Utah’s tax code might get a whole lot fairer and simpler. The Legislature’s Interim Taxation Committee is contemplating eliminating a tax that hurts Utah’s poor disproportionately, the food tax. Utah is one of only seven states that taxes food like this.
Utah’s food tax is difficult to administer and riddled with absurdities. For example, a box of doughnuts is taxable, but a single doughnut served with a napkin is not. Crushed ice is considered “food,” but block ice is not. A candy bar is not taxed, but licorice is.
Some lawmakers want to keep the food tax but give the poor an Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) akin to what exists on the federal level, as five other states do. That would help reduce the harm, but we could actually help those struggling to make ends meet by repealing the food tax and by establishing a Utah EITC.
Join me in calling on our legislators to stop taxing food and start rewarding hard work.
David P. Billings
Salt Lake City