Week in Review: Victory for Arizona Taxpayers

August 4, 2018

The Goldwater Institute won an important victory this week for all Arizona taxpayers after a state court struck down a new sales tax in rural Pinal County that violated state law.

In 2017, the Pinal County Board of Supervisors asked local voters to approve a new sales tax to pay for road construction and other infrastructure projects. Pinal County told voters the new tax would be collected when retail businesses sold an item worth more than $10,000.

That alone violates state law by creating a new category for items to be taxed.

But after voters approved the new sales tax, Pinal County pulled a switcheroo. The Board of Supervisors claimed the new sales tax actually applied to all businesses, not just retail transactions.

So we sued to protect Arizona taxpayers from such unequal treatment and unfair election tactics by government agencies.

Arizona Tax Court Judge Christopher Whitten ruled the new sales tax violated state law because Pinal County did not apply it as required by statute.

Most remarkably, while state law required us to sue the Arizona Department of Revenue, that state agency actually agreed with us in court that Pinal County’s new sales tax was illegal.

To read more about our lawsuit, please visit Vangilder v. Arizona Department of Revenue.

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