Financial Returns To Industry From The Federal Aid - Wildlife and ...

Figure 4. Wildlife Restoration Excise-Tax Collections (1939-2009) in 2009
dollars
Although industry has been a long-term partner in the development and continued
success of these programs, today‟s competitive business climate presents difficult
challenges to companies. The Wildlife Restoration excise tax is often one of the top
three expenses for a company, challenging the business value of paying these taxes,
particularly in the absence of a measure connecting this expenditure to company
profitability. Traditional communications over the years have described Wildlife
Restoration “success” in terms of how much money was spent, not how much was
returned. While this approach is valuable, it is only mildly effective from a business
perspective as companies measure success in earnings.
Table 1 provides a comparison between Wildlife Restoration excise-tax collections and
hunter purchases of tax-related equipment items for the last seven cycles of the
National (conducted every five years between 1955 and 2006). In years prior to 1970,
purchases of hunting equipment are reported as an aggregate thereby not allowing
itemization of spending on tax-related items. It is also important to note that the items
impacted by tax collections changed over this period and adjustments were made to
calculations to accurately reflect spending on only those items where taxes were
collected. For example, bows and arrows were not subject to excise-tax collections prior
to the 1975 survey, therefore they are not included as part of hunter purchases of taxrelated
items in 1970.
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