Seafood Industry Asks to Cooperate with AK on Fish Tax Increase at Hearing; Current Effort Flawed
SEAFOODNEWS.COM By Peggy Parker - February 19, 2016
The House Special Committee on Fisheries heard from several members of Alaska’s seafood industry yesterday, all opposing HB251 "Electronic Tax Returns and Fisheries Taxes", in its current form.
Shore-based operations that currently pay a 3 percent rate would go to 4 percent; salmon canneries business tax would increase from 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent, and floaters would go from 5 percent to 6 percent. This is not a "1%" tax increase, as put out by the Governor, but a 20-33% increase for many processors.
“The approach here is oversimplified,” explained Vince O’Shea of the Pacific Seafood Processors Association who represent most processors in Alaska. “It’s not a one percent tax increase, it’s a 33 percent increase to the vast majority of the fish landed in Alaska.
“It raises the tariff on canned salmon at a time when we’re having significant challenges already on that product in the market, from forces beyond our control.
“There’s literally a perfect storm in the seafood industry, and it’s been building in the last three years,” O’Shea testified...
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