Tackle Box Tax Break Is Unlikely This Year

Supporters of a plan to eliminate the 10 percent excise tax placed on fishing tackle boxes concede that the chances of repealing the tax are increasingly unlikely this year.

The repeal, strongly backed by Piano Molding Co., of Plano, Ill., was contained in a massive tax bill sent to the White House in September. President Clinton vetoed the bill, and congressional leaders have said another tax bill is unlikely until next summer.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., who represents the district that includes Plano, pushed for the tackle box tax repeal earlier this summer against the wishes of many tackle manufacturers, who worried about the precedent it would set by excluding certain products from the Sport Fish Restoration Act excise tax. The tax supports sport fishing projects in all 50 states.

Companies like Plano have complained for years that they are placed at an economic disadvantage by having to pay the tax on their tackle boxes, when nearly identical boxes that are sold as "utility" boxes are not subject to the tax.

American Sportfishing, Vol 2, No. 8. November 1999.