{"id":4632,"date":"2016-01-13T17:10:43","date_gmt":"2016-01-13T22:10:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mainecheeseguild.org\/?p=4632"},"modified":"2016-03-09T15:42:19","modified_gmt":"2016-03-09T20:42:19","slug":"new-sales-tax-takeaway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mainecheeseguild.org\/?p=4632","title":{"rendered":"New Sales Tax Takeaway"},"content":{"rendered":"

As many of you already know Maine has substantially changed its sales tax rules regarding food. It’s no longer as straight-forward as groceries (non-taxable) and prepared food (always taxable). The legislature, in its infinite wisdom, now regards some groceries as taxable. The new name for non-taxable food is “grocery staples.”<\/p>\n

At our meeting on January 12th one of the members asked how this affects cheese makers because she had heard different things from different people. I promised to look into the question and try to digest the information available.<\/p>\n

Attached are two PDFs. One contains the five pages that apply to groceries among the entire revised Sales Tax Reference Guide (linked in its entirety here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The other document is the revised Instructional Bulletin Number 12 (linked here<\/a>) for Retailers of Food Products.<\/p>\n

There is also a shorter FAQ type document (“Supplemental Information<\/a>“) based on questions already submitted to the State about the changes.<\/p>\n

I recommend reading the Instructional Bulletin and the Supplemental Information because they are more detailed and easier to digest. Be aware that there is now a taxation distinction between “grocery staples” that are altered by the retailer themselves. For example a dairy that mixes chocolate syrup into a bottle of milk to make chocolate milk is considered the SAME as a coffee shop that squirts coffee syrup into a cup of milk they poured from a carton.<\/p>\n

There is a PowerPoint presentation meant to summarize the changes in Taxable Food Products (linked here<\/a> — be warned that it is HUGE and may take a while to download).<\/p>\n

Finally, because there is STILL some ambiguity in the Instructional Bulletin, I called the Maine Revenue Service (MRS) Sales Tax Division<\/a> (207-624-9693). I spoke to Laura Larrabee who then consulted with her boss, Ed Lowell, to clarify the items below.<\/p>\n

FYI: Sale Tax (where applicable) on grocery items are 5.5%; sales tax on Prepared Foods is now 8%. This review is meant to cover “Grocery Staples” that would be sold by a cheese maker. If you also sell Prepared Foods there is another Instructional Bulletin (27) that covers Prepared Food<\/a>.
\n
\nTAKEAWAY ITEMS FOR CHEESE MAKERS AS I UNDERSTAND THEM<\/strong><\/p>\n

ITEM 1<\/strong>: Remember that sales tax applies ONLY to retail sales (such as Farmers Markets). Your wholesale sales of any foods are still exempt.<\/p>\n

ITEM 2<\/strong>: “Cheese” and “Yogurt” are specifically listed as exempt from sales tax as “Grocery Staples”. There had been a question about cheese that is sold as a collection of slices or chunks. According to the MRS as long as pieces of cheese of one type is packaged together it is still considered “Cheese” and therefore is exempt.<\/p>\n

ITEM 3<\/strong>: There is some ambiguity about FLAVORED yogurt, however. According to MRS if yogurt (flavored or plain) is sold in “bulk” (one quart or more to a container) then it is exempt. FLAVORED yogurt sold by the producer in smaller containers (less than one quart) is taxable. Plain yogurt in smaller containers is exempt.<\/p>\n

ITEM 4<\/strong>: A mix called a “DIP” is taxable. A mix called a “SPREAD” is exempt. A cheese SPREAD, flavored or plain, is exempt. Examples: “Pimento Cheese Spread” is exempt; “Chili Cheese Dip” is taxable.<\/p>\n

ITEM 5<\/strong>: All ice cream, ice yogurts, and ice milks of whatever size packaging is taxable.<\/p>\n

ITEM 6<\/strong>: “Confections” are taxable, but they are defined as having SUGAR or equivalent sweetener as the FIRST item in the ingredient panel.<\/p>\n

ITEM 7<\/strong>: Beverages focus on “Soft Drinks” (which are defined as NOT containing milk) being taxable. Fluid milk is considered a “grocery staple” and thus exempt, but if the producer flavors the milk beverage then it must be “bulk” (one quart or more) to be considered exempt.<\/p>\n

The MRS also told me that all retailers, even if they don’t believe they sell any taxable items, must be registered with the Sales Tax bureau.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As many of you already know Maine has substantially changed its sales tax rules regarding food. It’s no longer as straight-forward as groceries (non-taxable) and prepared food (always taxable). The legislature, in its infinite wisdom, now regards some groceries as taxable. The new name for non-taxable food is “grocery staples.” At our meeting on January […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":4633,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[166,40,212,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-4632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-learning","8":"category-news","9":"tag-lede","10":"tag-regulation","11":"tag-sales-tax","12":"tag-tax","14":"post-with-thumbnail","15":"post-with-thumbnail-icon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainecheeseguild.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainecheeseguild.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainecheeseguild.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainecheeseguild.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainecheeseguild.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mainecheeseguild.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainecheeseguild.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainecheeseguild.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainecheeseguild.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainecheeseguild.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}