To the Chair and Members of the Committee, My name is Mohammad Ali from Northern Virginia, and I am the owner of America’s Best Wings. I opened my first location five years ago, and by 2025, we had grown to six locations across the state. I am proud of that growth, and I am submitting this testimony to express my strong opposition to a proposed delivery tax. Like many Virginia businesses, my company has evolved over time to meet the growing demand for online food delivery. Today, we rely heavily on consumers ordering food for delivery - both through third-party platforms and directly from our stores. Delivery is not a luxury for our customers: it is an essential service. Delivery plays a particularly important role during inclement or unpredictable weather. Many of our customers choose delivery because they have families at home, safety concerns, or other reasons that make driving difficult or unsafe. In my view, more delivery drivers on the road often means fewer individual cars overall, contributing to safer streets. Even in good weather, delivery provides access to food for people who are unable to drive due to age, disability, or other circumstances. What I love most about being a business owner is being able to provide quality, affordable food to my community. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when the cost of chicken rose dramatically, I made the decision not to raise prices. I did not want to shift that burden onto my customers, many of whom were already struggling. That is why I was upset when I learned about the new proposed delivery tax the legislature is considering. If this tax is imposed on consumers, it will discourage people from ordering online and hurt small businesses like mine. Most retailers today rely on delivery as part of their business model. Many have downsized their physical footprints specifically to serve customers through delivery. Imposing a new tax punishes businesses and consumers who have adapted to meet modern demands and needs. In this economy, consumers are already penny-pinching. Adding another fee simply to raise state revenue creates unnecessary hardship. With millions of Virginians ordering delivery, this tax would take tens of millions of dollars out of consumers’ pockets – money that could otherwise support local businesses and families. I respectfully urge the committee to reject a delivery tax and to consider the unintended consequences it would have on safety, affordability, and small businesses across Virginia. Thank you for your time and consideration. Sincerely, Mohammad Ali Owner, America’s Best Wings

Sometimes the only option for senior citizens to get a particular item, is to have it delivered. Taxing the delivery provided by the seller or a service company is another burden on someone living on a fixed income. Please do not add another tax to anything that would raise the cost of maintaining a decent lifestyle. What happened to the "affordability" agenda?? I don't think that new or increased taxes is working in that direction. Please do not pass this bill.

Delegate Watts and Delegate Sullivan, Please see comments attached regarding HB 900 and HB 978. Thank you. Respectfully submitted, Daniel Bryant Self Storage Association

I always give the incoming, party the benefit of doubt, but when they start off with nothing but taxes and attacking the 2nd amendment i start having a lot of doubt.

Taxing these types of services hurts our economy at the local level. Our small businesses and therapists don't need more financial barriers to providing the services that they do! Reallocate funds or find different means of taxation to fund projects. This is going to do nothing but harm struggling businesses in an already precarious economy.

I worry about my therapist bill going up. It's already so hard to find a good therapist at a doable rate that adding to it with sales tax doesn't sound like something I want.

Dear Chairman Sullivan, and Members of the Subcommittee, I am submitting for the record, comments regarding HB 900 and HB978. Thank you for your time and consideration. Zane Kerby President and CEO, American Society of Travel Advisors

I write in opposition to this bill, particularly on the basis of it including counseling services. I am a priest of the Episcopal Church and I am married to a mental health counselor with an MSW working toward his LCSW. In my professional life, particularly in operating a homeless shelter, I see we have a mental health crisis in the Commonwealth and in our country. Why would we make it harder for people to seek mental health counseling through taxation? For LCSWs, LPCs, and other trained professionals offering mental health through tested means other than medical licensing, we are creating roadblocks. The cost of running a mental health clinic or establishing a private practice already is cost prohibitive without additional taxation. Virginia needs to make it easier to access counseling services or trained counselors will flee to more accommodating states leaving Virginians without access to their much needed services.

I am writing to oppose HB978 because of its harmful impact on small businesses in Virginia, particularly those providing digital content services mental health services. This bill would place additional tax burdens on small business owners who already operate on narrow margins. Many of these businesses exist specifically to provide affordable, accessible products and services to individuals who would otherwise be unable to afford similar services from larger corporations. Increasing taxes on these small business owners risks forcing them to raise prices, reduce services, or close altogether / take their services out of state. These outcomes would disproportionately harm low- and middle-income Virginians. I am especially concerned about the effects this bill would have on mental health service providers. I personally rely on mental health services and have experienced firsthand how difficult it can be to find affordable, in-person care. I've also personally experienced the overwhelmingly positive effects of these services in my working and personal life and know how vital it is for citizens to have access. This bill threatens to reduce access to care at a time when demand for these services is already high. I strongly oppose this bill and urge consideration of policies that support, rather undermine, small businesses providing essential services to Virginia's communities.

