Warren County officials recently were notified that collection of the county’s new local use tax will begin July 1. Voters approved the tax during the countywide municipal election last April. Local use taxes are levied on purchases of items that must be licensed — vehicles, boats and trailers — which are bought by local residents from vendors and sellers outside Missouri. The tax also will apply to large purchases of wholesale items used for infrastructure projects, Presiding Commissioner Arden Engelage noted in a previous article. Additionally, individuals will not be required to file a use tax return if their purchases from out-of-state vendors do not exceed $2,000 in a calendar year, according to the wording of the use tax proposal which was placed on the April ballot.

Revenues Running Behind To date, county revenues are running behind budgeted projections for the 2013 fiscal year, Engelage said. Gene Cornell, Warren County treasurer, stated that sales tax collections through the first half of the current fiscal year are about $51,000 below the same period in 2012, adding that the county budgeted its anticipated revenue based on the previous year’s collections. Cornell added that sales tax collections “consistently” have been about 8 percent below projections each month so far. Engelage expressed hope that revenues generated by the local use tax will help cover the current shortfall in revenue. The rate of the local use tax is equal to the county’s sales tax rate of 1.5 percent.If the local sales tax rate is raised or lowered, the local use tax rate also will be changed accordingly. Sales tax revenues are divided evenly between three county funds — general revenue, law enforcement and capital projects. Seventy percent of the capital projects fund is used to hard-surface gravel roadways in the county and the remaining 30 percent is used on building projects. “We want to express our appreciation to the voters for their support in April,” Engelage added. The Missouri Supreme Court ruled in January 2012 that items such as vehicles, boats and trailers purchased outside Missouri were not subject to sales taxes, unless individual counties imposed local use taxes. As a result, counties without local use taxes, such as Warren County, are unable to collect revenue on such purchases. More than 40 Missouri counties levy local use taxes on out-of-state purchases.