McDonnell Budget To Cut Accelerated VA Sales Tax - WMDT 47 News - Delmarva's Choice

McDonnell Budget To Cut Accelerated VA Sales Tax

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The revised budget Gov. Bob McDonnell presents to legislators next week will end the accelerated sales tax for all but about 200 Virginia retail merchants, freeing 98 percent of dealers from the 3½-year-old budget-balancing scheme.
    
He also seeks $250,000 more for Parkinson's disease research at Virginia Commonwealth University.
    
The governor's office announced Tuesday that McDonnell will include nearly $21 million to offset revenue lost from drastically reducing the number of dealers subject to the accelerated sales tax.
    
Merchants despise the early estimated sales tax payments.
    
It was enacted to shore up state finances at the depth of the recession in 2009. McDonnell asked lawmakers in 2011 to phase it out early.
    
McDonnell proposes boosting the threshold for paying the tax from $26 million in annual taxable sales to $48.5 million.

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