Jefferson City, Mo., Feb 24, 2010 / 04:07 am
A proposed Missouri “mega-sales tax” would affect private school tuition and would unfairly burden parents who send their children to Catholic schools, the Missouri Catholic Conference has warned.
The services taxed under the proposal by the Missouri General Assembly include educational services provided by K-12 private and parochial schools. College tuition is explicitly exempted and no K-12 school tax is imposed on public school parents, the Missouri Catholic Conference (MCC) reported in a Feb. 11 statement.
The present proposed tax rate of 5.11 percent may be adjusted upward, the MCC added, because once the principle of tuition taxation is conceded there is nothing preventing its increase. An eight percent tax on tuition of $3,000 would cost parents an additional $240 in taxes.
College tuition is reportedly exempted from the tax because it is considered an investment.