It sounds like RI sales tax, and I thought MA was similar. The rotisserie chicken is considered ready to eat according to obscure and arcane definitions in the sales tax law. The packaged meat isn’t ready to eat under those definitions. For one thing the rotisserie chicken would be hot, and that by itself would make it a prepared meal like from a restaurant. It would also be something prepared at the grocery store. I think the baked in the store bakery goods get treated the same way. Even when the bakery is just heating a product found in the freezer aisle, the grocery is preparing it, ergo it is prepared food and taxed. When it’s not clear a variety of factors may be used to determine the tax status including the need for bowls or glasses to serve the product.
Interesting. The grocery store I now shop at also sells cold ‘leftover’ rotisserie chickens the next day. The exact same chickens, the same packaging. I’m not sure if they mark the chicken down or not. (They usually have only a couple, at most, I guess they’re good at knowing how many will sell on any given day of the week.)
I wonder if they become non-taxable then as well?
The distinction of taxable versus non-taxable food is a relatively recent innovation. I tried to research when it started, but was not successful. My wild-@$$ guess is circa 2000.
In what state? Ohio has had a distinction between taxable and non-taxable food (though not precisely the same distinction as this) at least since my childhood in the 1980s.
I’m pretty sure we had that distinction in RI when I was growing up in the 90s.