Agenda Date: 12/19/2017
Subject:
Title
Ordinance on second reading amending Title 3, Chapter 9, Sections 3-9-1-2, 3-9-3-2, 3-9-1-10 and 3-9-6-12 of the city code, enacting and implementing standardized sales and use tax definitions
Body
Presented By:
Tiffany Hooten, Finance Director
POLICY QUESTION:
Does city council support an amendment to Chapter 3 of the City of Littleton Municipal Code regarding the Sales Tax Standardization Definitions Project and conform to Colorado Revised Statutes?
BACKGROUND:
The largest revenue source (52%) for the General Fund is from sales and use taxes. Every vendor must collect a 3.00% sales tax on the purchase price or sales price paid or charged for tangible personal property and certain taxable services when purchased, leased, rented or sold at retail within the City of Littleton. The city is a home-rule municipality meaning the city self-collects sales taxes directly from taxpayers.
In 1991, self-collecting home-rule municipalities worked with the Colorado Municipal League (CML) to adopt a series of standardized sales and use tax definitions to make it easier on businesses that had locations or made sales/deliveries in multiple jurisdictions. Having consistent definitions across the multiple home-rule municipalities simplified the sales tax recordkeeping and administrative burden on the business community.
Since then, the standardization of the definitions has eroded as various cities have added and modified existing definitions to address new technologies and issues raised by various taxpayers, and to provide better clarification where ambiguities potentially existed.
In 2014, the Colorado General Assembly adopted Senate Joint Resolution 14-038, asking CML to again work with its member municipalities to adopt a package of standard definitions related to sales and use tax. CML formed a Sales Tax Standardized Definitions subcommittee to work on a package of standard definitions. There were many meetings and lots of...
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