Posted: Aug 30, 2010 5:24 PM by Marnee Banks (KXLH)
Updated: Aug 30, 2010 6:06 PM
Governor Brian Schweitzer is trying to increase the state's revenue by targeting out-of-state tax resources and is asking the Department of Revenue to look at collecting lodging taxes from online travel sites.
Online travel sites charge the customer lodging tax when they book hotels online, but in some cases, the companies may not be not paying the states their full share.
Schweitzer noted, "The Department of Revenue is doing a great job under the leadership of Dan Bucks. They are collecting taxes without raising taxes, and a large percentage of this is people from outside of Montana who have owed these taxes over the course of these last numbers of years, but in many cases had not been asked before."
The Governor also asked the Department of Revenue to look at collecting income tax from mineral sales, saying that mineral rights are frequently sold and re-sold to out of state buyers.
Schweitzer says the sellers are frequently making money off the sale and not reporting it to the state.
Schweitzer doesn't know how much these two ideas can bring in, but he believes it could be millions of dollars.
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