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I just realized I have a typo.<br>
<br>
I typed:<br>
<blockquote><i>For instance "arrows" were taxable. Many shafts,
fletches, nocks, and target style points were not (hunting broadheads
were not). </i><br>
</blockquote>
What I meant to type was:<br>
<br>
<blockquote>For instance "arrows" were taxable. Many shafts, fletches,
nocks, and target style points were not (hunting broadheads <u><b>were
taxed</b></u>). <br>
</blockquote>
Regards,<br>
<br>
-EA<br>
<br>
Doug Copley wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:48EBA7C3.9060600@gmail.com" type="cite">Wow,I was
not aware of any of this!! Thanx for the information and the background
on it.
<br>
<br>
Vincenti
<br>
<br>
Eadric Anstapa wrote:
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">The federal excise tax on archery equipment
has been around for decades and I never had a problem with it. It was
not just for archery equipment but also various other firearms and
hunting and fishing equipment. The tax was traditionally 12.4%. I
have never had a problem with it because the funds raised from this
tax were relegated specifically to wildlife conservation an education
efforts and therefore sportfishing and hunting type items is what was
taxed. For instance any bow over 30# had to be taxed. Any bow under
30 pounds and any arrow under 18 inches did not have to be taxed
(unless the short arrows were intended for use in a taxable bow i.e.
crossbow bolts) (the tax for bows is 11%)
<br>
<br>
If you manufacture and sell bows or crossbows then you have to collect
and submit the tax else you are guilty of federal tax evasion. The
statutes defined "manufacturer" to include any person who produces a
taxable article from scrap, salvage, or junk material, or from new or
raw material, by processing, manipulating, or changing the form of an
article or by combining or assembling two or more articles. The term
also includes a "producer" and an "importer'.
<br>
<br>
The problem was that there were a lot of people doing lots of hinky
things to get around collecting the excise tax.
<br>
<br>
For instance "arrows" were taxable. Many shafts, fletches, nocks, and
target style points were not (hunting broadheads were not). So what
was happening is that people would sell incomplete arrows and therefore
they would avoid the tax.
<br>
<br>
Every wonder why if you ordered a set of arrows from some place like
Red Feather, F/S or other supplier they would ship finished shafts,
with nocks and fletches installed, shafts cut to your specified length
and with point tapers on them, but the points would not be installed
but only included in the box? That was so they could say that they
had not sold completed "arrows" and therefore would avoid the federal
excise tax.
<br>
<br>
Ever see a bow marked as 30xx# rather than 30#? That was partially so
they could sell it as a 30# bow (untaxed) even it it actually drew over
30#. The same would be true for any bow that was marked as 30-35#.
<br>
<br>
Arrows spined 30-35# people would often avoid the tax by simply saying
that they were not necessarily intended for bows over 30#.
<br>
<br>
They then starting taxing all arrow components such as nocks, points,
shafts, etc. at 12.4% if they were suitable to be shot from a taxable
bow. But there were people who had creative ways to get around that.
the would play with the "suitable to be shot from a taxable bow" part
of it.
<br>
<br>
So to get people to pat the tax back in 04 to get people to collect the
tax for arrows they changed it to a per shaft tax. They started off at
39 cents and then crept up. At the time a typical good set of wooden
shafts cost about $2 a shaft. So the that was a pretty high tax equal
to about a 20% tax on traditional archers using wooden shafts. But a
high tech modern carbon fiber shaft might sell for $10 a shaft so a 4%
tax was hardly noticed and even a typical good quality name brand
aluminum shaft cost about $5 a shaft so a 8% tax didn't seem onerous.
remember these costs are collected by the manufacturer, they are an
excise tax and not a sales tax, and since they are a fixed cost they
are built into the cost out of the factory and most archers and hunters
were and still are not even aware that the excise tax was even there.
<br>
<br>
To be sure the 39 cents per arrow shaft that crept up to 43 cents
unfairly burdened the traditional archer While the modern compound bow
shooter using Easton GameGetter shafts, or Gold Tip or Carbon Tech
hunter shafts hardly noticed the increase.
<br>
<br>
Once they started taxing the shafts they dropped the tax on individual
components like fletches, nocks, and points. So while your shafts may
have had a 43 cent tax on them, you effectively should have seen a
12.4% reduction in price on points, nocks, fletches, etc. But I never
saw any reduction in price on those components and those manufacturers
just seem to pocket that extra 12.4%.
<br>
<br>
So the low end domestic manufacturers of wooden shafts for children
complain that they are driven out of business and that their sales have
dropped sharply. While they did did carry an unnecessarily high
portion of the tax burden ins the part of the equation here that is
not considered is that the availability of inexpensive imported
composite shafts for the low-end and children's market has increased.
A big part of the reason why the sale of wooden children's arrows has
decreased so dramatically is that the more people are instead buying
fiberglass and carbon for the kids since those shafts stay straight and
last forever in typical use.
<br>
<br>
Don't get me wrong. I am happy the tax has been modified so that it is
no so regressive, doesn't place as much of a burden on the low end, and
doesn't place more of the burden on the traditional archer. the latest
revision of that tax code was flawed and they are trying to correct
that but in general I support the tax because those monies were
earmarked to go do things rather than simply going into the general
fund for congress to waste as they see fit.
<br>
<br>
Regards,
<br>
<br>
-EA
<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
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