I’m open to privatizing collections.
Tax collecting and the profit motive don’t mix, Georgia’s chief tax collector warned state lawmakers Thursday.Commissioner of Revenue Bart Graham said members of the General Assembly should think twice before turning to private companies to collect sales taxes.
Testifying before a Senate study committee, Graham said privatization of tax collecting would create a cadre of for-profit collectors and auditors who could run roughshod over Georgia businesses.
But I do lean toward Graham’s position.
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Hey, it worked during the Roman Empire, and we’re getting more and more like them every day. Hail, Caesar!
There are things that the government should legitimately do, there are things that businesses should legitimately do. Collecting taxes is clearly a roll of the government. Stop trying to give private businesses governmental powers and mixing public and private enterprise.
Are these the same members of the GA who came up with GREAT?
This is a simply terrible idea. The states that do this are an absolute NIGHTMARE for businesses. Alabama once had 3 different entities collecting local taxes, with counties/cities shifting amongst them.
Some cities/counties in Georgia would like to collect their own sales tax, like the parishes in Louisiana, but this is also a nightmare for businesses.
Give Commissioner Graham more money to audit and the revenues will increase. There is a LOT more sales tax revenue to be had by more enforcement.
Another good move would be to implement uniformity with the other states in the Georgia Code.
Yep
As a small government conservative I’m not for any of these “Enron” fiascoes or trying to privatize in strange places. It looks like a fiasco. How about we quit all the weird experiments that come from some K street think tank?
In some cases “privatization” simply means exchanging a State-level bureaucracy for a national or international bureaucracy (that sell stock shares) And of course K-street doesn’t care too much for “mom and pop” operations.
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