EWA leadership and the EWA legislative committee is pleased to announce that HB 135, the “tax bill”, has passed the Texas House, the Texas Senate and has been signed into law by Governor Abbot. The bill is effective immediately.
In a September, 2024 meeting with the Texas Comptroller’s office, EWA leadership was informed that the sale of exotic animals was not exempt from state sales tax, even though it had never been collected. At that time the comptroller was auditing an EWA member and expected to collect the tax going back 7 years.
EWA leadership and the EWA legislative committee engaged two of the top lobbying firms in the state to work on a legislative solution to this tax issue. Early in the 2025 Texas legislative session, Representative Angie Button introduced HB 135. The bill amended the existing tax law to exempt the sale of exotics from state sales tax. HB 135 was carefully guided through both the Texas House and Senate by EWA leaders and our lobbyists. The bill was deemed to have no significant financial impact on the State. After moving quickly and successfully through both legislative chambers, HB 135 made it to the Governor’s desk, was signed on May 13, 2025 and is now law in the State of Texas.
The passage of this bill is a significant win for EWA members and the exotic wildlife industry as a whole. It is also a demonstration of EWA’s capabilities as a leader in the exotic wildlife industry. EWA’s aggressive advocacy efforts will continue throughout the legislative session as we work to amend or kill several bills that we believe negatively impact the wildlife industry and expand government’s overreach into the businesses and lives of private land owners. After the 2025 legislative session, EWA will create a legislative agenda for the 2027 legislative session and begin to advocate in favor of laws and rules that support its members and the exotic wildlife industry as a whole.
At the Federal level EWA is working with its lobbyist to remove eight additional species from the endangered species list. US HB 2608, which removes the Arabian oryx, Bantang, Elds Deer, Grevy’s zebra, Red lechwe, Gaur, Barasingha, and Bukharan Markhor has been introduced in the US House of Representatives by Representative Chip Roy and Representative August Pfluger. We are working with several other association partners in support of this bill including Congressional Sportsmen Foundation and Dallas Safari Club.
2025 will likely be the most successful year on record for EWA’s advocacy efforts. We are thankful for the support of our members and the hard work of our leaders. EWA will continue to be a strong and aggressive force conserving the wildlife industry.