N.H. smart to protect its tax-free status

The Portsmouth Herald editorializes on the benefits New Hampshire reaps by protecting its customers from Massachusetts tax collectors.

Look at the license plates in shopping plazas along Route 1 in Seabrook. About half of them are from Massachusetts.

They're outside Wal-Mart and Lowe's and Home Depot. Increasingly, they're outside Shaw's and Market Basket.

They're in lines at the discount gas stations where prices are 20 cents or more a gallon cheaper that just across the border.

Even with the increase in the New Hampshire cigarette tax, they're buying cigarettes in New Hampshire.

Anecdotally, there is a hand-written sign near the cash register in a small grocery store in a Massachusetts town near the border that reads: "To our valued customers" and goes on to recommend they buy their cigarettes in New Hampshire because of the savings.

New Hampshire remains tax free to Bay State shoppers

Great news for southern New Hampshire retailers and Massachusetts shoppers, as the Boston Herald reports that the state Supreme Court rules against automatically collecting sales taxes on goods bought out of state.

A ruling by the state’s highest court today means that tax-free New Hampshire will remain tax free – even for Massachusetts residents.

In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Judicial Court found that the state Department of Revenue had no right to collect a “use” tax – in lieu of a direct sales tax – on purchases of tires made at a New Hampshire store, but by people whose case were registered in Massachusetts.

Writing for the court, Chief Justice Margaret Marshall said, “There is no Massachusetts statutory presumption of use in the Commonwealth, where personal property is sold to a Massachusetts resident outside the commonwealth, even where the goods purchased out of state may be affixed to property registered in Massachusetts.

Boston Herald- "N.H. eyes big payday from our tax hike"

I missed this over the weekend, but Charlie points me to a story in the Boston Herald about Massachusetts border towns bearing the brunt of their legislature's tax hikes:

Bay State border towns, bruised by a brutal recession and drastic cuts to local aid, are bracing for a shoppers’ exodus into tax-free New Hampshire if legislative efforts to raise the sales tax by 25 percent prevail in coming weeks.

“We are already feeling the disadvantage we have today,” said Methuen Mayor William M. Manzi III. “We think the increase makes it substantially worse. We’ve seen a major flight of jobs and business investment into Salem, N.H. This is not good for Methuen.”

House and Senate lawmakers have passed separate proposals with veto-proof margins to hike the sales tax from 5 percent to 6.25 percent to help balance the state budget. House budget writers estimate the hike will generate $900 million next fiscal year, including $205 million for local aid.

It's good to see Massachusetts joining Vermont in the New Hampshire Economic Recovery Coalition. What can we do to get the New Hampshire legislature on board?