James CallIt may be a tax cut but it’s not about the money. Sen. Renee Garcia and Rep. Jay Fant on Monday begin their push for a Small Business Saturday Tax Holiday. Their proposal is a tax break for purchases at smaller independently owned stores on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It would provide a $20 million to $60 million tax cut for consumers — about the cost of a cup of Starbucks or an Egg McMuffin for each Florida resident.
Fant and Garcia say their intent is to encourage consumers to support businesses with ties to their community; to include “Main Street as part of their holiday shopping.”
“We very well know you spend your dollars with a small business it stays in that community; it doesn’t go somewhere else and pay for corporate profits,” Garcia said about promoting a small business tax holiday. “Hopefully it will encourage that consumer, the individual to come back and visit that business.”
The sales tax exemption would apply to purchases at businesses that have less than $3.3 million in total annual sales. Garcia and Fant spoke Monday at a NFIB news conference to promote the measure; in advance of Garcia introducing SB 384 at a Commerce and Tourism committee meeting.’
Fant’s HB 259 has been assigned to the Finance and Tax Committee.
