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12/28/05
TFT
Makes Headlines with Food Tax Story
On Christmas Day, newspapers
across Tennessee carried an Associated Press story about the unjust and unfair
tax on food. The same story ran on several TV stations and even the New York
Times!
The story focused Tennessee's
unfair tax policies, particularly the effect the nation's highest average tax
on food as well as the highest overall average sales tax has on Tennessee taxpayers.
In addition to the unfair aspects of the food tax, the story explored the way
it drives shoppers across state lines. Several of the stories also included
a photo of a Chattanooga resident loading up her car with Groceries in the parking
lot of a grocery store just over the state line in Georgia.
The AP story reads...
Chris Daly, of Chattanooga,
chairman of Tennesseans for Fair Taxation, a group working to end the state’s
tax on food, said the high tax victimizes low- and middle-income Tennesseans
and is an embarrassment. He said an "average family of four could eat
for free from Thanksgiving to Christmas on the tax they pay on food in a year."
An updated report by
Tennesseans for Fair Taxation shows Tennessee with the highest average sales
tax on food, 8.4 percent, and a 9.4 percent sales tax that is also the highest
average among the states.
As of late 2005, 38 states
do not tax food or tax it at a reduced rate (31 states fully exempt food, 4
states apply only local taxes, and 3 states tax food at a reduced rate). Only
12 states apply their full sales tax to food. At average state and local rate
of 8.4%, Tennessee has the average highest food tax in the nation, which puts
and unfair burden on low- and middle-income families and drives shoppers into
neighboring states.
Avg.
Sales Tax in Tennessee and Bordering States
Click
here to download TFT's updated fact sheet, which the AP story references.
Click any link below to
read the AP story from various media outlets (some require registration, but
all are free):
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