Got fees?
This is a follow-on to Brian's post below. We got talking about "fees" yesterday in the newsroom -- like what tobacco retailers pay for the right to sell tobacco products, like fees bars and restaurants pay to do business (the words "floor tax" ring a bell) as well as the taxes and fees we customers pay. This little tax over here, that little fee over there. We were wishing for a comprehensive list of all the little and big fees private businesses and private citizen pay in New York.
Maybe you can help...chime in with what you've noticed, either from the business side or the consumer side. You can add a comment here, or e-mail martha@ncpr.org
posted by Martha Foley @ 9/24/2009 09:22:00 AM
10 Comments
10 Comments:
Realty signs on houses for sale is a new one.
State taxes or fees on your telephone and cable/satellite.
Any business with a furnace/boiler has to pay for an annual inspection - they actually have a guy that walks into the business, goes to the boiler, makes sure it's in working order (all of 5-10 minutes max), and leaves - then a week or two later a nice little bill arrives from the NYS Dept. of Boiler Safety (or some such official name). For my little shop it's $75 each time, and if you happen to miss the two-week deadline for payment (I found this from personal experience), it jumps to more than $300; ouch. When I paid that fine, I added the word "USURY!" in the memo line.
That's just one little extra I thought of. No doubt more will come to mind.
If you maintain a sales tax number you must report annually. In years when nothing is sold you still need to file that report, and ON TIME.
The fine for being late for reporting on nothing is $50.00
The new "Temporary State Assessment" or 18-a fee on utility bills is a huge new tax, though it's not being called a tax. It goes to the state - not to the utility.
How about the several hundred dollar tuition increase imposed on SUNY students which was then placed in the state's general fund. A "tax" directly on college students to cover the gaping holes in the budget.
If you have a hobby and want to set up at a craft show you have to make sure to include the State of New York and collect sales tax. This is only a hobby and I would like to do it once a year but its not worth the headache.
S. Compton brings up a good point about SUNY. Look at the other side of the fees- my son roomed at SUNY Canton with a kid from Queens was paying something like $1500.00 a semester while it cost my son $8000.00+ per semester. Why? Because the kid from Queens had a different skin tone. Good old diversity hitting one group in the pocketbook to benefit another group. If that's not a fee I don't know what is.
Bret - while it's easy to explain everything in life you either disagree with or obviously don't understand as being the result of some sort of reverse racism, that don't make it true.
There are a few hundred things that go into determining the amount an individual pays for college. However, the cost of a room is the same for everyone, regardless of skin color. Certain students may be eligible for additional aid based on a number of factors (family size and income being the most common). Skin color and zip code have nothing to do with the formula.
Hopefully, your kid gets some better-developed critical thinking skills from his education than his old man.
Anon hides behind the "anonymous" name and makes unkind remarks. How manly and grown up. The kid told my son that was what he was paying, that he was recruited because of his skin tone and for diversity.
As usual, anytime someone points out the obvious the first thing he's called is a racist. The plain fact is that if education was such a priority in this state then our schools would be more affordable for EVERYONE, not just those of one group or another. Instead the colleges and universities become a shrine to the administration.
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