REALTORS® survive budget deal

REALTORS® have a good reason to celebrate the 2010-2011 state budget passed by the General Assembly: It didn’t include provisions for a sales tax on professional services.

PAR fought against the proposal to tax professional services, a move that would have taxed REALTOR® fees. Gov. Edward G. Rendell’s original budget plan introduced in February included a tax on every profession and service connected to a real estate transaction.  In March, REALTORS® rallied at the state capitol voicing opposition to the proposed tax. A survey conducted by PAR revealed that 70 percent of Pennsylvanians polled opposed the proposed taxes that would drive up costs for consumers in the home-buying and selling process. The governor abandoned the plan in May.

“We’re pleased to see that our efforts paid off and the tax on professional services was removed from the spending plan early in the budget process,” said Don Roth, PAR president. “With no additional tax burdens on the real estate industry in Pennsylvania, we’re hopeful that more homebuyers will take advantage of the increased inventory and low mortgage rates.”

In prior budget battles, Pennsylvania REALTORS® stood strong against any increase in the Realty Transfer Tax (RTT), reputed to be among the highest in the nation. REALTORS® fought a proposed increase of the RTT in the 2007-2008 state budget.

Gov. Rendell signed the $28 billion dollar spending plan on Tuesday morning.

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Tags: government affairs, Governor Rendell, state budget

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 at 3:10 pm and is filed under Government Affairs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.