Accusing the Utah State Tax Commission of being shortsighted, Utah's ophthalmologists and optometrists are battling a proposed new sales tax on prescription contact lenses and glasses.
The commission wants to change the Utah Code, forcing the eye-care providers to collect from patients sales tax on eyewear the doctors dispense. Previously doctors have considered the dispensing just part of the professional services they render.Officers and members of the Utah Optometric Association and the Utah Ophthalmological Society maintain the new tax would unfairly penalize one specialized segment of society.
"We can understand the need to look for new sources of revenue in light of the possible loss of sales tax on food, but it seems unfortunate to have to place an added burden on those who are suffering from visual defects or problems by increasing the cost of items they need to have in order to function in our society," the presidents of the two organizations said in a recent letter to Tax Commission Chairman R.H. Hansen.
People who buy glasses from department store optical shops or order contact lenses from pharmacies now pay sales tax on their purchases. However, dispensing by an eye-care practitioner "is a totally different matter," the groups contend.
"When Osco Drug, for example, purchases contact lenses from its supplier, it does not pay sales tax on that purchase. Nor does it offer professional care in regards to the purchase," said Dr. Robert M. Christiansen, president of the Utah Ophthalmological Society. "An optometrist or ophthalmologist, however, does pay sales tax when he orders lenses. For the patient to then have to pay sales tax again on the same item would seem to constitute a double tax."
Janice Perry, spokeswoman for the tax commission, said the proposed rule change is to put the eye-care practitioners on the "same footing" with retail providers of prescription eyewear - to eliminate ophthalmologists' and optometrists' competitive edge.
She added that if the ruling is changed, the eye-care specialists would not have to pay sales tax on the eyewear they order. Thus the double taxation issue would be mute.
But Christiansen and Dr. Donald J. Milne, president, Utah Optometric Association, say their groups have been singled out by the commission.
They maintain the sales tax that eye doctors pay to suppliers is analogous to that paid by a dentist on the materials he orders for use on a patient.
"The dentist purchases the material, shapes it, considers the patient's needs and then fits it. The tax has been paid on the materials and not on his/her abilities," they wrote to Hansen. "In much the same way, we purchase a lens, adjust it, shape it and consider the patient's particular needs."
Additionally, the eye-care specialists say that sales tax is not collected on prescriptions at a pharmacy. Because prescription glasses and contact lenses also require a prescription from a licensed practitioner, "it would seem reasonable that sales tax would not be collected on these materials either."
In their letter to Hansen, the optometrists and ophthalmologists requested a public hearing on the proposed changes.
The commission complied.
The hearing is scheduled for July 12 at 2 p.m. in Room 346 of the Heber Wells Building.