Christmas Tree Tax: President Obama Did Something Right -- for a Change (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | For once (and only once), I have to tip my hat to President Barack Obama and his administration for coming up with a creative tax that is not overwhelming and might actually get a job done. The Christmas tree tax is one of the better ideas that they have had in a long time and might actually work. As a former political/business consultant, I know that tax increases are sometimes needed, but keeping them low is usually the best way to make them impactful.

The 15-cent tax on Christmas trees will help to pay for promotion for the industry. The increase will only impact companies that sell more than 500 trees a year. The money is not earmarked to go into any type of general fund, but to go directly for the promotional plan that it is being collected for. Instead of being "filtered" by different departments, it will go into the fund that it needs to go into.

Chances are good the average holiday tree is going to go up in price to cover the expense of the tax. I would not be surprised to see an increase of a dollar or two. This is actually good for the industry since 15 cents will go toward the Christmas tree tax, and the rest is pure profit. From a business perspective, this is a good move by President Obama. Very few people are going to avoid purchasing a tree because of a marginal increase in pricing.

Instead of coming up with a way to increase our debt, or impose some type of burden on everyone, the Obama administration decided to make a marginal tax directly on the market that the tax would help. If merchants want to get advertising, they are going to have to pay for it themselves. Granted, the consumer will ultimately pay the price, but this is a consumerist country after all.

Note that I started off pointing out that complimenting President Obama is a rarity for me. Now that he has this minuscule Christmas tree tax figured out, maybe he can get to work on trying to figure out a way for people to get back to work. Maybe he can finally sit down with Congress to discuss a strong jobs bill that could actually get passed. Hopefully, that will not wait until after the holidays.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111109/us_ac/10400667_christmas_tree_tax_president_obama_did_something_right__for_a_change

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