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Food Sales Tax

How Much Sales Tax do you Pay for Your Food?

  • None

    Votes: 7 70.0%

  • Less than 2%

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 2% up to 2.9%

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 3% up to 3.9%

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 4% up to 4.9%

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 5% up to 5.9%

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 6% up to 6.9%

    Votes: 1 10.0%

  • 7% up to 7.9%

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 8% up to 8.9%

    Votes: 1 10.0%

  • 9% or more

    Votes: 1 10.0%
  • Total voters
    10
ronpaulvoter

ronpaulvoter

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What Percentage of sales tax do you pay for your food (groceries)?

Depending on where you live, it can be anywhere from nothing to ten percent or more.
 
In Arizona only prepared foods are taxed but it's kind of funky the way the process works -

Dinner at a restaurant or a bag of chips will be taxed while a pound of raw chicken will not be. Baked goods packaged for home consumption are not taxed but if a cake is sold by the slice it is taxed. Frozen dinners are taxed but frozen vegetables are not.

The basic tax rate is from 6.85% to 7.7% depending on which county you are shopping in and then some cities have additional tax of 2% or more.
 
I cannot answer because it just depends. We have different sales taxes on different things. Generally it is close to 6% (state and local) but it is less on certain things like specific types of OTC medicines (just the state part and no local) and higher on things like food already cooked in the deli of the grocery (state plus stepped up local).
 
I may be wrong, but i thought only Louisiana put sales tax on groceries.
I think it is the most regressive tax possible, in that it hurts the poor more.
 
longview said:
I may be wrong, but i thought only Louisiana put sales tax on groceries.
I think it is the most regressive tax possible, in that it hurts the poor more.
Click to expand...

Iirc, Oklahoma does too, but I believe (last I heard), their sales tax was lower, because food and all other goods are taxed. (in the 3 1/2-4% range I think)
 
longview said:
I may be wrong, but i thought only Louisiana put sales tax on groceries.
I think it is the most regressive tax possible, in that it hurts the poor more.
Click to expand...

It kind of depends on what you call "groceries".

Most states do not tax raw foods and essentials such as milk. Basically, if you have to take it home and cook it or eat it raw it's probably not taxed. The flip side is that most states DO tax "ready to eat" foods such as potato chips, condiments, frozen dinners, etc.
 
Lutherf said:
In Arizona only prepared foods are taxed but it's kind of funky the way the process works -

Dinner at a restaurant or a bag of chips will be taxed while a pound of raw chicken will not be. Baked goods packaged for home consumption are not taxed but if a cake is sold by the slice it is taxed. Frozen dinners are taxed but frozen vegetables are not.

The basic tax rate is from 6.85% to 7.7% depending on which county you are shopping in and then some cities have additional tax of 2% or more.
Click to expand...

Texas also has seemingly strange definitions of what is "food", "grocery item" or "for immediate consumption".

http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/taxpubs/tx96_280.pdf
 
Lutherf said:
It kind of depends on what you call "groceries".

Most states do not tax raw foods and essentials such as milk. Basically, if you have to take it home and cook it or eat it raw it's probably not taxed. The flip side is that most states DO tax "ready to eat" foods such as potato chips, condiments, frozen dinners, etc.
Click to expand...
I am calling groceries unprepared food, flour, raw meat, sugar, eggs, what used to be called staples.
Those kinds of things are taxed in Louisiana.
 
ttwtt78640 said:
Texas also has seemingly strange definitions of what is "food", "grocery item" or "for immediate consumption".

http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/taxpubs/tx96_280.pdf
Click to expand...

That's pretty typical....an 8 page brochure that leaves the reader with more questions than answers:lamo

I get kind of a kick out of it because if I buy a Red Baron frozen pizza it gets taxed but if I buy a Boboli pizza crust, a jar of sauce, a stick of peperoni, and a chunk of mozzarella it isn't taxed.
 
longview said:
I am calling groceries unprepared food, flour, raw meat, sugar, eggs, what used to be called staples.
Those kinds of things are taxed in Louisiana.
Click to expand...

