Sales Tax Complexity: Valentine’s Day Edition

Happy Valentine’s Day! Today, millions of lovebirds will buy last minute chocolates and goodies for their sweethearts. In some states, these transactions will be subject to a sales tax, in others, candy will be exempt from a sales tax. In the statutes, this treatment usually comes down to whether the state specifically excludes candy from their definition of groceries (or “unprepared food,” as the statutes sometimes call it).

Ideally, all final retail sales (including groceries) would be subject to the same sales tax rate. This makes classification of products easier for businesses, promotes a broad base (so states can have a lower rate), and doesn’t use the tax code to try to influence behavior (why should restaurants be subject to the sales tax and not grocers?). However, many states depart from this ideal.

While detractors will say that taxing groceries makes the sales tax overly regressive (low-income individuals do in fact spend a higher percentage of their income on groceries), their concern is already addressed by food stamps programs in most states. Medium and high income individuals also buy groceries, and when they do, they should pay a sales tax.

The chart below shows the general sales tax rate in each state, treatment of groceries, and treatment of candy and soda. An ideal base would look like Alabama, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma and South Dakota, taxing groceries (including candy and soda) all at the same rate.

As a second best option, if a state exempts groceries, authorities should not further complicate things by carving out which groceries should be subject to a sales tax and which should not.

When states start to go down this road, the implementation gets difficult, if not hilarious. Many states define candy as:

“Any preparation of sugar, honey, or other natural or artificial sweeteners in combination with chocolate, fruits, nuts or other ingredients or flavorings in the form of bars, drops, or pieces. 'Candy' does not include any preparation containing flour or requiring refrigeration."

But after flour becomes the defining characteristic of whether something is candy or not, authorities have to define “flour.” This predicament led the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board to clarify things by developing a six page document on the word. You seriously can’t make this stuff up.

Source: Tax Foundation, Overreaching on Obesity: Governments Consider New Taxes on Soda and Candy (Oct. 2011), Commerce Clearinghouse.

More on Sugar and Snack Taxes here.

Follow Scott Drenkard on Twitter @ScottDrenkard.