Vet Sales Tax

California Sales Tax on Veterinary Medicine

We live in California - land of the beautiful people, great weather, smog and traffic! While I love living in this state, our state's economy hasn't been in great shape lately. Recently, our Governator proposed a temporary sales tax increase (from 5 percent to 6.5 percent) to "generate additional sales tax revenues of $ 3.5 billion in 2008-09 for the General Fund". Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal extends the sales tax to vehicle and furniture repairs, veterinarian services, amusement parks, sporting events and golf fees.

There are many things wrong with proposal, among them is that he has singled out veterinary medicine and not human medicine. However, the last time I checked, a veterinarian IS a doctor.

Additionally, in our current economic climate when household budgets are tightened, how effective would a tax on veterinarian services, furniture repairs and golf fees be? Adding sales tax to veterinary services may end up forcing owners to make difficult choices about the health and welfare of their pets. The proposed tax could add approximately 9% to the cost of veterinary care, which could result in more abandoned or euthanized pets.

The proposal may also put the public health and safety at risk. Veterinary care helps to protect the public from zoonotic diseases such as rabies and leptospirosis.

If you feel as I do, please follow this link and complete the information on the right side of the screen to send out letters to your state legislators as well as Governor Schwarzenegger. It was really simple to do, and didn't take more than 3 minutes!

Humane Society - Take Action California

I took this post from Winnie.