Is it taxed at both the state and local level or just the local level? I know that a few states have different rules at the local level than they do at the state level.
 
longview said:
I may be wrong, but i thought only Louisiana put sales tax on groceries.
I think it is the most regressive tax possible, in that it hurts the poor more.
Click to expand...


per Taxes by State
All states except Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon, collect sales taxes. Delaware collects a Gross Receipts Tax (GRT) which is a business and gross receipts tax that can total 2.07%. Some have a single rate throughout the state though most permit local city and county additions to the base tax rate. Those states with a single rate include Connecticut, District of Columbia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Rhode Island, and West Virginia.

States with the highest sales tax are: California (7.25%), Indiana (7%), Mississippi (7%), New Jersey (7%), Rhode Island (7%), Tennessee (7%), Minnesota (6.875%), Nevada (6.85%), Arizona (6.6%), Washington (6.5%), Kansas (6.3%), Texas and Illinois (6.25%).

Most states exempt prescription drugs from sales taxes. Some also exempt food and clothing purchases and a few also exempt non-prescription drugs.

................................


To compare, there is a calculator at State Tax Comparison Table
 
Lutherf said:
Is it taxed at both the state and local level or just the local level? I know that a few states have different rules at the local level than they do at the state level.
Click to expand...
I was trying to look it up, and could not find it, I guess they fixed that.
The way I remember it, it was a state tax.
I found this link, Which States Tax the Sale of Food for Home Consumption in 2009? — Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
It says only MS and AL still have a full sales tax on groceries.
 
Fisher said:
per Taxes by State
All states except Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon, collect sales taxes. Delaware collects a Gross Receipts Tax (GRT) which is a business and gross receipts tax that can total 2.07%. Some have a single rate throughout the state though most permit local city and county additions to the base tax rate. Those states with a single rate include Connecticut, District of Columbia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Rhode Island, and West Virginia.

States with the highest sales tax are: California (7.25%), Indiana (7%), Mississippi (7%), New Jersey (7%), Rhode Island (7%), Tennessee (7%), Minnesota (6.875%), Nevada (6.85%), Arizona (6.6%), Washington (6.5%), Kansas (6.3%), Texas and Illinois (6.25%).

Most states exempt prescription drugs from sales taxes. Some also exempt food and clothing purchases and a few also exempt non-prescription drugs.

................................


To compare, there is a calculator at State Tax Comparison Table
Click to expand...

That's a cool link, it would help someone looking for a cheap place to live, as it show the total tax burden.
 
Essential foodstuffs there in no sales tax on here in Ontario. Essential is stuff like bread, butter, milk, meat, veggies, fruit, cheese, pasta, et cetera. Anything else is considered non essential and is subject to the regular 13%.
 
SFWeekly%20Sales%20Tax%20Chart.jpg


While U.K. residents are embroiled in a debate over a potential tax on certain hot foods taken to go, Joe Eskenazi over at our sister publication, SF Weekly, reminds us that in California, we already have an inexplicably arcane tax scheme that imposes a sales tax on some foods taken to go, depending on various subjective factors like how and where the food is intended to be eaten. The upshot: an awful lot of lawyers in front of the state Board of Equalization making arguments that sound like Bill Clinton trying to parse the definition of "is." And, more significantly, a tax policy that effectively benefits the rich at the expense of the poor.
Click to expand...

Source

However, here in Oregon, we don't have a sales tax.
 
longview said:
I may be wrong, but i thought only Louisiana put sales tax on groceries.
I think it is the most regressive tax possible, in that it hurts the poor more.
Click to expand...

Alabama has a grocery tax as well. There are like 4 or 5 states that do.
 
longview said:
That's a cool link, it would help someone looking for a cheap place to live, as it show the total tax burden.
Click to expand...

Yeah that is an interesting little calculator if you are willing to move to wherever taxes are least.
 
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