County use tax collections up 373 percent

El Paso County is reporting a threefold jump in use tax collections.

In spite of a nearly 20 percent drop in building valuation for the first eight months of the year, use tax collections on building materials increased threefold during the same period.

From April through August, collections of use tax on building materials is up 373 percent compared with the same period last year while the number of permits issued is down 16.3 percent.

El Paso County began directly collecting use tax on building materials during April, prior to that it was collected by the city and state. 

With four months still remaining in 2009, use taxes paid to El Paso County total $1,261,371 and another $1,305,448 is estimated to be due when construction is complete on other projects which have already been issued permits.

Budget officials said total collections from Colorado Springs under the old process were $661,000 for all of 2008.

6 Responses to “County use tax collections up 373 percent”

1. John Whitten Says:
   September 2nd, 2009 at 11:41 am

   There’s something wrong here……kind of sounds like somebody wasn’t doing their job………maybe the Ethics Committee should take a stab at this issue……on second thought, maybe not…….they’d just have a closed meeting and tell everybody nothing happened………

2. mike finkbiner Says:
   September 2nd, 2009 at 11:56 am

   It’s time for the EPBOCC to change the way the tax is sent to the State and then sent back to the county. I think they would be surprised on how much they would capture if they kept the tax monies here. With technology available today the taxes should be able to be captured electronically from any sale made in the county. Why send this money to the State and wait for reimbursement. The State has been known for huge errors in handling money over the years, let’s work to protecting what should stay here in El Paso County.

3. Heath A. Herber Says:
   September 2nd, 2009 at 1:08 pm

   This is an accounting scam. The same amount of tax is being collected as before but now it is called “use tax” instead of sales tax. Since most building materials are bought in the county or from large multistate suppliers that know they have to collect sales tax based on where the materials are delivered, the same amount of tax is being collected. Sorry, no free lunch here — just more of a paper work burden for builders and citizens.

4. Kevin Walker Says:
   September 2nd, 2009 at 3:32 pm

   The continued misuse of this information by news organizations is what is the real news. The only news here ought to be that the County did not know what the State colllected for them in use tax last year and now they do. Hardly something to trumpet.

5. Building Materials & Supplies Says:
   September 3rd, 2009 at 2:43 am

   In spite of a nearly 20 percent drop in building valuation for the first eight months of the year, use tax collections on building materials increased threefold during the same period.

   Where did the difference go?

6. Dave Keller Says:
   September 3rd, 2009 at 12:10 pm

   Dittos for the statements of Mssrs. Finkbiner, Walker and Herber.