Food and food ingredients are defined as substances that are sold for ingestion or chewing by humans and are consumed for their taste or nutritional value.
So reads the Iowa Department of Revenue’s policy on what is food. Why is this important? Because the Iowa Department of Revenue decided (apparently in 2006) that pumpkins are mainly sold for decoration, and that sales tax should apply on those pumpkins sold for decoration but not on those sold for food.
I can just imagine a conversation at a supermarket in Des Moines. “Mrs. Smith, are you buying that pumpkin to eat or for decorating your front porch on Halloween?”
And what would the Iowa Department of Revenue think about someone who bought a pumpkin for both decorating and for food? Tax only half the pumpkin?
Yesterday, stories about the tax began circulating on the Internet and mass media (Google News showed 287 stories on the topic).
Luckily, some sanity has hit Iowa. Governor Chet Culver announced, “It has come to my attention that a policy change made in December of 2006 – before I took office – is resulting in this ridiculous pumpkin tax. I have directed the Department of Revenue to do the common-sense thing and suspend collection of this tax and offer refunds to consumers or retailers who have been affected.”