Sedona business owners will be paying their taxes a little differently beginning the first of the year – a change that is designed to be to their benefit.

In 2013 the state legislature and governor approved Taxpayer Simplification. This required all cities and towns that collect taxes either in-house or use a third party to return to using the Arizona Department of Revenue for the collection, administration and processing of the transaction privilege taxes. That was to be done by Friday, Jan. 1. But since the state was not prepared then, nor is it now, to take on such a large task, for business owners in most cities, paying taxes will remain status quo for at least another year.

Sedona, however, must transition by Jan. 1 due to the fact that it does not collect its own taxes and instead uses a third-party administrator — Revenue Discovery Systems.

A 2011 state senate bill prohibits a city or town from entering into contracts with a third party for the collection of TPT. The legislation, however, allowed cities and towns to honor existing contracts until their expiration, but not to renew once the contract term was complete. Sedona’s five-year contract with RDS expires on Thursday, Dec. 31, of this year.

To read the full story, see the Wednesday, Oct. 28, edition of the Sedona Red Rock News.