Dear Editor:
The need for taxes to support our state is undeniable. But the Nevada Department of Taxation’s latest move placing an even larger burden on the injured, sick and dying is both unnecessary and inhumane.
The NVDOT found a ‘legal’ way to ignore a previous NV Supreme Court decision exempting life-saving equipment like ventilators, oxygen concentrators, and all oxygen administration equipment from taxation. The rapacious act now makes Nevada the most oppressive state, one of the few to charge sales and use tax on their sickest population.
In a cruel parting gift from the NVDOT, terminally ill hospice patients will now be taxed during their average remaining life span of 11 days. Even sick newborns are not protected: life-saving monitors may go unordered if parents cannot afford the expense.
Most of us will need home medical equipment in our lifetimes. To charge sales and use tax on life-sustaining equipment is nothing short of immoral. NVDOT should be ashamed.
Leslie Sargent
Reno
