The same sorts of taxes that fund California tourism have been defeated in Idaho recently, and the National Business Travel Association (NBTA) couldn’t be happier. NBTA praised the defeat of the Idaho Rental Car Tax Proposal in March 2009. Claiming victory for the corporate travel industry, car rental businesses and consumers lauded the defeat of legislation designed to create yet another layer of taxation, making car rental a costly proposition. A 6 percent statewide tax increase was deemed discriminatory, targeting rental car customers to fund transportation infrastructure projects within Idaho. In an 11 to 3 vote, the Idaho State Legislature House Transportation and Defense Committee helped alleviate the concerns of lobbyists from a variety of industries worried that the tax would hurt business.
Overwhelmingly voted down, many believed the bill was especially bad for Idaho companies who already inject millions of dollars into the state economy with their rental car spending. Actively engaged for more than two years in raising awareness about the negative impact they bring to local communities and the hospitality industry, NBTA fought to keep the state from adopting the tax with a persuasive arugument. They said there’s a perception that car rental taxes only affect out-of-town business travelers and tourists, but claim that isn’t true. Research has shown that more than half of car rental customers are generally local, and most companies spend at least half of their car rental budgets in the markets where the companies are located.
NBTA members are corporate and government travel and meetings managers, as well as travel service providers. Numbering more than 4,000 in 30 nations, they manage more than $200 billion of global business travel and meetings expenditures annually on behalf of more than 10 million business travelers within their organizations. Read more about this subject