I am a small business owner offering digital services to small local businesses. I provide affordable website services because most of my clients can't afford large, more expensive firms. I strongly oppose HB978. This bill will raise costs for small businesses that are already struggling under our failing economy, and this bill will place additional burdens on small business owners like myself who are struggling to make ends meet as it is. We will be required to spend more money on tax experts to help us navigate the addition of sales tax to the non-tangible services we provide. Additionally, my wife works for a mental health therapy office, and the clients who come to see them are often struggling to afford mental health services as it is. By adding a tax to those services, you are putting vital mental health help even further out of reach at a time when we ought to be making it more accessible to the residents of our Commonwealth. If the Commonwealth of Virginia needs more revenue, there must be better ways to achieve that goal that do not include adding to the financial burden of the struggling middle class. There is no legitimate reason to advance this horrible bill.

This bill will hurt liscenced clinicians providing privet pay counseling. This bill will cause undue stress on families seeking counseling for their children and teens. With rising prices therapist also have to raise fees in order to pay fees, rent, and insurance. Trauma therapy is already a cost for those who need services for their children and teens. This bill punishes private providers and clients in a time when mental health issues are on the rise. This bill could put private providers out of buissness and limit accessibility to needed mental health services for families. This will affect the mental health of our state down the road. Not to mention an added stress to CPS! Therapy is not a commodity it is a life giving, life protecting force. Do not tax small buissness couseling providers. Do not treat us like Mcdonalds! We hold the mental health of Virginia's future leaders in our hands!

As a professor training clinical psychologists, and a licensed psychologist, the addition of tax to the outpatient mental healthcare system will push the limits of this essential system of small practices across Virginia who provide care. It will add administrative bloat to a deeply overloaded system of Healthcare. Mental healthcare is already a profession with limited expectations for living a middle class professional life. It will also drive the best therapists out of the state of Virginia when we want the best mental healthcare here. And in the end the cost passes on to clients who are already struggling with mental health- so why tax them in their time of distress? Less taxes. If nothing else those politicians that raise taxes get replaced in the next election.

As a licensed mental-health therapist in Virginia, I am deeply concerned about the expansion of sales tax to services that overlap with behavioral health and counseling. This bill reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of how mental-health care is delivered and risks creating confusion between regulated clinical treatment and unregulated “personal services.” Mental-health providers already operate under extensive regulatory, ethical, and administrative requirements. Expanding tax obligations, particularly where services may include psychoeducation, group work, or preventive care, increases overhead for small practices and ultimately raises costs for patients. This bill will disproportionately impact vulnerable populations who already struggle to access care. Any policy that discourages providers from offering preventative or supportive services will increase long-term public costs through crisis intervention, hospitalization, and disability. I urge lawmakers to reconsider taxing services that directly support mental health and to provide clearer protections for licensed professionals whose work is already regulated as health care. Mental-health care should not be treated as a discretionary luxury or revenue stream.

Virginians do not need access to mental health services to get even harder! Adding a tax to mental health services would further reduce the number of families able to receive the care they need. I’m a mental health therapist and I see first hand how the cost impacts families. Waitlists for providers who can take insurance are 6 months or more long. I’m also a Virginian without health insurance who can’t afford a therapist herself.

I am writing to bring awareness of how this bill will hurt the majority of people requiring mental health services. We are in a mental health crisis. As a trauma counselor, I have a waiting list for clients at all times and rural areas are even worse. Most of us work as small businesses and sole proprietors which means we pay the most taxes of any other population. With a proposed tax on counseling services, you will force those of us that continue to accept insurance reimbursement to stop doing so because we are already taking a loss with poor reimbursement. The tax would almost certainly need to be passed onto the individual receiving services, thus making mental health services unobtainable for most individuals, thus making the mental health crisis even worse. With the elimination of counselors being able to take out student loans as professionals, as well as new taxes being employed on those that already work in the field, you are not only worsening the mental health crisis in the immediate future, you are making it impossible for new counselors to come into the profession, thus worsening care for the long term future. This bill is irresponsible. We already pay unfair, increased taxes, increased license fees, increased business license fees, self employment taxes, etc. I ask that you reject this bill in an effort to make mental health services possible.

