Use Taxes

Complicated - but not really

Wwwwway back in February, Superior made a decision to waive use taxes on any homeowner that is rebuilding. It’s a bit of a wonky conversation, but materials for construction aren’t charged sales tax - mainly since they move all over the state / county / etc.

Since taxes should get assessed at the place where stuff is getting installed, the system has evolved to figuring out the taxes when someone gets a permit. So when a homeowner decides to finish their basement (for example), the town will assume half the cost is materials.

Same thing when new houses are built - your $800k house will have $400k estimated as the materials cost. So, in Superior, that $400k would get 8% in taxes - so $24k on top of everything else.

But use taxes for homes that need to get rebuilt is insult to injury. The first time the house was built, the homeowner paid the use taxes. The Town never budgeted to need to rebuild 400 homes and the associated use taxes. In Superior it would have been around $9M in taxes. While we could definitely use the money, this comes directly from the homeowners that are barely able to cover the cost of a new home.

So we waived it. And we cut permit fees.

And we assumed others would follow. The state, the county, RTD. But six months in, still waiting.

https://www.dailycamera.com/2022/07/21/editorial-use-tax-is-unnecessary-burden-on-marshall-fire-victims/