Michigan Service Tax - what it means to you!

Well, now that the Michigan Service Tax is dead in the water, we small business owners can all breath a sigh of relief.

Don't know what the service tax was all about? Didn't care to check it out when it was still a sure bet?

Well, since it is dead, I won't bore you with the details but the list of taxable services is long. At a high-level though, most of the services fell under two categories, one was the business to business (B to B) category and the other was the Business to Consumer (B to C) category.

In the B to B space, the tax would have been on copywriting, consulting, printing, and many other B to B services.

In the B to C category the focus was on "personal" services which included "non-essential" services. These included facials, manicures and pedicures, skiing, party planning, astrology, weight reduction, dating services, travel services, etc.

Ok, so I can agree to skiing being a non-essential service but what about golfing? I saw no references to taxing golf services! Hmmm, well given that most deals are made on the golf course, perhaps golf is an essential service!

And in a country where there is an obesity epidemic, which lawmaker thinks that weight reduction is a non-essential service?

And lastly whoever claims that facials, manicures and pedicures are not essential ought to be sent to Antartica and made to live with chapped nails and shriveled skin. Imagine someone thinking those aren't essential to us women (and some men too!). But interestingly permanent makeup was considered an essential and was not to be taxed.

What are these people thinking????

So I'm glad that the service tax has been repealed because I know for a fact that I would have had to charge my clients for the 'high-end' design and consulting services that I offer - :).

Overall, looking at all the services that would have been taxed, I think the Asian Indian community would have felt the pain, what with all the consulting companies, design firms, beauticians, and travel agencies that have Asian Indian ownership.

But it also certainly would have been a pain to pay for my manicures and pedicures not to mention paying a tax to get my taxes done and paying a tax the kid next door to mow my lawn!