So today, after my long afternoon walk, I stopped at my local Jewel on the way home to pick up a bag of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (Miniatures). Hadn't had them in awhile and thought it would be a nice treat.Made my way to the candy aisle, where I found that 12-ounce bags were on sale... marked down to $3.19 from $3.99. So far, so good.
I had to wait in line a bit at the cash register, so I got my money ready... All along I've been paying the local food tax on candy items, which is (I think) 2.25 percent these days. So I figured my purchase would come out to either $3.26 or $3.27, so I fished the exact amount of coins out of my pocket.
So I was shocked and confused when the cashier rang up the candy and it came out to $3.52. "Aren't these on sale?" I asked her.
"Yes, 80 cents off," she replied. I looked at her screen, and sure enough, it said $3.99, and underneath there was a minus $0.80.
Then I realized the tax shown was a whopping 33 cents! Over 10 percent instead of 2.25 percent. I challenged her on the tax amount, saying I'd never paid that before.
"Oh, tax went up," the young woman bagger at the end of the aisle chimed in. "Just last month. Tax on candy, pop, all went up."
I shook my head in disbelief and paid what I was told.
First thing I did upon arriving home was look it up online. Sure enough, a state tax on candy went into effect where it is no longer taxed as "food".
But here's a wrinkle: Some candy is still taxed as "food" (a much lower tax rate), while other candy isn't. Apparently the difference comes down to whether or not the candy contains food items like flour, ice cream, etc.
And they put this new tax into effect just before Halloween, too. How crafty.
Sheesh. What a crock. It never ends.
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