Coalition backs bill to limit car rental taxes
Dennis Schaal, Travel Weekly, 5/30/2007
A coalition that includes the National Business Travel Association, ASTA and major car rental firms is backing a bill that would halt any efforts by state and local governments to impose any new "discriminatory" car rental excise taxes.
Introduced by U.S. Representatives Rick Boucher (D-Va.) and Chris Cannon (R-Utah), H.R. 2453 would bar new state and local excise taxes -- the kind that fund new ballparks or teachers' salaries -- after May 23, 2007, the day the bill was introduced.
"When state and local lawmakers -- even under the guise of 'states rights' -- enact car rental excise taxes as a politically expedient means of shifting the tax burden to out-of-state renters, they interfere with the well-established principles of interstate commerce," the Coalition Against Discriminatory Car Rental Excise Taxes, which includes car rental companies and consumer groups, said in a prepared statement.
The car rental firms in the coalition include the Avis Budget Group, which operates the Avis and Budget brands; Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, parent of the Dollar and Thrifty car rental companies; Enterprise Rent-A-Car, which operates the Enterprise, Alamo and National brands; and Hertz.
The legislation would grandfather existing state and local car rental excise taxes as long as the rate or basis doesn't change and authorization has not expired.
The bill would not impact moves by state and local governments to impose sales or property taxes, which are not considered discriminatory because all citizens or businesses within the jurisdictions are subject to them.
The coalition views car rental excise taxes as discriminatory, conversely, because out-of-state business and leisure travelers carry the load on paying the car rental excise taxes.