Taxable Talk

Entrepreneurs look for niches: Opportunities that aren’t being served well by current businesses. Enter the humble taco truck. These food kitchens on wheels tend to serve business workers looking for a quick and reasonably priced meal. I saw them daily when I was living in Orange County.

What’s the biggest enemy of the entrepreneur? That’s easy: Government. It stifles businesses by adding regulations and taxes. And out of my old stomping grounds of Orange County comes a story about 12 taco truck owners who say that they now must fight the BOE.

One issue is that some items sold by these entrepreneurs are taxable while some are not. Thus, estimates are used to determine the sales tax owed to the state. Apparently, these estimates have now become unreasonable.

In this article in the Orange County Register, Steven Greenhut comes to the same conclusion that I did:

The state Capitol is controlled by liberal Democrats, who frequently invoke concern for the poor, working-class people and immigrants to justify spending schemes. Yet here is another example of how these officials, lawmakers and bureaucrats, put the demands of the well-paid and powerful public-employee unions over the needs of cash-strapped immigrants and working people.

State officials refuse to tackle solutions for the pension debt or rein in public spending. Indeed, they are busy approving fanciful projects such as high-speed rail. Yet, the state has no money. This is the end result of an infantile progressive movement that refuses to make hard choices, always blames the private sector and figures that higher taxes will solve every problem.

Read the entire piece and you’ll understand that California is doing everything it can to drive all business out of state.

A few years ago, the California Legislature passed a bill requiring the Board of Equalization (California’s sales tax agency) to publish a list of the top 500 deadbeats each quarter. That list has just been updated. On top of the list is California Target Enterprises Inc. with a debt of $18.4 million; at the bottom of the list is Mega Micro, Inc. with a debt of $404,390.

In scanning the list the one thing that struck me was the number of automobile dealerships on the list. I can’t believe it’s that hard to figure out and remit the sales tax on a new or used car. However, my mother told me about how “honest” used car salesmen are….That said, there are new car dealers on the list, too; a relatively new listing is Auto First Financial Corp. dba Silicon Valley Hummer with a debt of $2.85 million.

To date, the list has caused the BOE to receive $5.3 million in payments, so this is one of the few accomplishments of the California legislature.