One of the regional taxes embedded in the General Assembly’s transportation funding package is a five percent service fee on automobile repairs. I suppose the logic is that the levy can be characterized as a “user fee” on automobile owners rather than a tax, which it really is.
This tax is very worrisome. Applying a fee for services is a Rubicon that Virginia has not yet crossed. As a correspondent who works for a major state trade association points out: “We have not applied taxes to services provided in Virginia. This precedent of applying fees on a service is a dangerous one, opening the door for taxes on lawyers, accountants, or day-care.”
Everyone in the service sector of the economy — and that includes writers like myself — ought to be afraid… very afraid.