As a member of the Working Families Party and a Virginia resident, I strongly oppose HB978. While we support eliminating the grocery tax, which disproportionately burdens working families, this bill's massive expansion of sales taxes is fundamentally regressive and will hurt the very people it claims to help. HB978 would impose new taxes on essential services that working families cannot avoid: Home and vehicle repairs Laundry and dry cleaning Delivery and shipping fees Sales taxes are inherently regressive as they take a larger percentage of income from low- and moderate-income families than from the wealthy. A family struggling to pay for car repairs or maintain their home will be hit harder by these new taxes than they'll save on groceries. If we want to eliminate the grocery tax, let's do it without expanding regressive taxation. Virginia should pursue progressive revenue solutions that ask more from those who can afford it, not policies that shift the tax burden onto working people trying to keep up with basic expenses. I urge the General Assembly to reject HB978 and develop truly progressive tax reform that prioritizes working families.

As someone who spent decades working in a small, family‑owned construction company, I’m strongly opposed to HB 978. This bill adds new taxes to everyday services that working people and small businesses rely on, and it does so at a time when costs are already rising across the board. In construction, margins are tight, materials are expensive, and customers are already stretched thin. Adding sales tax to labor and essential services doesn’t just hit businesses — it hits every homeowner who needs a repair, every driver who needs their car fixed, and every family trying to stay active with a gym membership. These aren’t luxury purchases. They’re basic parts of life and work. Small businesses don’t have the ability to absorb these new taxes. They’ll be forced to pass the added cost on to customers, which means higher prices, fewer projects, and less work to go around. HB 978 punishes the very people who keep Virginia running: tradespeople, service workers, and the small companies that form the backbone of our economy. After a lifetime in a hands‑on industry, I can say with confidence that HB 978 moves Virginia in the wrong direction. Instead of making life more affordable, it adds another layer of cost to the services people depend on every day.

Abjectly opposed to ANY new taxes for ANY reason. We have an overabundance of money in this state as it is and are taxed enough.

My name is Andrew, and I am the owner of Second Sons Promotions, LLC, a small concert promotion company based in Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia. We’ve brought live music and entertainment to communities across the Commonwealth, hosting events that foster cultural vibrancy, support local artists, and boost our local economy. I am writing to express my strong opposition to House Bill 978, which seeks to expand the retail sales and use tax to a broad array of services, including admissions and event planning. I urge you to lay this bill on the table and prevent it from advancing further. HB 978 represents an unwarranted tax hike that would disproportionately burden small businesses like mine in the entertainment industry. By imposing sales tax on admissions—the very tickets that allow Virginians to enjoy concerts, festivals, and live performances—this bill would directly increase costs for consumers. In an era where families are already grappling with inflation and rising living expenses, adding a tax on entertainment would make these outings less affordable, leading to reduced attendance and fewer events overall. As a promoter, I rely on ticket sales to cover venue rentals, artist fees, marketing, and operational costs. This new tax would force me to either absorb the hit, squeezing my already thin margins, or pass it on to attendees, potentially pricing out working-class fans who make up the core of our audiences. Moreover, the bill’s taxation of “travel, event, and aesthetic planning services” strikes at the heart of what we do. Organizing concerts involves intricate planning, from logistics to creative staging, and taxing these services would add unnecessary financial strain on promoters. Small outfits like mine don’t have the resources of large corporations to navigate complex tax compliance or offset these costs. We’re a lean operation, employing local staff, vendors, and security—jobs that could be jeopardized if events become less viable. Virginia’s music scene contributes significantly to tourism and economic growth, generating millions in revenue for hotels, restaurants, and transportation. By taxing admissions and related services, HB 978 risks stifling this vital sector, leading to fewer shows, lost income for artists, and diminished community gatherings that bring people together. The bill’s focus on redirecting revenues to transportation funds and localities, while perhaps well-intentioned, overlooks the regressive nature of these taxes. They hit everyday Virginians hardest, especially in rural areas like Spotsylvania where entertainment options are limited and cherished. Instead of expanding taxes on services that are already struggling post-pandemic, we should be exploring ways to support small businesses and cultural industries through incentives, not penalties. This legislation feels like a broad-brush approach that fails to consider the unique challenges faced by promoters and event organizers. HB 978 would harm Virginia’s entertainment landscape, small businesses, and consumers without providing meaningful benefits to offset the damage. I respectfully request that the Committee lay this bill on the table to protect our industry’s future and the joy it brings to countless Virginians. Thank you for your consideration.

