Will Utah Tax Groceries or Not?

Utah: To Eliminate Sales Tax on Food or Not?

Recently, Utah Lawmakers have considered eliminating sales tax on food.  The state's Revenue and Taxation Interim Committee has several lawmakers currently pushing to get rid of food taxes, which is particularly interesting given the previous legislative session's demands for just the opposite.

Recent Developments

During the August 30th meeting, Republican Sen. Deidre Henderson was instrumental in guiding the conversation from restoring the tax to a previous rate to eliminating it altogether.  According to Henderson, “When times are bad, people still have to buy food.  That’s something the government loves about a food tax. ... We still get our money." 

There were other lawmakers who expressed interest in eliminating the grocery tax, stating that the sales tax on food could be dropped if sales tax was raised for "other" items.  Much of this is in light of the challenges associated with the food tax, including burdening the poor and the frustration of distinguishing what constitutes "taxable food."

In the Minority

Despite the fact that Utah lowered the sales tax on food from 4.7 percent to 1.75 percent from 2007 to 2008, the mountain state is only one of thirteen states that taxes the sale of groceries, including Alabama, Arkansas, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Virginia (though of those, Utah is one of six whose tax on groceries is lower than on other goods).

Now, there are plans in the works to introduce a bill next session to eliminate the sales tax on food altogether.