06.16.2009 1:44 pm
McMillan offers one-day amnesty for business tax penalties
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
McMillan
ST. LOUIS — License Collector Mike McMillan is offering businesses late on their taxes a one-day amnesty to pay the obligations without penalty.
Businesses with late or unpaid license fees can pay them without sanction from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. tomorrow at Harris Stowe’s Emerson Performing Arts Center.
The sagging economy is providing a dilemma for tax collectors like McMillan around the region.
Cities want businesses to pay their tax bills, but harsh enforcement risks shutting the business down, which would not beneficial to the city in the long-term.
It’s like they say in poker: You can shear a sheep many times, but only skin it once.
I can be there by 2:30.
I’ll remember this when Earnings Taxes are due next April. Residents leaving the city would not be good either long-term. Come to think of it, some probably already left due to the Earnings Tax.
Dang, I just paid our 2008 and 2009 business taxes last week. Paid them late and paid penalties. If only I put it off yet another week!
How does he arbritrarily waive fees authorized by the Board of Aldermen? Did they approve this? Does this office have the latitude to exercise such executive fiat?