State policymakers are beginning to suspect more and more Iowans are shopping online rather than in bricks-and-mortar stores in the state. Data shows wages in Iowa are on the rise, but state sales tax receipts are barely growing.
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That’s David Roederer, the governor’s budget director. Iowans are to pay the state sales tax on purchases they make online from retailers with a “physical presence” in the state, but House Speaker Linda Upmeyer, a Republican from Clear Lake, says some businesses do not calculate the taxes for online purchases.
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State sales tax receipts increased just one percent in February compared to the same month a year ago. In the past EIGHT months, sales tax payments to the state are up a little less than one-and-a-half percent. Experts had predicted consumer spending in Iowa would grow twice that much.
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