Nevada Tax Sparks BMan Debate

Officials are looking at all of their options to deal with the estimated $2.8 million that the tax will cost Burning Man each year. The possibilities include raising ticket prices to even moving the event to another state, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported.

“We certainly understand the Nevada Legislature’s need to identify revenue sources, but we believe this change to the Live Entertainment Tax is misguided,” Jim Graham, a spokesman for Burning Man, told the paper. The Nevada Legislature passed a 9 percent live entertainment tax, which first was introduced to the Senate floor in March.

The flat tax means that some venues in the state that previously were taxed based on their size will see a decrease in their dues. However, for events like Burning Man and Electric Daisy Festival held in Las Vegas, this is an additional hefty expense to deal with.

Burning Man reps have stated that their nonprofit status formerly qualified the organization as exempt from the tax. Now the tax will collect 9 percent of all income generated by ticket sales to the event, at $390 a pop, which has a maximum capacity of 68,000.

Assemblywoman Marilyn Kirkpatrick, co-sponsor of the bill, has said that the tax currently brings in an estimated $137 million, most of which goes toward the state’s General Fund. About $150,000 goes toward the Nevada Arts Council’s budget, according to the Gazette-Journal.

Burning Man officials believe state reps are getting greedy, calling Kirkpatrick’s bill unbalanced and short-sighted.

The organization spends $11 million in Nevada annually and participants in the annual event held at the Black Rock Desert generate more than $40 million annually to the Nevada economy, Graham told the paper.

Burning Man’s ticket revenue won’t be taxed until 2016. The legislation will begin taxing Oct. 1, after Burning Man has taken place Aug. 30 –Sept. 7.