The state Revenue Department is accused of being "overly aggressive" in collecting taxes.
That charge from State Senator Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend), who is asking Revenue Secretary Roger Ervin to review policies of the agency's sales tax division. Grothman says current practices unfairly target some small businesses that may not collect sales tax, but are later told be the state that they have to. He says that can devastate them.
Grothman says it was the Department's policies on collecting sales taxes on computer software that got the state into the current budget mess, after the State Supreme Court ruled against the state. As a result, DOR has to pay back nearly $300 million in sales tax collections.