This could end New Jersey’s (ahem) crappiest tax

A New Jersey lawmaker is calling to end of the state’s tax on septic systems.

Or rather, Assemblyman Ron Dancer, R-Ocean, has introduced legislation that would exempt septic-system service visits from the state’s 6.875 percent sales tax.

Dancer said he became aware of this tax after a constituent wrote him a letter complaining about it .

“He said, 'This is it. I’ve had it. When New Jersey starts to tax my' — I’ll use the term 'crap' — he said, 'That’s it, I’m leaving the state.'”

Dancer reached out to the Office of Legislative Services to find out why such a tax exists, and found out back in the 1960s, when New Jersey first had adopted a state sales tax, septic systems needed to be serviced at least once a month, and the decision was made to tax the removal of septic waste after 30 days or longer between service calls.

He pointed out modern septic systems can go much longer than they used to between service calls, so this tax pretty much applies to everyone now.

“After all, this is the end result, if you will, of the daily necessity of drinking water and eating food. Why would New Jersey be taxing this?” Dancer asked. “We’ve really I think hit the bottom here, the certainly of death and taxes has taken on a whole new meaning in the state of New Jersey. It’s death by taxes.”

Dancer added: “Not only do we tax here in New Jersey, the living and the dead, but we tax the end result of our daily necessity of drinking water and eating food. When it comes to New Jersey, I think taxes are already high enough without taxing the removal of our crap from septic tank systems.”

He said this tax is a double standard, because state residents that use public sewer systems don’t have to pay it.

“What’s next, taxing the air we breathe? We’ve got to draw the line somewhere, taxes are just literally out of control,” he said. “Hopefully the state of New Jersey can flush this unfair tax on residents with septic systems.”