I was sitting on my front porch the other evening, rocking a little and letting the day slow down, when my mind drifted to one of those conversations you hear floating around town.
You know the kind.
The kind that usually happens over at the country club about private hangars out at the airport. Who just bought a plane. Who’s building a new hangar. Who’s upgrading to something bigger.
Now let me say this before someone gets the wrong idea. It’s not like I hang out at the country club listening to those conversations. But in a small town news travels, and sooner or later you hear about it.
And every time I do, it reminds me of one of the strangest things in South Carolina’s tax code.
It’s called the Max Tax.
That means certain high-dollar purchases have a cap on the sales tax you pay. Once the tax reaches a certain amount, it stops. It doesn’t matter whether the item costs ten thousand dollars or a million dollars.
And what kind of items qualify for that little privilege?
Airplanes
Boats and yachts
Luxury recreational vehicles and motorcoaches
Motorcycles
Large trailers and specialty vehicles
Certain expensive equipment
In other words, some of the most expensive toys people can buy.
So a person can purchase a $1 million airplane and pay essentially the same sales tax as someone buying something that costs a fraction of that amount.
Meanwhile the mother standing in line at Walmart buying baby formula, diapers, school clothes, and shoes pays the full tax on every single dollar.
No cap.
No special break.
Just the bill.
Now before someone jumps up to correct me, yes I know South Carolina gives families one tax-free weekend each year for school clothes and school supplies.
One weekend.
But luxury purchases like airplanes, boats, and motorhomes essentially get their tax break every single day of the year.
Now I’ve heard the argument for years.
“If we didn’t cap the tax, people wouldn’t buy those items in South Carolina.”
Bless their hearts.
If someone can afford a million-dollar airplane, the sales tax isn’t what’s going to stop them. They buy the plane where they plan to keep it. Where they fly it. Where the runway and the hangar are waiting.
They’re not moving their purchase across state lines over a tax bill.
But somehow our tax code ended up with a rule where the more expensive the toy gets, the smaller the tax becomes.
That doesn’t pass the rocking chair test.
When I first went to the South Carolina Senate, I actually introduced legislation to review some of these caps and exemptions.
That bill didn’t exactly take flight.
It went straight to File 13… also known as the Chairman’s desk drawer.
For those unfamiliar with legislative terminology, that’s the polite way of saying the bill isn’t going anywhere.
Now I know this isn’t going to be popular in certain circles. But the people of South Carolina deserve to know how some of this works.
Because if we’re going to talk about easing the tax burden anywhere, maybe we ought to start with the people who actually need it.
The parents trying to buy school clothes and shoes in August.
The families trying to afford diapers and baby formula.
The grandparents helping raise grandkids on a fixed income.
If the burden is going to be lifted anywhere, maybe that’s where it should begin.
Because if you can afford a million-dollar airplane, a yacht, or a luxury motorcoach, you can probably afford to pay the same sales tax everybody else does.
WHILE I BREATHE 