Virginia desperately needs a more progressive and equitable tax code that ensures the wealthy pay the fair share. Currently, the top 1% pay the last of their earnings as a percentage of their income. As wealth disparity grows, and the Federal government withdraws support for critical services, the Commonwealth of Virginia should act immediately to ensure that our rural clinics, hospitals, schools, emergency response, and transportation infrastructure is fully funded. Our future depends on ensuring we invest in ourselves today.

I am writing with deep concern about House Bill 978, which would levy tax on services, including travel. As a travel agency owner since 2019, this would have grave impact on my business., Coastwise Travel. After recovering from the shutdown and travel ban during the pandemic years, my business has finally experienced a year of growth and success. Legislation of this sort would be very harmful. I offer personalized, custom travel planning services. My clients trust me to provide profesional service, based on ongoing education, knowledge, expertise and care. The market is full of competitors that don't offer that level of service and expertise: large corporations and online travel agencies — such as Expedia and Booking.com -- big box stores with call centers, such as Costco, direct bookings with cruise lines and hotels, and as we go into the future, AI-generated booking opportunties. My service fees are a small amount of compensation for the time I invest in planning and supporting my clients’ trips. Often I am planning 1-2 years in advance of my clients’ travel. It is not until my clients travel that I receive any commission payment, so I invest a lot of time and effort without any revenue other than the small service fee paid when the trip is initiated. I count on those services fees to fund my operational expenses in the meantime. I do not hold any other funds from clients; all other payments are direct to the supplier, such as a cruise line, hotel (or booking service), airline, transportation company, insurance company or tour operator. Levying a tax on my service fees immediately reduces my potential revenue and requires me to increase my fees to cover the difference. Although many of my clients live in my community, they refer their friends and family, so my client base is distributed across the country, in all fifty states. Taxing travel services in Virginia simply means that my clients will find a business out of state to book their travel and the cost increases from levies, and will forgo the utilization of a locally-based professional travel agency like Coastwise Travel. That diversion of revenue would be the end of my business. Unlike other businesses whose services take place locally, travelers can choose to work with a travel agency located anywhere. For example, a landscaping service needs to be physically present at a site to provide their services. Plumbing customers don’t have the option to redirect their business to an Arizona company to avoid the tax in Virginia. But my clients can easily move to a travel agency located in states who do not levy such taxes. I can’t afford to lose them. This legislation has the potential to do so much harm to travel agencies in Virginia. While travel is often recreational, it is also frequently essential, whether for business or for emergencies. Travel services provided by professional travel advisors must be considered essential as well. I join with the hundreds of Virginia travel advisors, the majority of whom are female-owned small businesses, to ask you to oppose this legislation, or to exclude travel planning from the proposed levies. It unfairly penalizes our industry and minimizes our ability to compete in a national market.. I’m asking for your support for small businesses like myself in evaluating this proposed legislation. Thank you for your consideration.

As a Virginia resident and voter, I am writing to let you know that I strongly oppose HB243, HB 978, HB188, and HB 979. Virginians are already burdened with high taxes and high cost of living. These bills will only further punish those paying taxes in this state and will likely drive taxpayers, including those with very high incomes, to other states with lower tax burdens. Please reconsider. The prior administration left the state with a surplus. Increased taxes should not be needed to meet the needs of the state.

I strongly oppose this bill. In rural areas a lot of elderly people rely on services provided by cleaners an house keepers to maintain a livable home. Also extra taxes on home repairs and maintenance is uncalled for , especially when money is tight for so many people right now. Do you think it is right to charge people extra to repair their furnace to keep from freezing to death? This is outrageous behavior from a party who ran on a platform of making things more affordable for Virginians.

Small businesses face added administrative burdens under HB 978, as they must now collect and remit sales tax on services like repairs, potentially raising operational costs. This could reduce demand and increase costs for services like gym memberships, home repairs, UberEats and Amazon deliveries, A 4.3% statewide tax hike (plus a potential 1% local hike) is substantial. We oppose the bill