Nevada lawmakers looking at sales and service taxes

Lawmakers want to review Nevada’s sales tax structure as part of a series of discussions on the state’s major revenue streams.

The Senate Committee on Revenue and Economic Development plans to hear presentations on the topic Tuesday, although no specific bills are up for debate.

The state’s sales tax rates range from 6.85 percent in some rural counties to 8.1 percent in Clark County, and Nevada has the 13th highest average sales tax rate in the country, according to the Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

The Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce commissioned a study on the topic from the Tax Foundation, which criticized Nevada’s tax structure as narrow, outdated and complex.

The think tank recommends extending the sales tax to services to make it more broad-based and says that would allow lawmakers to lower the tax rate.

Expanding the sales tax to services would align with consumer spending habits, which have shifted away from the purchase of goods, the organization said.

The sales tax talk comes on the heels of a discussion Friday about Nevada’s live entertainment tax and will be followed by hearings on property, business and other taxes. It comes as Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval seeks funds for a major expansion in K-12 education programs.

“Our revenue structure is set on a model that was built 50 years ago,” Sandoval told reporters Tuesday. “We need to modernize our revenue system to meet the demands of the current day and to reflect what our economy is doing.”