How can you tax me on a rental???

[Surbey]

Isn’t sales tax only applicable to goods? How can someone tax me on a rental that I have to return in 2 days. Because as soon as they clean it, someone else is going to pay tax on it again. Hell, its easily conceivable that a tux will have tax paid on it 30 to 50 times. How is that possible?

[Patty_O_Furniture]

Goods and services can both be taxable.

Texas:

A Texas business that provides a taxable service for a fee is required to obtain a sales tax permit and collect the state and local sales tax. Listed below are some types of services that are taxable:

[Bill_Door]

They do it because they can. And, it’s even easier to tax someone on a rental, since a lot of the time rentals, particularly short term rentals, are made by out of towners who don’t vote in the jurisdiction charging the tax.

I’m holding right here in my hand a stack of hotel and auto rental receipts from several states, all of them with taxes and fees over 13%. The only time I’ve ever gotten a break was in Alabama, where if I stayed longer than 30 days in a hotel they stopped charging the taxes.

[kanicbird]

How can they tax you on something you already own outright and have paid tax on it when you bought it? but it’s called property tax

[Rigamarole]

How can they tax you on something that you earned all on your own, without any real help from the government? Oh wait, it’s called income tax.

[chrisk]

@Surbey

Isn’t sales tax only applicable to goods? How can someone tax me on a rental that I have to return in 2 days. Because as soon as they clean it, someone else is going to pay tax on it again. Hell, its easily conceivable that a tux will have tax paid on it 30 to 50 times. How is that possible?

Aren’t charges only applicable to things I can keep? How can the company charge me for a rental that I have to return in 2 days?? Because as soon as they clean it, they’re going to rent it out to someone else again. Heck, it’s easily conceivable that the company will be able to get people to pay for the same thing 40 to 60 times. How is that possible???

[sub](my point: if the rental company is making money off of it over and over and over again, why shouldn’t the government be able to? They’re not charging the same tax that they would for a sale of the item on each rental… they’re asking for a flat percentage of whatever money the company is making off you, as long as it isn’t for something tax-exempt.)[/sub]

[RickJay]

@kanicbird

How can they tax you on something you already own outright and have paid tax on it when you bought it? but it’s called property tax

Property tax is as much a user fee as anything else, though; you’re not so much paying tax for buying your house as you are paying the government to operate roads, utilities, and other accoutrements of public use.

[David_Simmons]

@RickJay

@kanicbird

How can they tax you on something you already own outright and have paid tax on it when you bought it? but it’s called property tax

Property tax is as much a user fee as anything else, though; you’re not so much paying tax for buying your house as you are paying the government to operate roads, utilities, and other accoutrements of public use.

In addition taxes pay for the maintainance of records that you do own the property and the assistance of the government in protecting your property from encroachment by others. How much do you suppose you would have to pay per year to protect your property rights from all comers without the assistance of the government?