I was reading about all sorts of taxes, taxes on sugary stuff, in Chicago we have extra tax on fast food (I know you can’t buy that with food stamps) and other taxes, so I got to thinking
If you buy food with food stamps do you get the tax charged too
In otherwords if I buy a loaf of bread for $1.00 and there is a 5% tax, I give the the clerk 1.05.
If I paid for that with food stamps would it be taxed?
Interesting question because it wouldn’t make sense to tax it, but you know how the government is. Google led me to this page. Near the bottom it says:
“By federal law, sales tax may not be charged on food purchased with food benefits. If your household purchases food with a combination of food benefits and cash, sales tax may only be charged for taxable items paid with cash.”
I know that, in Michigan, the ten cent bottle deposit is covered by the food benefit amount, so people on the benefits make a little money from returning their cans. No sales tax on grocery food here.
Also, food benefits aren’t stamps anymore. They are now in the form of debit cards.
Florida checking in- No. Stuff that is taxed is not to be purchaced with an EBT card. As you said, hot food from the deli, ect will not fly. My card says for example that I have $289.00 on it, I can buy for my family up to that point without figuing the tax.
So in other words with Food Stamps (EBT), if you have $100.00 on your card, you’ll be getting $100 worth of food.
Yes. To the penny if your good at keeping track as you shop.
Yeppers. Any unused amount rolls over to the next month, but not the next year. An extra $5 on your account on September 30 will be there on October 1, but an extra $5 on December 31 will vanish on January 1.
As an example of how government is, Washington state collects sales tax on government (federal and state) construction projects. They’re currently trying to get the federal government to pay about $5 billion to update a bridge between Seattle and Tacoma. Of that $5 billion cost, approximately $400 million will be sales tax collected by the state for its general budget. (Another 1.2 billion will be ecological and traffic impact studies, so the $5 billion bridge is really just a $3 billion bridge with a 60% bureaucracy surcharge). Gotta love it!
Yes, but a lot of people still call the benefit “food stamps”.
Some places don’t charge anyone sales tax for food (unless it’s prepared food, like take out).
Gas stations Etc. are really fucked up when it comes to this. You want a hot dog off the grill (taxable) and a bottle of milk (non taxable), they will fuck you every time if you let them.
I live in Ohio where there’s no tax on food (but tax on carbonated beverages). When I used to work at a grocery store with no barcode scanner (Marc’s), they made a big deal out of teaching us how to ring up stuff with the right tax button. They made an even bigger deal about how to ring up “food stamp” customers properly, what couldn’t be bought with food stamps (cigarettes), how to separate their order if they were paying cash for some stuff, and most importantly how not to draw attention to the fact that they were using food stamps so as not to embarrass them.
I do wonder, though, how they handle food stamps now since they are debit card based. The store still doesn’t accept credit cards or have barcode scanners. Hmm…
Just like Amex, Discover, Visa, Etc. displayed on the window there will be EBT if the store accepts it.
Not true. You have to not use your card at ALL for 12 months before your benefits will become unavailable. It doesn’t have to do with when you received the benefits in the first place.
^ This is correct info.
I was lied to!!
There are three ways to keep track of your balance. Telephone, Internet, yer brain. I have an option that lets me call an automated system 5 times per month for balance info. There is also a web site that keeps track of all purchases and balance info. I prefer to shop as needed and keep the balance in mind.
In Wisconsin there is no state sales tax on food benefits. Most types of food are not sale taxed for anybody. Most state sales tax is on food like hot deli foods and restaurant food. The food benefits are not good for anything like rotisserie chicken or a hot sandwich so only cold food if you don’t cook or you have to pay cash and sales tax. A tax on a federal level would not be included in the state forgiveness of tax as they call it. A special state sales tax could fall either way, and would need clarification when enacted. I would expect if it was called something other than state sales tax it would fall outside the state sales tax forgiven rule.
Don’t confuse food benefits with WIC which is very strict and run different to ensure the child gets exactly what is needed for it instead of what the parent decides to get.
In California, I don’t believe unprepared food is taxed for anyone. The registers (if computerized) often have a “F” column detailing exactly the items considered “Food”(-stamp eligible), and everything else will be taxed.
You can’t buy hot food with stamps, but sometimes in-store delis (in Whole Foods, for example) will prepare things fresh from the kitchen and then display them in refrigerated plastic containers… those ARE eligible for food stamps, even though they were prepared right there on-site, and stores will often even have microwaves so you can make 'em hot again. I guess that’s what “eating out” would be for the subsidized.
Most subsidized people are not wholly without access to cash. They certainly could eat out, but it would probably be Subway rather than the Ritz-Carlton. Having very little cash, it also would be a very infrequent occasion. Most of them also have friends or relatives who occasionally buy them a meal.