Grocery sales tax; calculating its subtraction on holiday meal
Mississippi currently has the highest grocery sales tax in the United States at a rate of 7%.
MACON, Miss. (WCBI) – The elections are behind us but some elected officials are still looking to cut the grocery tax in Mississippi.
Shoppers are filling the stores preparing for the Thanksgiving holiday next week.
WCBI’s Kealy Shields took a trip to Tem’s Food Market in Macon to calculate the price of groceries with the current sales tax.
” The Holiday season is almost here and we are taking a look at what the average Thanksgiving meal could cost,” Shields said.
With her grocery list in hand, Shields took to the aisles of Tem’s Food Market.
The first item on the menu was the Thanksgiving turkey. Next, she was on the hunt for sugar, flour, cornmeal, and potatoes.
” Now we are going to check out the items and see how much they would cost with the sales tax,” Shields said.
The total for the grocery trip was $64.72.
Mississippi currently has the highest grocery sales tax in the United States at a rate of 7%.
If Mississippi ended its grocery tax, Shields would have saved $4.23 on the transaction.
State Senator Rod Hickman is one lawmaker who is looking to end the grocery sales tax.
“Groceries are a need to every Mississippian, every American, every person has and we want an equitable tax scheme then I think eliminating a grocery tax is the best option for that,” Hickman said.
Ending the tax would cut funds in other places.
“Some of the things we are seeing as a state that we should work out and need to work out is that municipalities and local government will be the ones that are losing this tax basis so we need to figure out a way to properly compensate them if we take aways this tax revenue,” Hickman said.
While the grocery sales tax will not be discussed until the next legislative session in January, here is what Debra Stevens, a Tem’s Food Market employee, has to say about freeing shoppers from paying extra.
“It would be good because over the last couple of years, everything went up so it will be great we the saving of the taxes,” Stevens said.
Mississippi is 1 of 13 states that still issue a grocery sales tax.
