12th District Senate candidate Assemblywoman Jennifer Beck today demanded that Senator Ellen Karcher back up her claims that she was not required to pay or collect sales taxes on the sale of Christmas trees grown on her property, and pointed to considerable evidence to the contrary.

            “At this week’s Asbury Park Press editorial board meeting, Senator Karcher claimed that she need not pay or collect sales tax on these sales because she bundled the tree roots,” Beck said. “I am asking Senator Karcher to provide some documentation backing up that claim since the statute, and information provided by the state of New Jersey, seems to make no such distinction.”

            In Publication ANJ-4, which can be accessed on the New Jersey Department of Treasury website, it is made clear that, “when materials are sold to landscape contractors and homeowners, sales tax must be collected and remitted to the State.” The document lists examples of these materials and specifically includes “Christmas trees,” “Wreaths,” and “Needled evergreen branches.”

            In fact, changes to the sales tax (N.J.S.A. 54:32B-3(b)(2), as amended and P.L. 2006, c. 44) expanded the sales tax to include not just the sale of materials such as trees, but “the labor to install” the trees. Nowhere is any exemption made for trees that are sold – or installed – with roots intact.

            Karcher’s husband John Hochberg told the Asbury Park Press that some of the trees are sold as “Christmas trees.” Furthermore, the notes on all of the checks indicated that the trees were sold as “Christmas trees” which are specifically listed as items subject to sales tax.

            As for any trees Karcher may have sold to nurseries for resale, sales tax may not need to be collected provided the purchaser issues a completed Resale Certificate (Form ST-3). Beck called for the release of those forms, if any such sales took place.

            “As it stands now, it appears that Senator Karcher was required to pay sales tax on at least some of these sales, and failed to do so,” Beck said. “Unless she can provide documentation to the contrary, it appears that not only is Senator Karcher getting a nice property tax break, but she is dodging sales taxes as well.”

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