tax, when all other medical services are excluded? Veterinary clinics are supposedly being added because they are already set up to add sales tax to transactions because of pet food and other sales.
Seems a faulty argument to me… not all veterinary clinics offer retail supplies, and not all medical offices do not. Many medical offices offer products these days, from skin care products to nutritional supplements. And I don’t buy anything but medications at my vet’s office.
Adrian Hochstadt, assistant director of the AVMA State Legislative and Regulatory Affairs Department, said of this proposed tax, “It’s a pretty unusual step, and, given the economic conditions today, we are concerned about any outside, arbitrary or artificial sources to increase cost to consumers. I think this is a terrible time to be raising taxes on veterinary services. A 9 percent tax might not amount to much for people at the top of the income distribution level, but for people who are hurting, 9 percent is a lot.” The total revenue from the new tax is expected to be about $357 million a year.
You can take action to oppose this new tax right from your desktop by writing the governor and all of your state representatives all at once. Simply click here and fill in your zip code in the box under “elected officials”, then click on the blue “with one click” link on the next page to write all of your elected officials at once. Fill in the subject (i.e. veterinary tax), select ”tax” in the scroll-down “issues” menu, write any desired comments, fill in your info, and click “send message”. Voila! You’ve just emailed all of your state representatives in one easy step. This really does work – I’ve used it before for other issues and received responses back from our legislators. You can also call the governor’s office at 916-445-2841 to indicate your opposition to this proposed tax as well as faxing your message to 916-558-3160, and you can email the governor here (be sure to click “oppose” on the form).
Seems a better way to reduce the California state budget crisis would be to reduce spending, but perhaps that’s too obvious. Recent reports state that the governor added new pork-barrel positions paying in excess of $100k each to legislators who would otherwise have been put out to pasture. Isn’t it time for them to get a *real* job instead of some fictitious Head of the Pork Barrel Committee position?
Be sure to speak up against this new veterinary tax, or the next thing you’ll likely see being taxed will be all human medical services.
26. January 2009 at 4:01 pm
I am opposed to the veternarian tax. It’s almost impossible to afford a veternarian now and animals are going to suffer if this bill is passed!
9. February 2009 at 10:31 am
This shows how far in the toilet our California govenment has gone. There has to be a list of programs to illegals that can be cut back before again taxing the population for their inablility to figure out how to balance the budget.
This will only increase pets being dumped. That is like taxing centers for abused women and children. Pets rely on people to care for them. Penalizing people for providing care to a animal that takes nothing back from the system like money for education or state provided health services.
When can we start taxing churches even if a small %.
Take back all state provided vehicles and hand out a bus passes instead. Los Angeles MTA is between $62 and $70 a month.. How much are we paying for cars that spouses end up driving and insurance. Riding the bus will also get the politicians and state workers more in touch with the people they are supposed to be working for..
9. February 2009 at 10:38 am
Lydia, I completely agree with you that there are many other areas where costs can be reduced before more tax assessments should be allowed in order to balance the budget.
Hopefully this bill will be modified before it is passed.
11. February 2009 at 6:03 pm
I have sent a few emails to Arnold the Governator, and I kept getting the same form letter reply, which tells me that they he just isn’t listening:
Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me about my proposal to expand the sales and use taxes to include veterinarian services. I appreciate your input during these challenging times.
Shortly after adopting the 2008-09 budget, economic conditions began deteriorating rapidly, and California faced a massive revenue shortfall that would only grow unless corrective action was taken. After months of negotiating with Republicans and Democrats, we still have not reached an agreement on a solution, and estimates now show our budget deficit reaching a staggering $42 billion during the next 18 months if nothing is done. Now is the time to turn the page on months of failed negotiations and move forward with the balanced budget my administration proposed on December 31.
To close the budget shortfall, I have proposed to reduce spending by $17.4 billion. I have made tough choices I wish I did not have to make, and I know this is a terrible time to cut programs people depend on. But in an emergency like this, we have to take quick action to avoid even worse problems – even if they include making decisions we don’t like. To generate new revenue, I am proposing to apply the sales and use tax rate to veterinarian services at 6.5 percent. We selected industries that already have infrastructure in place to implement this tax in a timely fashion. I know this is a terrible time to expand sales taxes, but we have to take quick action to deal with this fiscal emergency.
I continue to urge Californians to call their legislators, send them e-mails and postcards and tell them to not waste any more time. It is time for Republicans and Democrats to put politics aside and make the tough choices needed to keep our state from a financial disaster that will take years to recover from.
Sincerely,
Arnold Schwarzenegger
14. February 2009 at 10:05 pm
PLEASE ACT NOW!!!