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<< Back to "Your Voice" Archive“YOUR VOICE”Elimination of Farm Personal Property Taxes The personal property tax system is a difficult concept to accept. It is even more obtuse when it is implemented in conjunction with sales taxes. A sales tax presumably places the burden of taxation upon the more affluent, or at least the more aggressive consumers. The concept of “the more you spend, the more you should be taxed” is reasonable in that the poorer people in society do not have to carry as much of the tax load as the wealthier. Sales taxes do fail in meaning when they are applied to the necessities of life; food, shelter, clothing, heat. They should truly be applied only to those consumer items that we can live without. Personal property taxes are applied to the things that we own; cars, boats, etc., some of which are essentials and some luxury items. The personal property taxes that are applied to items that are necessary for us to earn a living are truly onerous. An issue we face in West Virginia is the taxation of personal property that farmers need in order to make a living. Farmers are taxed annually for the value of their farm equipment, their tractors, and their farm implements. This process is similar to taxing a physician for his or her stethoscope, taxing a beautician for her or his combs and brushes, taxing a writer’s pencils or a musician’s violin. None of these make any sense at all. The West Virginia farmers suffer even further under the personal property tax imposed upon the value of their livestock. Assessments are made against the farmer’s cows, sheep, goats and any other livestock, long before any profit can be realized from the sale of livestock products. Historical campaigns to repeal this form of taxation have been unsuccessful. It is time to end this discriminatory brand of taxation. Let’s repeal the Farm Personal Property Tax now. Vote for a Rational Tax Structure. Let’s Clean Up Our State Finances. Write-In:
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