For Illinois Residents - A Tax Alert

The power to tax is the power to destroy is an abridged quote from the great orator, lawyer, and politician Daniel Webster. Illinois politicians know this all too well and now are seeking to add a 5% tax to club membership dues. So if your local rifle and pistol club charges you $200 a year in dues, your actual cost will now be $210 with that extra $10 going to the State of Illinois.

Illinois Carry has issued an alert on SB009 which, due to an amendment, would impose this very tax. Senate Amendment 2 specifically includes gun clubs, hunting clubs, and fishing clubs by name as "amusements".  I know that the Prairie State's finances are none too solid but I think a tax on the right of association as it were is going too far.

From Illinois Carry:

Call to Action - Oppose SB009 Revenue Various

(Tax on gun clubs, ranges, and hunting clubs)

Contact Your State Senators This Week!

In our first Call to Action of the newly seated 100th General Assembly, we bring to your attention SB009 Revenue Various.

SB009 started as a simple question of creating new taxes, a question too easily answered "yes" in this state.  It is now more than that.  Much more. 

Senate Amendment 2 seeks to impose 5% membership and service taxes:

> In addition to the amusement tax on ranges already imposed by several municipalities
> In addition to the Cook County tax on firearms and ammunition
> In addition to the proposed fees covering the cost of serializing ammunition under HB271
> In addition to the already costly training and license fees required to carry a concealed firearm in Illinois
> In addition to the cost of hunting licenses
> In addition to current local, state and federal sales taxes on products associated with membership and use of hunting and gun clubs, training, and competition.

These new taxes were not, of course, presented in a forthright way that would foster open debate.  Instead, they were hidden in amendments to SB009 among a plethora of other taxes, filed quickly and quietly on a bill positioned to move through the Senate at a moment's notice.

We must recognize that the more the state taxes our ability to train, compete, and hunt the more it discourages the very practices that foster safe firearm ownership.  The more it encourages people to purchase products and services elsewhere.​

The truth will be SB009's greatest obstacle.  Spread some truth, and spread our rights.

Beginning Monday, 1/30/2017, please contact your State Senators in their district offices. Politely explain that SB009 is no longer as it seems. Let them know that while we can debate the wisdom of burdening Illinois with additional taxes one thing is not debatable. The State does not have proper authority to tax our Second Amendment rights. Contact information for your State Senator can be found here.