Hacker News Reader

I work as a sales tax auditor and the original comment is flat out wrong if you think about it. I'm assuming he is talking about the department of revenue or similar agency responsible for enforcement of sales tax. If you think about a state that has a 7% sales tax rate, do you think that state is spending HALF of the sales tax revenue on the operating budget for the department of revenue?

View on HN

I'd love to have some support for a real number. I found a source [1] for the cost to retailers to collect a tax (about 4.23% of tax collected in WA) but while most states make it pretty easy to see how much sales tax was collected they don't make it easy to see what it cost to collect that tax, separate from the other taxes they collect (income tax, corporate tax).

If you have any insight into this, or suggestions that are less painful than "read the state budget detail", I'd love to have a cost number that is based on facts.

[1] https://dor.wa.gov/content/retailers-cost-collecting-and-rem...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com