Tax Foundation Argues to California Court of Appeals: Charging Taxpayers for Tax Collection Is a Tax

In a friend-of-the-court brief filed with the California Court of Appeal yesterday, the Tax Foundation argued that a processing “fee,” charged by the City of San Diego for collection of a tax on landlords who rent their property, should be seen as a tax, and therefore should be ruled unconstitutional because the tax was imposed without voter approval.

In arguing against a lower court’s decision in Weisblat v. City of San Diego, Tax Foundation Tax Counsel Joseph Henchman reviews the standards for defining taxes and fees in California and throughout the country, and concludes that the charge is a tax because its purpose is to raise revenue for a quintessential government activity: tax collection.

Read the press release, the full amicus brief, or the Tax Foundation Fiscal Fact summarizing the brief.

More on tax law from the Tax Foundation’s Center for Legal Reform.