The City of Hollister will be working to crack down this year on
vendors at the annual July motorcycle rally who fail to accurately
report sales and pay the appropriate tax.
The City of Hollister will be working to crack down this year on vendors at the annual July motorcycle rally who fail to accurately report sales and pay the appropriate tax.
In the past, city officials have complained, it has been nearly impossible to monitor and track vendor sales at the rally. Most sales are cash transactions and efforts to require cash registers providing receipts at vendor booths have been derailed by problems providing temporary electrical hookups. Such a setup makes it easy for anyone so inclined to cheat the tax man.
This year, a team of five people will be dedicated to making daily checks on vendor sales and calculating all sales on the final day of the biker rally. Vendors occupying the 300 or so booth spaces will be required to report the exact sales numbers from the rally that will be submitted when filing their monthly, quarterly or annual sales tax statements with the state.
It’s important that the City of Hollister get its fair share of tax receipts generated by the event. The system being put into play this year isn’t perfect, but all things considered it’s a reasonable approach to the problem. We’ll know much better after the rally wraps up just how effective it was and whether further steps might need to be taken in future years.
The city’s expenses for law enforcement were covered by a $382,000 payment earlier this year from the rally committee. In addition, the city will benefit to the tune of about $50,000 from the sale of temporary business licenses that will be required of all rally vendors, according to City Manager Clint Quilter.
While we’re in favor of the city seeing some income above and beyond expenses, the larger purpose of the motorcycle rally is to provide local businesses with a money-making opportunity and to raise money for local charities and nonprofit organizations.
When all of the receipts are totaled and the bills are paid, we’re more concerned that there will be plenty of rally-generated revenue left behind to support the good work of local service clubs such as Rotary and youth-oriented programs like Hollister Little League. The rally committee and the promoter hired to run the event, Seth Doulton of Horsepower Promotions, have both said they are committed to this concept and they seem to be taking steps to ensure that Hollister’s nonprofits reap real benefit from the event. Again, we’ll know better after this year’s rally wraps up just how much the event actually generates for local groups.
Organizers of the rally need to continue to look for solutions to past problems and to take proactive steps to ensure that the event benefits the community.
