Sample letter for association members and interested businesses:
ATTENTION BUSINESS OWNERS, CFOs and CONTROLLERS: REVIEW NEEDED ON DRAFT UNIFORM SALES AND TAX USE DEFINITIONS
Efforts have been underway by the Colorado Municipal League during the past year and a half to develop draft uniform sales and use tax definitions. This undertaking is in response to Senate Joint Resolution (SJR-038) passed in 2014 that “requested” and “urged” municipalities to adopt and utilize a system of uniform definitions by August 2016. In addition, it requests a mechanism for maintaining these definitions -- a key oversight in a similar undertaking that took place in the early 1990s.
For any "standard" definitions to apply to all home rule cities, the process would either require each city (Colorado has approximately 70 home rule cities currently) to adopt the standards and/or for state level legislation (which could be subject to legal challenge and/or require a state constitutional amendment). The Coalition to Simplify Colorado Sales Tax was formed to drive these reforms. As of March 22, 2019, 49 (of 71) municipalities have adopted the Uniform Definitions.
An additional request included in the legislative resolution was that “these important undertakings include opportunities for input and consultation with the business community, insofar as retail business is government's partner in collecting this critical tax.”
A draft of these uniform sales tax definitions is now available. We encourage you to review these definitions and determine any concerns as it relates to prior tax audits. This is an opportunity to identify and clarify key areas of ambiguity in existing sales and use tax definitions as applied to dealerships.
Please contact the Coalition to Simplify Colorado Sales Tax with items that have caused unforeseen liability in tax audits and any definitions that need to be clarified as soon as possible. For additional questions, please email Jenn Penn at simplifysalestax@gmail.com.
Thank you.