By CoinWeek ….
By January 8, 2024, legislation that would eliminate sales and use taxes from the sale of precious metal coins and bullion had passed both the State Senate and General Assembly of New Jersey. The next stop for New Jersey Assembly Bill A5294 was the desk of Governor Phil Murphy (D) for his signature. Before it got there, however, the State Treasury had made its concerns about the bill known to legislators, and the legislature had amended A5294 to address them.
Today (Jan. 17), the National Coin and Bullion Association (NCBA, formerly ICTA), an organization that lobbies for sales tax exemptions for sound money in state houses around the country, has announced that Gov. Murphy has allowed the bill to lapse without signing it or vetoing it directly (a so-called “pocket veto”). The Governor’s decision is based on projected state tax revenue shortfall of $4 to $7 million if the sales and use taxes on investment coins and precious metal bullion are abolished. The New Jersey Office of Legislative Services (OLS) is responsible for generating this estimate.
The NCBA is still hopeful that some version of New Jersey Assembly Bill A5294 and its coin and bullion sales tax exemption can still be enacted before the deadline for signing the state budget of New Jersey arrives on June 30. NCBA Advisor Patrick Heller is headed to the state capital of Trenton to lobby the Governor’s budget staff and argue against the accuracy of the OLS tax shortfall estimate using NCBA analyses of the issue.
* * *
