Online travel industry gets help in fight with Montana – Shutting door on full hotel rooms: State’s lawsuit against travel sites is potential blow to tourism

Two Montana business groups are joining the online travel companies in an ongoing dispute with the state over hotel bed taxes.
The Montana Chamber of Commerce http://www.montanachamber.com/ and the Montana Taxpayers Association http://www.montax.org/ say the Department of Revenue is wrong to use a rule-making process to go after the online companies.

Full Story: http://www.ktvq.com/news/online-travel-industry-gets-help-in-fight-with-montana/

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Shutting door on full hotel rooms: State’s lawsuit against travel sites is potential blow to tourism

In his zeal to hunt down every last penny owed to Montana, Gov. Brian Schweitzer has hit on some winning approaches. He directed Revenue Director Dan Bucks to work on laws that would close tax loopholes for pharmaceutical companies. And he turned up the heat on nonresident tax cheats, urging state tax collectors to be more aggressive about conducting audits and enforcing collections.

These strategies have paid off big time; earlier this year, the Montana Department of Revenue announced that it had collected a record $79.1 million in unpaid taxes owed to the state for fiscal year 2010. It also estimated that for every dollar spent on tax audits, it collected $8 in tax revenue.

When it comes to suing online travel sites, however, Schweitzer’s energy is misplaced.

Full Editorial: http://missoulian.com/news/opinion/editorial/article_97216404-eea5-11df-8b40-001cc4c002e0.html