Ozark County officials say ‘use tax’ has brought in average of $25,000 month
Ozark County Commissioners say the county has recieved the first four checks from the internet “use tax” passed by Ozark County voters in April. And the results are what they had hoped for, averaging around $25,000 per month.
Ozark County Presiding Commissioner Terry Newton said the first check the county received was only $13,000 and officials were concerned that the amount was much lower than expected. And then the second check came in...$37,000. That was followed by checks for around $27,000 and $22,000. And the commissioners breathed a sigh of relief.
“We were hoping to land on that $25,000 or somewhere in that neighborhood,” said Newton. “But we didn’t know how we would fair because we were comparing ourselves to Oregon County, but they have a Walmart.
“And here’s the thing I [recently] found out…if you go into Walmart and you do self-checkout it shows up in their system as an online sale. So I felt like [Oregon County] was going to get more than we did because they have a Walmart, and we were hopeing to be in that mid 20 range.”
Newton said the reason for the low amount during the first month and the varying amounts in subsequent months is because of how certain programs report and send in their sales tax.
The money received from the online tax is divided three ways: 50% to the county’s general revenue; 25% to road and bridge; and 25% to the Ozark County Sheriff’s Department.
SB 190 and SB 756
The commissioners also passed an ordinance approving the “freezing” of property taxes for seniors, the state approved tax credit allowing senior citizens to keep their property taxes at the amount of the year they first apply for the tax credit.
Newton said the commissioners have been diligently working to fix certain aspects of the county’s ordinance because they felt there were portions of the ordinance that needed changes in order to make it more fair to seniors.
One of the examples Newton gave was in the case of a 62-year-old husband and his 60-year-old wife. “Say they start getting the senior tax credit, and at 64 he passes away. Well, she’s now 62, but the way it was written before she would lose that credit they had established, and she would have to start over again. So we amended that to be that once she becomes 62 both people can go on the credit application [and she won’t lose the credit].
“There was just some goofy stuff [like that] in there that we changed, and we felt there were some updates that we had to do.”
Newton said applications will be available on March 1 each year, and due on April 30 of the same year. However, the application process is not a one-time procedure. Applicants must turn in an application each year, but the amount of property tax will not go up or down, it will remain frozen at the first year’s rate.
The commissioners do foresee some changes in the future.
Western District Commissioner Layne Nance recently attended a meeting for the Missouri Commissioners Association in Lake of the Ozarks and heard the Association’s attorney speak.
“He said he didn’t see [the changes] being anything drastic,” said Nance. “But he said they’re already talking about some new changes to it in ‘25. He didn’t say not to, but he did say to ‘be your own judge.’”
“But we’ve been sitting on this for over a year, and we felt like we needed to get it in place,” said Newton. “We’ll probably have to go back in and make changes to it when [state lawmakers] make changes…but we had everything ready and we felt good about it.”
According to Newton, absent Eastern District Commissioner Gary Collins was “100% in favor” of the ordinance.
The ordinance was unanimously approved and will go into effect for the 2025 tax year.
Applications for the senior tax credit will be available on March 1 in the following county offices: assessor, collector, clerk and commissioners.
Applications will be checked for completeness by the collector’s office and logged into the county tracking system. The assessor’s office will determine if any ownership changes have occurred and then the assessor and collector’s offices will update the tracking system to indicate the progress of each application.
The county collector will then present the application and all documentation to the county commissioners on a weekly basis for commission approval or denial.
Finally, the county commission will send notifications to property owners alerting them to the approval or denial of their application for the property tax credit.