Illinois Rental Dealers: A Case Study in Legislative Action

The Illinois Rental Dealers Association (IRDA) hosted its 2017 Annual Meeting last Thursday in O’Fallon, Illinois. Members gathered to discuss the current state of the industry and hear presentations from several guest speakers. APRO Executive Director, Jill McClure, recapped some of the association’s latest news and briefed members on the upcoming 2018 Dave Egan Legislative Conference and the 2018 RTO World convention. APRO General Counsel Ed Winn III gave IRDA members a rent-to-own legal update. Brandon Bullard of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce Executive Board closed the meeting with a presentation about working with local chambers of commerce members to grow businesses. APRO board members in attendance were Larry Carrico, Gopal Reddy, Mark Connelly and Matt Grynwald, along with APRO’s new Director of Business Development, Tony Pintarelli. “The 2017 IRDA Annual Meeting was a big success,” comments Casey Pristou, president of IRDA. “The theme was a case study in legislative success and our state association accomplished that with the marquee achievement of the passage of the Rental Purchase Agreement Occupation and Use Tax Act.” “The level at which the IRDA members are engaged in industry advocacy is admirable and it’s the reason why they’ve had legislative success,” says McClure, “It takes dedicated individuals building relationships over time and educating legislators firsthand about how legislation affects our industry to make this happen.” After the meeting, Michael Eckert and Brock Reynolds of the Illinois Department of Revenue gave a presentation about the implementation of the new law which takes effect on January 1, 2018. The new tax law brings Illinois in line with how RTO transactions are taxed in all other states, with dealers collecting and remitting sales tax on rental payments as they are made. Previously, the state required RTO dealers to pay a use tax on their wholesale purchases instead of a sales tax on rental payments. Click here to read more about the Rental Purchase Agreement Occupation and Use Tax Act. Click here to see more photos of IRDA’s 2017 Annual Business Meeting.