If you were a Virginia company needing printed materials delivered outside of the Commonwealth of Virginia would you choose a Virginia advertising agency or an out-of-state agency to produce the printing? Would knowing an out-of-state agency is exempt from Virginia sales tax sway your decision? If you are printing 1,000 or fewer pieces, maybe it would not. However, if you were printing 100,000 pieces or more, then saving roughly an extra 5% could play a factor.
Since 1995, in-state advertising agencies have received tax-exempt status when they used printing companies in Virginia to produce their material, and then delivered out-of-state just like their out-of-state peers. However, that law was set to expire this year. So the Printing and Graphics Association of the Mid-Atlantic, PGAMA, sprung into action. We needed the Virginia General Assembly to extend the exemption, but how? First we needed a sponsor of the bill we would be
proposing. Enter Emmett Hanger, the Senator from the 24th District. Senator Hanger, from the Staunton, VA area, enthusiastically supported our requests.
The first stop in the process for Senate Bill 804 was the Senate Finance Committee. On January 18th, Senator Hanger introduced the bill to the committee and asked Benny Bowman, President and COO of Worth Higgins & Associates to testify before the Committee. After asking a few questions, and realizing the continuance of the tax exemption would have no detrimental effect on the current year’s budget, the Senate Finance Committee voted to send the bill to the full Senate. The Senate passed the bill unanimously. This allowed the bill to move to the House of Delegates.
On February 8th, the House of Delegates Finance Committee discussed many bills that contained more drama than the printing tax exemption. So when Senate Bill 804 came up it was passed relatively easily. Again, once the bill reached the full House of Delegates, it passed unanimously. Governor McAuliffe signed the bill into law and the extension will last until 2022. Now printing companies in Virginia can more easily continue to compete with other states.
Editor’s Note: Benny Bowman is a Board Member of the Mid-Atlantic PGAMA, Printing & Graphics Association MidAtlantic. This valuable organization supports mid-Atlantic printing companies and the entire printing industry through common sense legislation and regulation on a local, regional and national level.
