📈 GRT Details: Addressing Your Questions

🏛️ SEAL SD Provides Transparency! 🇺🇸

Tab Navigation

• Overview
• Proposal Changes
• Revenue Calculations
• Exemptions

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Tab 1: Overview {#overview}

We’ve heard your questions about the Core GRT Plan’s financials and how it’s evolved. Here’s a detailed breakdown addressing concerns about the proposal’s changes, revenue calculations, and exemptions, ensuring you have the full picture of how this liberty-first plan works for South Dakota. Navigate the tabs below to explore each aspect in depth.

• Key Points:
• Core GRT Plan: 5% tax on all business gross receipts, raising $3.6 billion.
• Saves $3,000–$5,000 annually by eliminating property taxes.
• Addresses concerns on proposal changes, revenue, and exemptions.

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Tab 2: Proposal Changes {#proposal-changes}

The Core GRT Plan replaces all state taxes with a 5% Gross Receipts Tax (GRT), raising $3.6 billion to fund South Dakota while eliminating property taxes, saving you $3,000–$5,000 annually. You’ve asked how this proposal has changed from the earlier 2.5% GRT on businesses grossing over $100,000 with exemptions. Here’s the evolution:

• Original Proposal: 2.5% GRT on businesses grossing over $100,000, with exemptions for many purchases.
• Current Plan: Based on community feedback and economic analysis, we simplified the structure:
• Removed the $100,000 threshold—all businesses contribute evenly at 5%.
• Rate increased to 5% to fully replace all state taxes, including property taxes ($1.6 billion total relief).
• Why the Change? Avoids loopholes where larger entities might underreport to duck the tax, ensuring a more even contribution without government overreach.

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Tab 3: Revenue Calculations {#revenue-calculations}

You noted South Dakota’s GDP is approximately $66 billion, and 5% of that is $3.3 billion, questioning our $3.6 billion figure. Let’s clarify the numbers with detailed calculations:

• GRT Base: The GRT taxes gross receipts—all revenue from business sales of goods and services, including intermediate transactions in the supply chain—not GDP, which includes government spending, investments, and net exports, much of which isn’t taxable.
• Gross Receipts Estimate: We estimate South Dakota’s total business gross receipts at $72 billion in 2025, not $66 billion.
• Historical taxable sales under the sales tax system were $30 billion in 2021, yielding $1.5 billion at a 6.2% average rate (4.2% state + up to 2% local).
• The GRT’s base is larger, taxing every transaction—wholesale, retail, services—not just final consumer sales.
• Adjusted for 2025 economic growth and the broader base, $72 billion is conservative.
• Calculation: 5% of $72 billion = 0.05 × $72 billion = $3.6 billion, matching our stated revenue.
• GDP Comparison: Using the $66 billion GDP would miss intermediate transactions, underestimating revenue by $300 million ($3.3 billion), as you calculated.

The GRT’s $3.6 billion funds schools ($960 million), roads ($1.5 billion), police ($215 million), courts ($829.2 million), and a surplus ($95.8 million), while saving you $4,100 on your $250,000 home in Custer County.

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Tab 4: Exemptions {#exemptions}

We’ve kept critical exemptions to protect liberty, ensuring the GRT doesn’t overburden key groups or transactions. Here’s how exemptions work and their impact on revenue:

• Who’s Exempt:
• Churches, military families, and veterans: Protecting religious and personal freedom.
• Small farms under $100,000 in sales: Supporting rural backbone.
• Purchases for resale (e.g., a farmer’s feed, a baker’s flour): Avoids taxing the same goods multiple times.
• Impact on Revenue:
• Small farms under $100,000: Estimated $500 million in receipts.
• Church exemptions: Estimated $200 million in receipts.
• Total Exempt: $700 million × 5% = $35 million not taxed.
• Adjusted Revenue: $3.6 billion – $35 million = $3.565 billion, rounded to $3.6 billion for simplicity.

These exemptions ensure the GRT remains liberty-first while still raising enough to fund South Dakota’s needs without property taxes.

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Join the Fight! 🛡️

We’re committed to transparency and liberty. Join the Liberty Warriors at https://sealsd.com/steps-to-ballot/ to make this plan a reality!

📂 Learn More

• 🌄 Our Vision for South Dakota
  The future we’re building — bold, free, and family-first.
• 📊 End Property Tax: GRT Plan
  How the 5% Gross Receipts Tax will replace property taxes — and why it works.
• 📈 Revenue Verification
  Ensuring every dollar is accounted for — transparency you can trust.
• 🛡️ Safeguards to Protect Homes
  No tricks, no traps — just locked-in protections you can count on.
• 🕵️ SD-DOGE: Our Government Watchdog
  Efficiency, oversight, and a watchdog that works for the people.
• 👉 Get the Facts
  Will Prices Go Up?: Debunk myths about price increases under the GRT.
• 🚜 Family Farms & Ranches
  How the GRT protects and empowers South Dakota’s agricultural backbone.
• 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 For Our Kids’ Future
  Building a legacy of freedom and opportunity for the next generation.
• 🏛️ South Dakota First
  Prioritizing our people, our values, and our future — always.
• 🆕 What’s New?
  Stay updated on the latest developments and announcements.