Solid waste tax

Definition

In some states, a tax on the price of hauling waste away, which the hauler must bill, hold and remit.

Why It Matters

A junk quote is a share of a truck, and in some states a share of that quote is never the hauler's. Washington taxes the customer 3.6 percent of the charge, makes the hauler collect it, and requires it held in trust until paid. A hauler that neither bills it nor gives written notice of it owes it personally, whatever the reason. When a customer pays only part of a bill, the tax is paid first, so a bad debt comes out of the hauler's own share. Minnesota takes 9.75 percent of a household's charge and 17 percent of a business's, itemized under the tax's own name, with construction debris at sixty cents a cubic yard. Material collected primarily for recycling or salvage is outside Washington's tax, which is one more thing the diversion rate is worth. Ask whether the seller's flat prices carried the tax or swallowed it.