Alexandria, VA – July 29, 2024 – In response to the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) report, “Excise Taxes: Action Needed to Improve Compliance for Sport Fishing and Archery Imports” released on July 29, 2024, the American Sportfishing Association’s vice president of Government Affairs, Mike Leonard, released the following statement:
“The sportfishing industry is thrilled to see the long-awaited GAO study on excise tax slippage resulting from direct-to-consumer sales of foreign manufactured fishing equipment through online marketplace facilitators. For nearly 75 years, sportfishing equipment manufacturers have been proud to pay excise taxes that support the Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund because they know the fisheries conservation and angling access projects that are funded through this program ultimately help create more and better fishing opportunities. However, this system needs to be modernized to capture the growing number of sales through online marketplace facilitators of foreign-manufactured equipment direct to U.S. consumers. We fully agree with GAO’s findings that the solution lies in enactment of legislation that shifts imposition of the tax in these transactions to the online marketplace facilitator, similar to how state sales taxes are collected. We look forward to working with Congress and our partners in the archery industry, state fish & wildlife agencies and other organizations to expeditiously achieve this outcome.”
More information on the study and GAO’s findings can be found on the GAO’s website.
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