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You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch: Christmas Tree Tax Proposal Returns
Source:
forbes.com
- Dec 18, 2013
Kelly Phillips Erb, Contributor
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Like many families, we spent the last few days decorating for the holidays – and that included putting up our Christmas tree. Our tree was one of nearly 45 million Christmas trees purchased this year: about 30 million of those trees will be real.
That’s a lot of green. And I’m not just talking about needles: the sale of trees generates quite a bit of revenue for retailers, growers and marketers.
It may cost even more if Congress gets its way: the farm bill – which the House and Senate have yet to hash out – once again includes a Grinch-y tax on Christmas trees. The tax, a 15-cent assessment/tax on the sale of fresh-cut Christmas trees, first reared its ugly head in 2010. The measure was considered in 2011 but was so wildly unpopular that it was killed by the Obama administration. So, logically, Congress is trying it again.
The tax is meant to raise money. But what it’s raising money for is baffling: a new federal program to improve the image and marketing of Christmas trees. It seems that Christmas trees are suffering from bad PR. And for that, we apparently need (and I’m not making this up) a Christmas Tree Promotion Board.
Here’s why:
Real trees tell a positive story about local farms, environmental stewardship and cultural tradition. And they need the fair and sustainable structure such an order provides to compete against factory built, outsourced, plastic trees, which are dramatically increasing in market share and landfills.
You got that, right? Artificial trees are killing America. Or something like that. At least according to the National Christmas Tree Association.
Which brings us to the plan: charge more for Christmas trees in order to try and sell more Christmas trees. And in true D.C. fashion, there’s a lots and lots of red ribbon, er, tape to go along with it.
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Category: General Business
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